Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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Click to view high resolution image Title: Synagoga Creator: Witz, Konrad, painter Description: A dejected personification of the Jewish synagogue holds the tablet of the Law and a broken standard. Her hair is long and loose, and she wears a yellow dress—a color that Ruth Mellinkoff demonstrates was associated with the unpleasant and the bodily (treachery, greed, urine). The tablets are inscribed with pseudo-Hebraic characters that echo the pattern on the hem of Synagoga’s dress. This panel was once part of a larger altarpiece, the image program of which was based on the "Speculum humanae salvationis" (Mirror of Human Salvation), an early-fourteenth-century devotional text that considers Old Testament events and figures as prefigurations that are fulfilled in the Gospels and Last Judgment. Source: Wikimedia Commons Rights: Public domain Subject (See Also): Antisemitism Synagoga, Allegorical Figure for the Old Law and for Judaism Yellow- Color of Shame Geographic Area: Germany Century: 15 Date: ca. 1435 Related Work: Other surviving panels in the Mirror of Salvation altarpiece include: Ecclesia, Esther before Ahasuerus, Angel of the Annunciation, Antipater before Julius Caesar, The Queen of Sheba before Solomon, Saint Bartholomew, Sabobai and Benaiah, Unknown Saint (Theobald?), Saint Abishai before David, Virgin of the Annunciation, Abraham before Melchizedek, Saint Augustine, and Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl. Current Location: Basel, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Inv. 640 Original Location: Basel, St. Leonhard, high altar Artistic Type (Category): Digital image; painting Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Wood (Altarpiece panel, right wing, exterior); Tempera; Oil Donor: Height/Width/Length(cm): 80.5 cm/86 cm/ Inscription: Related Resources:

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