Short Essay in English
FIRST PRIZE
Sawyer Landman Daviau
Cultural Translation and Visual Negotiation of Gothic Tradition in Jewish Mediaeval Art: The Golden Haggadah of the 13th century. Mediaeval Spain
See workDual Degree in Business Administration & Humanities
SECOND PRIZE
Michela Salama-Robino
Lysistratism: Judith Butler´s Theory of Performativity and the 4B Movement
See workDual Degree in Business Administration and International Relations
THIRD PRIZE
Henriette Maria Kirchhoff
The Digital Reinvention of Art Galleries: How Technology Redefines Artistic Experience
See workBachelor in Business Administration
First Prize Short Essay in English
Cultural Translation and Visual Negotiation of Gothic Tradition in Jewish Mediaeval Art: The Golden Haggadah of the 13th century. Mediaeval Spain
Author: Sawyer Landman Daviau
Dual Degree in Business Administration & Humanities
Cultural Translation and Visual Negotiation of Gothic Tradition in Jewish Mediaeval Art: The Golden Haggadah of the 13th century. Mediaeval Spain
This paper examines Sephardi Jewry’s interpretation of Gothic art in the Golden Haggadah (Northern Spain, c.1320). A Haggadah is a private liturgical book restricted to the sphere of the Jewish home as an aid to the Passover Seder (a meal that celebrates the biblical exodus of Israelites from Egypt). Existing scholarship typically interprets this manuscript in two key ways. Firstly, the Golden Haggadah reframes Judaism’s commitment to aniconism, the avoidance of depicting religious figures, which through the educational exception, exposing a categorical distinction between “religious” and “educational” texts[1]. Through this exception, the artworks depicting Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam can be argued to be educational rather than religious depictions meant for worship. Secondly, the Golden Haggadah is stylistically an example of Gothic art at a time when Gothic conventions primarily served Catholicism[2]. In the Iberian Peninsula, Jewish communities have long lived in Muslim and Christian-dominated communities, and shared artistic conventions. There is a plethora of Jewish art and architecture that unites styles associated with both Islamic and Christian religious practices, including ornate interior design found in churches and domes visible on the exteriors of mosques, such as the Santa María la Blanca synagogue in Toledo, Spain. Syncretism in Jewish art often showed shifts in how Jews reinterpreted religious customs. My research examines how the Golden Haggadah translates Christian visuals into a Jewish idiom as both an educational tool and as a form of political critique to develop this argument. I first establish the educational context for the illustrations. Then, I show how this manuscript aligns broadly with Gothic visual traditions, a style of art primarily used in Christian contexts. Following this, I situate the illustrations within their sociohistorical context to show how the translation of secular Gothic style supports a political interpretation. By showing a stylistic similarity to Christian parallels, Jewish artists used avoidance to omit, alter, or negate iconographic details that were borrowed from Christian contexts that carried Christological or theological meaning[3]. For example, Jewish patronage rejected anthropomorphic depictions of God which are linked to Christian doctrines such as the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity.
It might come as a surprise to learn that a mediaeval Jewish manuscript contains religious illustrations. The second commandment states that “You must not make yourself a sculpted image or any other type of likeness of anything that is in heaven above, on earth below, or in the water lower than the earth.”[4] This is understood that a Jew shall not have any images or likenesses to G-d or any other figures from the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible), doing otherwise would be idolatrous. Since the Tanakh is a religious, highly sacred text, including the Five Books of Moses known as the Torah, used mainly for synagogue services, scholars argue that the decoration programs of Bibles reflect the biblical prohibition against images. The Haggadah however, is used to assist in the narration of the procession of the Passover Seder, and Haggadah in Hebrew means “narration.” Therefore, it can be considered an educational or narrative tool, giving a more liberal attitude toward artistic representation and figurative art. This educational loophole allowed the manuscript to be exempt from the restrictions imposed on official religious books.
The artisans responsible for the Golden Haggadah employed a Gothic style reminiscent of Christian manuscripts, such as the Bible of Saint Louis, and integrated aspects from contemporary society. For example, Figure 1 depicts Moses and Aharon pleading to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. This depiction directly translates to a prior depiction of Christian French monarchs, as can be seen in Figure 2, and places it within the context of the Passover story. To further analyse the shared visual language of Christian manuscripts and contemporary aspects of life and the Golden Haggaddah, Figure 3 depicts four registers representing various moments in the Passover story. The upper-right quadrant has three scenes depicting the last plague: an angel striking a man, a queen mourning her baby, and the funeral of the royal firstborn. This quadrant is somewhat ambiguous due to the characterisation of the royal family, as well as the architectural elements in the top section suggesting that it could be two scenes and not three. Throughout the Haggadah, this artwork included, there are notably a lot of artistic patterns with Christian depictions of religious figures. For example, the queen mourning the firstborn is reminiscent of the Virgin Mary, whose garments in historical art are most commonly blue, mourning Jesus. The upper left register depicts Pharaoh ordering the Israelites to leave Egypt, their hands raised high[5]. This directly follows the story of Passover while adding contemporary artistic elements that do not stem from Judaism, for example, the contemporary knights that are seen in the bottom right chasing the Israelites out of Egypt. What is also seen in this Haggadah is that the depictions are shown in an order that goes from right to left, following the same pattern as Hebrew. The classification of the Haggadah as a private education tool distinguished it from the Bible and allowed the illuminators to incorporate figurative illustrations of Gothic Christian art and the inclusion of contemporary characters.
