The Image of Jews in the Visual Culture of the Ottoman Balkans (Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries)

Within the heterogeneous visual culture of the Ottoman Balkans, in the period of time when the identity was primarily defined through religion and language, the image of Jews had a twofold role. This paper will explore the image of the Jews primarily in the creation of the universal picture of Christianity during the Ottoman rule. This largely refers to the images of peoples within the iconography of the scenes of Pentecost and The Last Judgment, which showed Christian peoples, as well as the Jews, the Turks and the Saracens during this period of time. On the other hand, in the context of presenting “historical others”, visual culture testifies of a possibility of their redefinition. Thus, the image of the Jews in the composition of Christ’s Passion, which was mainly shaped by the stereotypical discourse, underwent a transformation as regards definition of the political, religious and ethnic other.

In the period of Ottoman rule the image of Jews was created in line with the current religious and political situation, formally relying up to a point on the defined models known in the Byzantine politics, religion and culture.