Synagoga and Ecclesia first appeared in the ninth century
in Northern France and Southern Germany, where they were intended as
representations of the Old and New Testament and personifications of Judaism
and Christianity, respectively. Through their depiction in carved ivory panels,
to stained glass windows and manuscript illuminations, the figures developed a
distinct iconographical tradition, which featured prominently in the pictorial
arts, contemporary drama as well as in Christian theology, appearing in commentaries,
exegesis, and sermons.[i]
For example, Ecclesia and Synagoga were the main actors in Pseudo-Augustine’s
sixth century Sermo Contra Paganos, Judaeos et Arianos, (Sermon Against
Pagans, Jews and Heretics) as well as central figures in the twelfth- century
exegetical sermons of the French abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux.[ii] The
ubiquitous presence of the figures in medieval art and literature makes it
almost impossible to engage in medieval studies without coming across Synagoga
and her Christian counterpart.[iii]
Any
discussion of the figures must begin with a description of Synagoga and
Ecclesia’s traditional iconography. In order to do so, it is perhaps best to
turn to, what is acknowledged as one of the most celebrated examples of the
motif; the south facade of Strasbourg Cathedral.[iv]
On the
right of the facade is the regal Ecclesia. Adopting a powerful stance, her legs
are set wide apart as she throws her shoulders back in an upright posture. The
heavy drapery of her robe gathers in orderly folds at her feet and she is the
image of might and stability. Every movement of her body appears decisive and
controlled as she tightly grips a cross in her hand. A crown sits firmly on top
of her head and identifies Ecclesia as a ruling Queen. No aspect of Ecclesia’s
appearance communicates inertia, uncertainty or any other weakness. Her power
and strength are absolute.
Standing
across from Ecclesia, to the left of Solomon, is the figure of Synagoga.
Although her beauty matches that of Ecclesia, unlike her counterpart Synagoga
is the image of weakness and defencelessness. Her stance is weak and she is
hunched over. Her movements seem uncertain and she appears to be slipping out
of the design, with her elbows protruding beyond the facade. The drapery of her
robe falls in a muddled pile at her feet, giving the impression that she may
trip over it. Her frailty is further emphasised by the blindfold tightly
wrapped around her eyes which represents the Jews inability to see Christ as
their true Messiah. In her hand she holds the tablets of the law which are
slipping from her grasp and tangled up within the holds of her robe;
symbolising the Jewish attachment to the now obsolete Old Law. Like the broken
staff in her hand, Synagoga looks damaged and defeated. She is isolated and
turns away from the rest of the facade. Her only symbol of power was a crown,
which is no longer visible, located at her feet. It suggests Synagoga is the overthrown Queen
who was once powerful but whose time has now passed. [v]
Together,
Synagoga and Ecclesia represent the contrast of defeat and victory; of
subordination and power and of despair and hope.[vi]
This opposition of conquered and conqueror was a defining feature of the motif
from the eleventh century onwards and creates a powerfully dramatic but also
highly enigmatic image which begs further investigation.
In light
of her omnipresence and striking appearance, it is not surprising that since
the late nineteenth century Synagoga’s flimsy beauty has inspired a wealth of
literature and numerous interpretations.[vii]
One of the earliest studies of Synagoga was carried out in 1894 by Paul Weber.
His fundamental text Geistliches Schauspiel und kirchliche Kunst (Religious
Drama and Church Art) studied the relationship between pictorial
representations of Synagoga and her depiction in medieval drama.[viii]
Weber’s study viewed the figure as the embodiment of medieval anti-Semitism. He
concluded that despite the figure’s beautiful appearance, like the deformed
male Jew of Christian art, Synagoga condemned medieval Jews. Therefore
initially the figure was seen as a further manifestation of Christian
anti-Semitism, reflecting the writings of the Church Fathers, such as John
Chrysostom, who condemned the Jews and accused them of immorality and madness.[ix]
This
negative interpretation of Synagoga was questioned by Wolfgang Seiferth. His
text, Synagogue and Church in the Middle Ages: Two Symbols in Art and
Literature, reached a more ambiguous conclusion.[x]
Studying the development of the iconography of Synagoga, from the ninth through
to the fifteenth century, he concluded that due to the allegorical nature of
the figure it denies any concrete definition. Seiferth traced the use of the
female allegories or personification to Classical Antiquity when female allegories
would often be used within a historical context to represent ideas which they
did not literally represent. [xi] Using the example of the two female
personifications of conquered lands depicted on the armour of the statue of
Augustus at Prima Porta, Seiferth shows how multifaceted an allegory could be. Building
of the argument that the meaning of the personification is volatile and
strictly dependant on the context in which they appear, Seiferth concluded that
when removed from the initial context the female personification could stand
for anything.
