An Inquiry into the Image of Jews in 15th-Century Istria: The Iconography of the Jewish-Christian Dispute

Abstract

The external features of religious Otherness in Christian iconography have long been known and specified. In the late Middle Ages, numerous paintings were created on the Istrian peninsula in which the external features, predominantly those of the Jews, can be recognized. In this preliminary research, we recognized such attributes on the frescoes in Pazin, Lindar, Lovran, Beram, Gračišće, Svetvinčenat, Pićan and Vižinada. Comprehensive research on this topic in the aforementioned territory, however, has yet to be conducted. In this essay the focus of our research is directed towards Lindar, Beram and Vižinada, with a special emphasis on the topics of Disputes of Christians and Jews in the iconography of painted narratives. In the church of St Catherine in Lindar a very complex iconography of the Living Cross can be found between the personifications of the Church and the Synagogue. These topics emerged from a treatise attributed to St Augustine, in which the Christian truths contrast with Jewish traditions. In Beram and Vižinada the theme of the Jewish-Christian dispute is visualized through the iconography of Christ among the Doctors, in which the painters intensify the expressions of disagreement and confusion of the Jews, represented by means of specific clothes and gestures. At the same time, we will endeavor to explore and explain the emergence and the presence of these topics within the geopolitical context.