Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain

$49.95

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Uneasy Communion: Christians, Jews and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain, this volume provides a fascinating study of the iconography of altarpieces and the artistic collaboration between Jews and Christians. In the multi-cultural society of late medieval Spain, Jewish and Christian artists worked together to produce retablos (large multi-paneled altarpieces) as well as Latin and Hebrew religious manuscripts. The authors of this highly-illustrated volume explore the methods of imagery, workshop locations and shop styles, and the relationship between Christians and Jews at this time, including their portrayal of one another through dress and appearance. The volume also offers a significant investigation into the position of the Jewish community in medieval Spain against the backdrop of rising antisemitism and the growth of the Inquisition.

The essays featured in this volume take us on a journey from the general to the particular, and include a study of Jewish communities within Spanish society of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by Thomas F. Glick, a survey of the painting of the period by Maria del Carmen Lacarra Ducay, an examination of specific artworks that address the issue of Jewish-Christian relationships by Vivian B. Mann, and a historiography of scholarship on Jewish involvement in the creation of Spanish medieval art by Marcus Burke.