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topumI came across this painting randomly in the vast ethers of the internet today. It is Giovanni Bellini's 'Presentation to the Temple' dated circa 1460.
The one detail that struck me the moment I saw it was Virgin Mary's ear. It is pierced but has no earring in it. Here you can see it a little bit better.
I moved on briefly but just could not let it go. I could not get that ear out of my head. Why Bellini painted it this way? If you do not want the earring, why pierce the ear? If you do, then go ahead and pierce the ear but then also put the earring in, it is a festive occasion for Virgin Mary, right? That pierced ear must signify something I thought, it cannot be just random.
Clearly there was only one thing to do. I had to stop doing all the urgent and important stuff on my to do list at once and find the truth about that pierced ear. And so I dived into it without delay. Boy, I am finding out more than I bargained for and am learning a great deal about the history of both xenophobia and fashion in Europe and how closely linked the two were. This is the first time I read something about fashion with interest. I am not done yet but one thing I can say already is that the ear is indeed pierced and earringless for a reason. Can anyone guess what it is?
Answer:
To Bellini's contemporaries the pierced ear without the earring would say what a mark on the clothes where a yellow badge ('Jew star') once was and a cross pendant would say to us. It was the sign of a Jewish woman who cast off her Jewish identity and converted to Christianity.
In fifteenth-century Italy only Jewish women wore earrings. The law actually required that every Jewish female over the age of ten wear "rings hanging from both ears, and fixed in those ears, which should be and remain uncovered and visible to all". Non-Jewish women did not wear earrings at that time. Earrings were said to be the jewels "that Jewish women wear in place of circumcision, so that they can be distinguished from other women". From the documents from that time we know about the wife of Joseph, who was arrested and fined ten ducats in the summer of 1416 for leaving her earrings - and hence her Jewish identity - at home.
It is interesting how later when the earrings went mainstream Jewish women were forbidden to wear them.
The are a number of sources available for more details but this one is the best (the answer was eventually found here): http://www.history.ucsb.edu/archived/courses/tempdownload.php?attach_id=5422
Special thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bunn, beautesauvage13 and heydrinkthis.
The one detail that struck me the moment I saw it was Virgin Mary's ear. It is pierced but has no earring in it. Here you can see it a little bit better.
I moved on briefly but just could not let it go. I could not get that ear out of my head. Why Bellini painted it this way? If you do not want the earring, why pierce the ear? If you do, then go ahead and pierce the ear but then also put the earring in, it is a festive occasion for Virgin Mary, right? That pierced ear must signify something I thought, it cannot be just random.
Clearly there was only one thing to do. I had to stop doing all the urgent and important stuff on my to do list at once and find the truth about that pierced ear. And so I dived into it without delay. Boy, I am finding out more than I bargained for and am learning a great deal about the history of both xenophobia and fashion in Europe and how closely linked the two were. This is the first time I read something about fashion with interest. I am not done yet but one thing I can say already is that the ear is indeed pierced and earringless for a reason. Can anyone guess what it is?
Answer:
To Bellini's contemporaries the pierced ear without the earring would say what a mark on the clothes where a yellow badge ('Jew star') once was and a cross pendant would say to us. It was the sign of a Jewish woman who cast off her Jewish identity and converted to Christianity.
In fifteenth-century Italy only Jewish women wore earrings. The law actually required that every Jewish female over the age of ten wear "rings hanging from both ears, and fixed in those ears, which should be and remain uncovered and visible to all". Non-Jewish women did not wear earrings at that time. Earrings were said to be the jewels "that Jewish women wear in place of circumcision, so that they can be distinguished from other women". From the documents from that time we know about the wife of Joseph, who was arrested and fined ten ducats in the summer of 1416 for leaving her earrings - and hence her Jewish identity - at home.
It is interesting how later when the earrings went mainstream Jewish women were forbidden to wear them.
The are a number of sources available for more details but this one is the best (the answer was eventually found here): http://www.history.ucsb.edu/archived/courses/tempdownload.php?attach_id=5422
Special thanks to
bunn, beautesauvage13 and heydrinkthis.
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no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 07:48 pm (UTC)However, I eagerly look forward to reading your conclusions!
no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 07:58 pm (UTC)Yes, I will post the findings.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:25 pm (UTC)I wish I was better at resisting this sort of thing. My fanfic would happen so. much. faster. :-D
no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:34 pm (UTC)And I did go on a little googling adventure to Westgate of Roman Chichester.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:41 pm (UTC)I've found this about LJ : you spend hours googling something, then you post saying, damned if I can find this! and someone wanders along and goes 'hey here's a thing' :-D
Unless you rely on it, when it doesn't happen, of course.
Really fascinating, I had no idea about earrings as a signifier of judaism in the medieval period and the whole idea about removing them being a signifier of conversion. I must try and work that into a story sometime ... :-D
no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 09:08 pm (UTC)I found it fascinating too. I googled out dozens of paintings from different times and have been analysing the earrings situation in them. Who has them, who doesn't and why. At some point it actually flipped, earrings went mainstream and the Jewish women were forbidden to wear them and you can see it in the paintings too.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-13 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 04:23 pm (UTC)Athena
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 05:04 pm (UTC)Yes, feel free to share this on your LJ too. Would be interesting to know what your friend might know about it too.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 05:18 pm (UTC)Athena
Fashion, antisemitism and Virgin Mary's pierced ear.
Date: 2016-02-14 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-14 11:15 pm (UTC)Fashion, antisemitism and Virgin Mary's pierced ear.
Date: 2016-02-14 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-15 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-16 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 11:53 pm (UTC)2. For future, that happens because there are links to the external sites in the comments. If you want to have them, you can disable this default setting here (if i not mistake) :
http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings
-> privacy -> spam protection
no subject
Date: 2016-02-18 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 10:20 pm (UTC)It (the first screened post above - please unscreen it) was just an allusion on the alternative historians who claim that the official history/chronology was falsified after the catastrophe 300 years ago, everything older is treated as "antiquity" and the real Mary could exist in this "antique" time 300 yeas ago :) .
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Date: 2016-02-17 10:27 pm (UTC)I would find it very hard to buy into that history falsification theory.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-17 10:54 pm (UTC)2. I do not claim that the Christianity evolved 300 years ago, but I think the theory that it was completely introduced by the roman authorities makes sense. Also, most probably paganism survived in Italy long time after the Rome's collapse (if there was a collapse at all) ). After learning the subject I find it quite hard to reject the possibility of falsification (like we see it every change of political formation - also in my memory) and the chronology shift. There are just so many inconsistencies in the official narrative. In particular the Russian chronicles of the last 300 years; actually the whole Russian history was written by the German historians (like Miller) surrounding Peter the Great - another historical enigma, and it is very far from being consistent and objective. The radiocarbon method is a fallacy - its error is thousands of years and it its not applicable on the human history time scales. Plus the "inconvenient" archaeological findings about the recent flood like those I provided in the links above.
3. If you are curious about the facts you may begin with Immanuel Velikovsky or Graham Hancock's stuff (it is mostly about the "ancient" history though) - they are lots of videos on youtube.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-19 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-19 08:13 pm (UTC)Fashion, antisemitism and Virgin Mary's pierced ear.
Date: 2016-03-04 09:05 pm (UTC)