The Church and the Synagogue in Ecclesiastical Art - A Case from Medieval Norway

Abstract

This article discusses the pictorial representation of the Church and the Synagogue in medieval ecclesiastical art. The case chosen for analysis is the Calvary scene in the 13th-century painted vault from Ål stave church, Hallingdal in Norway, where personifications of Ecclesia and Synagoga appear by the foot of the cross of Christ. The examination of the scene aims to show how the visual rhetoric transcends the biblical narrative in multiple ways. The representation of the Synagogue in the painted vault from Ål testifies to the hostile attitude towards Judaism generally found in medieval culture, also in societies like the Norwegian, where Jews were practically absent. The author argues that the anti-Judaic stance was abstract and fictional, grounded on a conceptual theology aimed to confirm Christian selfunderstanding.

Crux Christi Sit Mecum: Devotion to the Apotropaic Cross

“…The central figure, the cross or crucifix, is missing. Unlike the rest of the painted figures on the back wall, this was probably a three-dimensional crucifix placed in front of the painted motif where a tenon would have been tapped into the now missing vertical wall plate (Aavitsland 2016;and Stang 2008, pp. 161-66).…”