ANTISEMITISM AND ART

This chapter examines how messages of antisemitism were transmitted verbally, as well as visually through images and iconography. It focuses on portrayals of Synagoga and Ecclesia, along with blood libels and host desecration, all of which reflect the notion that Jews are devilish and related to the Antichrist. Beginning in the ninth-century Carolingian period through the early years of the modern era, two figures of sisters/opponents are presented in the theater and Christian art, Ecclesia and Synagoga. In many written and artistic Christian sources, the researchers find an anti-Jewish portrayal of an alleged Jewish costume of desecrating the Host or blood libels. The Play of the Sacrament is set in Aragon and tells the story of a miracle in which a rich Jewish merchant named Jonathas and his companions purchase the consecrated Host from a Christian merchant called Aristorius, and subject it to a series of tests in order to determine the truth of the Christian claim.