Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:39:29.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The round, cap-shaped hats depicted on Jews in BM Cotton Claudius B. iv

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Ruth Mellinkoff
Ruth Mellinkoff
Affiliation:
Los Angeles, California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Individualized portraiture is rarely found in early medieval art. Personalities or groups were more often identified by context or inscription or some significant motif. To those who knew the biblical stories and legends, individuals portrayed in scenes such as Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, or Moses and the brazen serpent, or the Last Supper, could be easily identified. Iconographical motifs not only served to identify particular prophets, apostles, saints and others, but also often established the character of certain groups. In the latter case, costume played an important part, and especially the head-dress. In western medieval European art a king can be recognized by his crown, a monk by his tonsure, a bishop by his mitre, a divine being by its nimbus and so on. While there were variations and some exceptions, nevertheless head-dress and costume were useful devices for ordinary labelling.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 2 , December 1973 , pp. 155 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 155 note 1 Portrayals of contemporary medieval Jews in a secular context are extremely rare in early medieval art. An unusual example, however, of medieval portraiture can be seen in a caricature of a group of English Jews at the head of a roll of the Issue of the Exchequer of 1233; see Exchequer of Receipt, Jews' Roll, n. 87: Hilary Term, 17 Hen. III, in the Public Record Office, London. See Roth, Cecil, Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History (Philadelphia, 1962), pp. 22–3Google Scholar, for a description of the members of the Norwich community.

page 155 note 2 As, e.g., the Israelites in the Carolingian bible of San Paolo fuori le Mura. For a reproduction of one of the folios see Swarzenski, Hanns, Monuments of Romanesque Art, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1967), pl. 58Google Scholar, fig. 1.

page 155 note 3 Blumenkianz, Bernhard, Le Juif Médiéval au Miroir del' Art Chrétien (Paris, 1966), p. 19Google Scholar. He concludes: ‘Nous avons pu constater une différence profonde entre le haut et le bas moyen âge; la coupure se place en 1096, l'année de la première croisade’ (p. 135).

page 156 note 1 For a translation of canon 68 (with Latin on a parallel page), see Grayzel, Solomon, The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, rev. ed. (New York, 1966), pp. 308–9.Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 For some literature on this subject see Robert, Ulysse, Les Signes d'Infamie au Moyen Âge (Paris, 1891)Google Scholar; Abrahams, Israel, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1932), pp. 320–3Google Scholar; Grayzel, , Church and Jews, pp. 67–70Google Scholar; Reider, Joseph, ‘Jews in Medieval Art’, Essays in Antisemitism, ed. Pinson, Koppel S. (New York, 1942), pp. 51–2Google Scholar; and Kisch, Guido, The Jews in Medieval Germany (Chicago, 1949), pp. 295–9Google Scholar, and ‘The Yellow Badge in History’, Historia Judaica 19 (1957), 91–101Google Scholar. (Straus, Raphael, ‘The Jewish Hat as an Aspect of Social History’, Jewish Social Stud. 4 (1942), 59–72Google Scholar, is unfortunately too full of errors to be useful.)

page 156 note 3 Aronius, Julius, Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden (Berlin, 1902)Google Scholar, no. 724, p. 302.

page 156 note 4 See Mansi, Ioannes Dominicus, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio [facs. copy of orig. ed. of 1758–1798] (Paris, 1903) xxiiiGoogle Scholar, cols. 1174 and 1175.

page 156 note 5 This is a depiction of Joseph in the Nativity; the leaf is dated c. 1170–80.

page 156 note 6 For abundant and varied examples, see the illustrations in Blumenkranz, Le Juif Médiéval; see also the full-page diagram of Jewish head-dress (from the thirteenth century) in The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York-London, 1916) viGoogle Scholar, under head-dress; see also the illustrations in de Laborde, Alexandre comte, La Bible Moralisée Ilustrée (Paris, 1911–1927)Google Scholar; and the many examples in Swarzenski, Hanns, Die lateinischen illuminierten Handschriften des XIII. Jabrhunderts (Berlin, 1936)Google Scholar. Two different types can be observed on two panels of the bronze doors from San Zeno; see Boeckler, Albert, Die Bronzetür von San Zeno, Die frühmittelalterlichen Bronzetüren iii (Marburg, 1931), pls. 18–24Google Scholar for one variation and 60, 66, 68–9 and 70–1 for the other.

