»The Lost Mirror. Jews and Conversos in Medieval Spain«

The first large-scale violence against Jews occurred from 1096 when Christians from France attacked Jewish communities on their way to Jerusalem: known as the First Crusade. But anti-Judaism has existed since the beginning of Christianity, since the followers of the new religion saw in the Jews − instead of the Roman government in Jerusalem − the murderers of the Son of God. The rejection of Jewish traditions and festivals played a decisive role in shaping Christianity. In illiterate societies, pictorial representations played an even greater role, which is why the church, which moreover preached only in Latin, used them to shape a negative image of Jews. So-called conversos, Jews who had converted to Christianity, were also depicted in pictures.

The Museo del Prado is concerned with pictorial representations of anti-Judaism from 1285 to 1492, that is, the late Middle Ages. Especially after 1391, when mass conversions of Jews to Christianity took place after a pogrom, cult images acquired an even greater power: they showed either the sincerity of the Jews to have changed to the »right« religion, or also the fact that conversos believed in the Christian God only for appearance. The goal of combating secretly performed Jewish rituals ultimately led to the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. Many of these images are now on display in Madrid in the exhibition The Lost Mirror. Jews and Conversos in Medieval Spain. It runs from October 10, 2023 to January 14, 2024.