The History of Antisemitism - Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography

In Dark Mirror, Sara Lipton offers a fascinating examination of the emergence of antisemitic iconography in the Middle Ages.

The straggly beard, the hooked nose, the bag of coins, the gaudy apparel - the religious artists of medieval Christendom had no shortage of virulent symbols for identifying Jews. Yet, hateful as these depictions were, the story they tell is not as simple as it first appears. Lipton argues that these visual stereotypes were neither an inevitable outgrowth of Christian theology nor a simple reflection of medieval prejudices. Instead, she maps out the complex relationship between medieval Christians' religious ideas, social experience, and developing artistic practices that drove their depiction of Jews from benign, if exoticized, figures connoting ancient wisdom to increasingly vicious portrayals inspired by (and designed to provoke) fear and hostility.