This
interpretation draws from the classical understanding of the function of the
personification as presented by Morton Bloomfield, who stated that the
connotations of a personification are not determined by what it represents but
the predicates that are attached to it.[xii]
As such Seiferth presents Synagoga as a far more complex figure which reflected
the dual nature of Judaism in medieval Christian theology.[xiii]
While the Jews were accused of deicide and condemned they were also
acknowledged as God’s first chosen people. This can be seen in the writings of
the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux
who adopting the fourth century ideology of St Augustine stated, ‘slay them not
least my people forget.’[xiv]
He believed that Jews should be protected as they are living relics of the Old
Testament, and their conversion is a condition of the second coming of Christ.
Thus he presented the Jews as playing a vital role in the past and future of
Christian salvation history.
For Seiferth, Synagoga’s allegorical nature could accommodate
the various incarnation of the Jew in Christian theology. Therefore rather than
interpret the figure as a positive or negative representation of Judaism, he
believed that the connotations of the figure were directly related to the
specific circumstances of her representation. A similar conclusion was reached
by Bernhard Blumenkranz who believed that Synagoga could both condemn the Jews
and communicate their position within Christianity and Christian salvation
history. However, Blumenkranz believed that the downtrodden appearance of
Synagoga, contrasted against the victorious Ecclesia always communicated a
sense of subordination and while the figure may not have been a negative
representation, it did present Judaism as inferior to Christianity.
Ruth Mellinkoff’s study of medieval iconography
supported this conclusion stating that the figures had a firmly established
iconographical tradition which was intended on communicating the superiority of
Christianity over Judaism. Synagoga’s traditional attributes of a blindfold,
slipping tablets of the law and a broken banner all communicate weakness which
was emphasised by the contrast with Ecclesia who’s attributes of a crown and
upturned chalice are indicative of power.[xv]
These early
studies focused on Synagoga and Ecclesia’s iconography in light of the
Christian theological conception of the Jews; a conception which at times appears
almost schizophrenic. While failing to agree on whether Synagoga was a
flattering of damning representation of Judaism, all of these studies concluded
that despite her beauty, Synagoga’s dissolute and defeated appearance
communicated the secondary role attributed to Judaism in Christian theology.
What these
early studies have provided is a solid foundation for the examination of
Synagoga. However, there is a limit to how much can be achieved through
iconographical analysis which is only examined in relation to Christian
theology. Although these studies are a logical starting point, this approach
fails to acknowledge Synagoga’s prominence and also the complexity of medieval
Jewish-Christian relations. In medieval Christian Europe “the Jew” was not a
mystical creature only featured in theology; the Jewish community played a
significant role in medieval society and like their Christian counterpart was
influenced and shaped by social and political change. Simultaneously, Synagoga
was not limited to theological contexts and clerical audiences. Featured on
public spaces such as cathedral facades, which would have been visible to
Christians and Jews alike, it is necessary to consider the possibility that the
figures could have functioned out with the context of Christian theology.
More
recent scholarship has begun to take these wider considerations into account.
Accepting the complexity of Synagoga’s iconography and the context in which she
was displayed, scholars such as Sara Lipton and Nina Rowe are beginning to
consider Synagoga’s multifarious nature more carefully. By building on the
previous scholarly tradition, Lipton and Rowe are paving the way for a new
chapter in Synagoga’s scholarship, whose contribution and significance deserves
a blog entry of their own.
Contributed by: Monika Winiarczyk
[i] Wolfgang S. Seiferth, Synagogue and Church in the Middle Ages:
Two Symbols in Art and Literature, trans. by Lee Chadeayne and Paul
Gottwald (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1970), p.108; for example
of drama see: John Wright, trans., Play of Antichrist (Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1967).