page 156 note 7 Kisch, ‘The Yellow Badge’, p. 95.

page 156 note 8 ibid. pp. 92–3 and 95.

page 156 note 9 Rubens, Alfred, A History of Jewish Costume (London, 1967), p. 106Google Scholar. For comments and references about the Stavelot Bible see Swarzenski, , Monuments, pp. 30, 55, 58, 65, 67 and 72Google Scholar and pls. 97, 98, 110, 150, 162 and 184; Carl Nordenfalk, , Romanesque Painting (Lausanne and Paris, 1958), pp. 166, 180, 181 and 190–2Google Scholar; Usener, K. H., ‘Les Débuts du Style Roman dans l'Art Mosan’, L'Art Mosan, ed. Francastel, Pierre (Paris, 1953), pp. 104–9Google Scholar; and de Moreau, E., Histoire de l'Église en Belgique (Brussels, 1945) 11, 335.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 The other hat types for Old Testament figures in this bible will be discussed later.

page 157 note 2 See references for this manuscript in my The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought (London, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970), p. 145Google Scholar, n. 1; at the time of writing, publication of a facsimile of the manuscript is awaited: The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, ed. C. R. Dodwell and Peter Clemoes, EEMF 18.

page 157 note 3 Moses is not portrayed wearing the round hat; rather he is shown wearing a horned headdress: see Mellinkoff, The Horned Moses, for a detailed study of this motif.

page 157 note 4 The round hats are especially clear on 121r, 121v, 123v, 124v, 125r, 126r, 127v and I28r. On some later folios (136v, 137r, 138v, 139v, 140v, 141r and 141v) the hats have been rather bizarrely painted so that the crowns look like curly hair (see pl. Ie). These folios, however, seem to have been executed in the same style as that of some earlier ones (e.g. 2r, 3r, 4v and 7v) where the curly hair is also found. While the round hat convention is not wholly adhered to, it is lacking mostly on some of the later, unfinished illustrations. I should, however, mention that two round hats are introduced earlier, on 76v, where they seem to have no significance, especially in relationship to the abundant and consistent sequence from 121r on.

page 157 note 5 C. R. Dodwell believes, however, that all the illustrations were executed by a single artist; see his introduction to the facsimile. While the innovative iconographical programme surely seems to be the work of one person, I am presently unconvinced that the execution of the pictures themselves was achieved by only one artist.

page 158 note 1 The fact that the hats first occur in the portrayal of Aaron at his consecration (Leviticus viii.12; see above, p. 157, and pls. Ib and c) invites us to ask what connection, if any, the artist responsible for this drawing thought these hats had with the mitre with which Aaron was invested at this ceremony. Mitres are referred to in Exodus xxxix.26 (Vulg. Et mitras cum coronulis suis ex bysso) and Leviticus viii.9 (Vulg. Cidari quoque texit caput: et super eam, contra frontem, posuit laminam auream consecratam in sanctificatione). Exodus xxxix.26 is not rendered in the Old English text; but at Leviticus viii.9 (The Old English Version of the Heptateuch etc., ed. S. J. Crawford, Early English Text Society o.s. 160 (repr. 1969 with the text of two additional manuscripts transcribed by N. R. Ker), 292) the Old English reads ‘7 band his heafod mid claðe 7 mid gehalgodan gyldenbende’ (‘and bound his head with cloth [i.e. a turban?] and with a consecrated golden ?band’). Mr Dodwell, in his introduction to the facsimile (see above, p. 157, n. 2), shows that the Old English text not infrequently influenced the illustrations, but here it does not explain the artist's treatment. Neither the translator nor the artist could have had any knowledge of what the Jewish High Priest's mitre was actually like, nor was the Christian bishop's mitre a clearly defined tradition in the eleventh century (see Mellinkoff, , The Horned Moses, pp. 94Google Scholarff.); translator and artist each seems to have provided his version of Aaron's head-covering as he thought best.

