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I 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.