[ii] St Augustine, Sermo contra judaeos, paganos, et Arianos de
Symbolo, Migne, P.L. XLII, 1117-30 and
Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘Sermones Super Cantica Canticorum’ 14.2.4 in Opera,
ed. by Jean Leclercq et al. (Rome, 1957-77); Migne Patrologia Latina 42, 1115-1139.
[iii] Nina Rowe,
‘Rethinking Ecclesia and Synagoga in the thirteenth century,’ Hourihane, Colum,
(ed.), Gothic Art & Thought in the Later Medieval Period: Essays in Honour
of Willibald Sauerlander, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011) p.265
[iv] Nina Rowe, ‘Idealization and Subjection at the south Façade of
Strasbourg Cathedral’ in Beyond the Yellow Badge: Anti-Judaism and
Anti-Semitism in Medieval and Early Modern Visual Culture, ed. by Mitchell
B. Merback (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p.179 and footnote 13 for list of example of
Synagoga’s appearances on Cathedrals.
[v] This crown is no longer visible but
the image shows a sixteenth century engraving which shows that originally there
was a crown located at Synagoga’s feet.
[vi] Nina Rowe 2008 p.179 and footnote 13
for list of example of Synagoga’s appearances on Cathedrals.
[vii] See: Rowe 2008; Seiferth 1970; Nina Rowe, The Jew, the Cathedral
and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth Century
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Bernd Nicolai, ‘Orders in Stone: Social Reality and Artistic Approach.
The Case of the Strasbourg South Portal,’ Gesta, Vol. 41, No. 2 (2002), p.
111-128; Otto Von Simson, ‘Le Programme Sculptural du Transept Meridonal de la
Cathedrale de Strasbourg,’ Bulletin de la Societe des Amis de la Cathedrale de
Strasbourg, Vol. 10, 1972, p.33-50 and Adolf
Weis, ‘Die “Synagoge” am Südquerhaus zu Straßburg,’ Das Münster, Nr. 1
(1947), p.65-80; Ruth Mellinkoff, Outcasts: signs of otherness in northern
European art of the late Middle Ages (Oxford : University of California
Press, 1993); Annette Weber, ‘Glaube und Wissen-Ecclesia et Synagoga,’ in Wissenspopularisierung:
Konzepte der Wissensverbreitung im Wandel, ed. by Carsten Kretschmann
(Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2003); Herbert Jochum, Ecclesia und Synagoga: Das
Judentum in der Christlichen Kunst: Austellungskatalog (Saarbrücken:
Museum, 1993); Cohen, E., ‘The Controversy Between Church and Synagoga in some
of Bosch’s Paintings,’ Studia Rosenthaliana, Vol.18 (1984), p.1-11;
Bernhard Blumenkranz, ‘Geographie historique d’un theme de l’iconographic
religieuse: Les Representations de Synagoga en France,’ in Melanges offerts
a Rene Crozet, ed. by P. Gallais and Y.J. Rious, 2 vols. (Poiteres: Societe
d’Etudes Medievales, 1966), II, p. 1142-57; for discussion of Jews in medieval
theology see Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in
Medieval Christianity (London: University of California Press, 1999), for
example p.134.
[viii] Paul Weber, Geistliches Schauspiel
und kirchliche Kunst in ihrem Verhaltnis erlautert an einer Ikonographie der
Kirche und Synagogue: Eine kunsthistorische Studie(Stuttgart; Ebner &
Seubert, 1894)
[ix] John Chrysostom, Logoi kata Ioudaion
I.6, Patrologia Graeca 48:852
[x] See: Seiferth 1970
[xi] James J. Paxson,
‘Personification's Gender,’ Rhetorica, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1998), p.153.
[xii] Morton W. Bloomfield, ‘A Grammatical
Approach to Personification Allegory,’ Modern Philology, Vol. 60, No. 3
(Feb., 1963), p.165.
[xiii] For discussion of Jews in medieval
theology see Jeremy Cohen, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in
Medieval Christianity (London: University of California Press, 1999)
[xiv] Robert Chazan, The Jews of
Medieval Western Christendom, 1000-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2006) p.37
[xv] Mellinkoff, Ruth, Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European
Art of the Late Middle Ages, vol. 1 (Oxford : University of California Press,
1993), p.49.
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