As already pointed out (above, p. 157), the first examples of rounded hats for Israelites other than Aaron are on 121r (see pl. Id), where Aaron offers incense after the sedition and the deaths of the sinners (Numbers xvi.41–9). Why the artists (or their supervisor) chose this particular moment to introduce the motif for the Israelites in general is difficult to ascertain. It is on 122r that the giving of the priesthood to Aaron, his sons and the Levites is depicted (Numbers xviii). Is it possible that the artists were thinking of this later event when they introduced the motif for the Israelites on 121r?

page 158 note 2 This type should not be confused with the brimless skull-cap that can be found in later manuscript illuminations. See e.g., a fourteenth-century miniature reproduced by Blumenkranz, Le Juif Médiéval, p. 23, fig. 9. Blumenkranz says that this was ‘le couvre-chef habituel dans la maison’ (P.23).

page 158 note 3 The whole question of head-covering as representing a specifically Jewish tradition is of some interest here. The more modern Orthodox Jewish practice of covering the head at prayer or study or during secular occupations is not one that appears to be based on any law in the bible or Talmud; see Hailperin, Herman, Rasbi and the Christian Scholars (Pittsburgh, 1963), pp. 19–20Google Scholar: ‘The custom, for example, of covering the head at prayer (nigh universal today) very likely became a distinctive observance which also witnessed the forced differentiation of Jews from Christians … We know that the custom of covering the head at prayer arose in Babylonia, and even there it was considered a pious custom and not a fixed law. We also know that as late as in Gaonic times the Palestinian Jews prayed without covering their heads.’ See also Abrahams, , Jewish Life, pp. 300–3.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 Abrahams, , Jewish Life, pp. 302 and 309Google Scholar; and see Roth, Cecil, A History of the Jews in England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1964), p. 95.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Rabinowitz, L., The Social Life of the Jews of Northern France in the XII-XIV Centuries (London, 1938), p. 62Google Scholar: ‘There is no question but that in their attire the Jews of Northern France during the period under review were completely undistinguishable from the Christians among whom they lived.’ See also Abrahams, Jewish Life, p. 301 and n. 4.

page 159 note 3 ibid. p. 301 and n. 3.

page 159 note 4 ibid. pp. 300–2.

page 159 note 5 See Shimon Applebaum, ‘Were There Jews in Roman Britain?’, Trans. of the Jewish Hist. Soc. 17 (1953), 189–205; see also, Roth, , History of the Jews in England, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

page 159 note 6 For the view that there were no Jewish settlements in England before the Conquest, see Jacobs, Joseph, The Jews of Angevin England (London, 1893), pp. 3–4Google Scholar; Richardson, H. G., The English Jewry under Angevin Kings (London, 1960), p. 1Google Scholar; and Roth, , History of the Jews in England, pp. 2–4Google Scholar and add. notes on p. 271.

page 159 note 7 Blumenkranz, Bernhard, ‘Altercatio Aecclesie contra Synagogam, Texte Inédit du Xe Siècle’, Revue du Moyen Âge Latin 10 (1954), 31–5.Google Scholar

page 159 note 8 Roth, , History of the Jews in England, p. 2Google Scholar, says that during the Saxon period the Jewish traders, so important in the Mediterranean area and on the European continent, may have extended their activities to England, but that evidence is scarce. It has been suggested that slave-traders were commonly Jews and that Ireland and Gaul were the main routes; see Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England, p. 3: ‘Altogether, therefore, I am inclined to refer the ecclesiastical ordinances to passing intercourse with Gallo-Jewish slave-dealers, and not to any permanent Jewish population of England before the Conquest.’ See also, Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, Frederic William, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1968) 1, 35Google Scholar, n. 2.

