Language:
English
Year of publication:
1996
Titel der Quelle:
Art Bulletin
Angaben zur Quelle:
78,4 (1996) 594-599
Keywords:
Altdorfer, Albrecht,
;
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Antisemitism in art
;
Regensburg (Germany) History
Abstract:
Approaches the cultural politics of the conflict between Christian and Jewish ethnicities in the late Middle Ages as a contest over inscription, and presents and analyzes several examples. Describes two etchings by Albrecht Altdorfer done immediately prior to the destruction of the Regensburg synagogue and the expulsion of the Jews from that town in 1519. The first etching shows the porch of the synagogue with two Jews entering; the second shows the interior of the synagogue with no Jews, and an inscription (in Latin), "In the year of the Lord 1519 the Jewish Regensburg synagogue was utterly destroyed by the just judgment of God". These etchings signify the disappearance of the Jews. Next, examines the rites of baptism and circumcision and how they came to infer ethnic status by virtue of their differentiating inscriptions. Brings, as examples, the polemical writings of Gilbert Crispin and Petrus Alfonsi. Next, discusses how the graphic practices of the inquest became incorporated into the inquisitorial procedures of the Church, and how this intensified the conflict over inscription between Christians and Jews. Gives, as examples, the trial of Rabbi Baruch in 1320 and the ritual murder trial in Trent in 1475, noting the printed images of the ritual murder scene which were circulated at that time. The development of printing and the production of etchings such as that of Altdorfer were crucial in the transformation of ethnic conflict into ethnography.
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