page 160 note 1 See Richardson, , The English Jewry, pp. 1–5 and 23–5Google Scholar; and Douglas, David C., William the Conqueror (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), pp. 313–14.Google Scholar

page 160 note 2 Dodwell's introduction to the facsimile (see above, p. 157, n. 2) includes an extensive analysis of the social elements in the pictures; he stresses the fact that they do not reflect the ways of a Mediterranean and early Christian way of life but rather the modes and fashions of northern Europe of the eleventh century.

page 160 note 3 E.g. Files, George Taylor, The Anglo-Saxon House, its Construction, Decoration and Furniture, Inaugural Dissertation (Leipzig, 1893)Google Scholar; Westwood, J. O., Paleographica Sacra (London, n.d.), pp. 144–5Google Scholar; and Wright, Thomas, A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during the Middle Ages (London, 1862).Google Scholar

page 160 note 4 On the basic originality of the illustrations, see Dodwell's introduction to the facsimile. See also Wormald, Francis, ‘Late Anglo-Saxon Art: some Questions and Suggestions’, Studies in Western Art: Acts of the XX International Congress of the History of Art, ed. Meiss, M. (Princeton, 1963) 1, 20Google Scholar; Pächt, Otto, The Rise of Pictorial Narrative in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford, 1962), pp. 6–8Google Scholar, stressing the originality of the Anglo-Saxon artists even when working from older models; Mellinkoff, , The Horned Moses, pp. 13–27Google Scholar; Schapiro, Meyer, ‘Cain's Jaw-Bone that did the First Murder’, Art Bull. 24 (1942), 206Google Scholar; Henderson, George, ‘Cain's Jaw-Bone’, Jnl of the Warburg and Courtauld Insts. 24 (1961), 108–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and see Pächt, Otto, ‘A Cycle of English Frescoes in Spain’, Burlington Mag. 103 (1961), 169.Google Scholar

page 160 note 5 See above, p. 156.

page 161 note 1 See Grierson, Philip, ‘The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest’, TRHS 4th ser. 23 (1941), 71–112Google Scholar; and Dodwell, C. R., Painting in Europe, 800 to 1200 (Harmondsworth, 1971), p. 79.Google Scholar

page 161 note 2 For extensive comments on this manuscript see Gaborit-Chopin, D., La Décoration des Manuscrits à Saint-Martial de Limoges et en Limousin du IXe au Xlle Siècle, Mémoires et Documents Publiés par la Société de l'École des Chartes, 17 (Paris-Geneva, 1969), 86–99Google Scholar; and see Porcher, Jean, French Miniatures from Illuminated Manuscripts (London, 1960), p. 33.Google Scholar

page 161 note 3 Moses is not portrayed with a hat elsewhere in the Limoges Bible; on 41r he is depicted with a halo.

page 161 note 4 For a complete study of this psalter see Otto Pächt, Dodwell, C. R. and Wormald, Francis, The St Albans Psalter (London, 1960).Google Scholar

page 161 note 5 ibid. pl. 20b.

page 162 note 1 ibid. pl. 29b.

page 162 note 2 See Dodwell, C. R., The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066–1200 (Cambridge, 1954)Google Scholar as well as his, The Great Lambeth Bible (London, 1959).Google Scholar

page 162 note 3 Dodwell, , Lambeth Bible, pl. i.Google Scholar

page 162 note 4 ibid. pl. ii.

page 162 note 5 ibid. pl. v.

page 162 note 6 See Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages (Baltimore, 1954), pp. 93ff; Wormald, Francis, ‘The Development of English Illumination in the Twelfth Century’, JBAA 3rd ser. 8 (1943), 41–2Google Scholar, and ‘The Survival of Anglo-Saxon Illumination after the Norman Conquest’, Proc. of the Brit. Acad. 30 (1944), 140–1Google Scholar; and Boase, T. S. R., English Art, 1100–1216 (Oxford, 1953). pp. 172–4.Google Scholar

page 162 note 7 See Wormald, ‘The Survival of Anglo-Saxon Illumination’, pl. 6.

page 163 note 1 See Nordenfalk, , Romanesque Painting, p. 157Google Scholar, for a colour reproduction.

page 163 note 2 See Sauerländer, Willibald in an exhibition review of ‘The Year 1200’, Art Bull. 53 (1971), 512Google Scholar, who states that there is general agreement on its English origin and says that he doubts that it could have been carved after 1160–70; Swarzenski, , Monuments, p. 63Google Scholar, also describes it as English and dates it c. 1150.

page 163 note 3 In the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; see Swarzenski, , Monuments, pl. 197Google Scholar, fig. 453.

page 163 note 4 Regarding links between these two psalters, see Boase, T. S. R., The York Psalter (New York, 1962), pp. 5–7Google Scholar. See also O. Elfrida Saunders's description of the style of the York Psalter, , English Illumination (Florence, 1928) 1, 39Google Scholar, and fig. 44 (‘Raising of Lazarus’), where more of the round hats can be seen.

page 163 note 5 See Boase, , The York Psalter, pl. 4.Google Scholar

page 163 note 6 See Greek and Latin Illuminated Manuscripts X-XIII Centuries in Danish Collections (Copenhagen, 1921), pp. 32–42Google Scholar; see also Boase, , English Art, pp. 243–4.Google Scholar

page 163 note 7 ibid. pl. 12.

page 163 note 8 ibid.

page 164 note 1 See Collon-Gevaert, Suzanne, Histoire des Arts du Métal en Belgique (Brussels, 1951), pp. 168–73Google Scholar; see also André Grabar, ‘Orfevrerie Mosane-Orfevrerie Byzantine’, L'Art Mosan, ed. Francastel, p. 123.

page 164 note 2 Note that two of the hats in the background appear to be somewhat pointed.

page 164 note 3 Swarzenski, , Monuments, p. 71Google Scholar, says that this was perhaps commissioned under Abbot Simon II (1177–86); see also Collon-Gevaert, , Histoire, pp. 162–4Google Scholar. Four portrait busts of prophets in medallions wearing the round hats can be seen on 7v of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 241, a Flemish gospel book of the late twelfth century; see Wormald, Francis and Giles, Phyllis M., Illuminated Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, 1966), p. 10.Google Scholar

page 164 note 4 Swarzenski, , Monuments, pl. 179Google Scholar, fig. 399. Rounded hats of this type are also present on an enamelled cross from the Meuse, attributed to Godfroid de Claire, now in the British Museum.

page 164 note 5 The photograph is after Schiper, Ignacy, Kultur Gescbichte (Warsaw, 1926)Google Scholar, top fig. opp. p. 224.

page 164 note 6 ibid. p. 216.

page 164 note 7 For a study of this psalter see Deuchler, Florens, Der Ingeborgpsalter (Berlin, 1967)Google Scholar; see also Meurgey, Jacques, Les Principaux Manuscrits a Peintures du Musée Condé (Paris, 1930), pp. 15–19.Google Scholar

page 164 note 8 Deuchler, , Der Ingeborgpsalter, pl. x.Google Scholar

page 164 note 9 ibid. pl. viii.

page 164 note 10 I am indebted to Henry A. Kelly for calling this to my attention.

page 165 note 1 Martin Wittek of the Bibliothèque Royale has given this as the place of execution and dates the manuscript c. 1428.

page 165 note 2 See Swarzenski, , Monuments, pl. 187Google Scholar, for a reproduction of the Liège triptych.

page 165 note 3 For photos and bibliography see The Year 1200: a Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogue, ed. Konrad Hoffmann (New York, 1970), pp. 52–6.Google Scholar

page 165 note 4 This is of course to be contrasted with the kind of innovation introduced by literal representation of the text itself, as in the case of the horned Moses.