Secondly, the stylistic choices of the manuscript are not arbitrary; the decoration was deliberately embedded in Gothic manuscript illumination, and stylistic parallels can be tied to Catalan royal manuscripts of the 1320s[6]. The Golden Haggadah demonstrates fully embracing the Gothic style and a clear example of this is rendering Pharaoh and Moses not with Egyptian or biblical iconography, but depicting Pharoah as a mediaeval French Christian monarch (Figure 1). Pharaoh appears as a French king displaying royal regalia, and both figures display the long, flowing body, small architectural details and patterned background characteristic of the Gothic era[7]. Pharaoh is seated on a throne and holding a sceptre against a Gothic background. The visual translation situates the biblical context within the 14th-century Catalan courtly environment. There is a political position being taken by placing Moses and Pharaoh in the context of the French monarchy. In the Passover story, Pharoah is most famously known as the main villain, portraying this scene in relation to the French monarchy suggests that there was animosity between the Jewish Iberian community and the French monarchy. By the time this manuscript was made, Judaism had a longstanding relationship with Christian and Muslim communities in the region, but during the 13th century tensions began to shift as the Reconquista progressed, eventually making way for the massive 14th century upheavals that brought on segregation and anti-Jewish legislation. While the goal of this artistic borrowing was not historical accuracy but to elevate the narrative and display the patron's immersion in the dominant aesthetic, the underlying political position being expressed can be interpreted as a silent rebellion. The production of each of the miniatures decorated with golden leaf reinforced their participation in Christian courtly culture, suggesting that the manuscript served as both a Jewish educational text and a display of aristocratic wealth. Take the rendering of Pharaoh and Moses, the golden leaf backgrounds would have only been accessible to those in the higher class, this would serve for a wealthy family living near Barcelona in the early 14th century. Yet, the paradox between a Jewish text rendered entirely in Christian form represents cultural negotiation, not cultural surrender. Another similar rendering depicts Moses and Aharon confronting Pharaoh, with the ruler dominating the left side, dressed in light robes and a crown. The Pharaoh sits on a throne-like dais marked by green texture below and an architectural niche behind him. He is holding a long staff topped by a fleur-de-lis, and his expression is bearing resemblance to that of a Gothic Christian Monarch[8]. The iconography here is unmistakably Gothic as well; the styling of this scene was deliberately to elevate Jewish narrative by placing it within the most prestigious artistic idiom possible at the time.
As was hinted at before, the main purpose of this Haggadah was to translate Jewish narratives and values into a Christian and contemporary idiom that could act as a political statement while adhering to the requirements of practising the religion, such as ensuring the Haggaddah followed the chronological biblical story. While Jewish patronage was deeply engaged in aesthetic reworkings, they actively avoided specific iconographic details, hints, and allusions, and instead reflected Christian dogma and typological beliefs. The process constitutes the translation of Christian compositions into a distinctly Jewish pictorial language. When a biblical scene was crucial to the Jewish narrative but already bore known Christological meaning, Jewish artists avoided it altogether. For example, The Golden Haggadah’s depiction of the Binding of Isaac differs completely from Christian typology, even though the events are common to both religious texts (Figure 4). In Christian art, such as in the 4th-century sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Isaac is often portrayed as a prefiguration or type of Christ’s sacrifice. To avoid this connotation, Isaac is instead bound to the ground so that there is no altar at all (seen in the upper right quadrant of Figure 4). In Figure 5, the Tower of Babel is depicted as a large, multi-tiered tower following a common Christian compositional scheme[9]. Translating this model into a Jewish idiom, the artists incorporated a distinctive midrashic interpolation by illustrating the people killing each other at the construction site, alongside the building activity[10]. This visual addition served to transform the borrowed composition into a Jewish medium for visual communication with Jewish spectators. Adding on, in the Creation depictions, while Christian sources depict the Creator as an anthropomorphic figure, the Jewish version in the Golden Haggadah omits this entirely, still citing the Second Commandment. The manuscript also omits the meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek because it was understood by Christian theology that Melchizedek is a preconfiguration for Christ, making the topic too closely tied with Christological meaning. Jewish artists' knowledge of which elements were tied to other theological beliefs came from Jewish polemic writings produced primarily in Provence and Iberia between the 12th and 15th centuries[11]. This is not only redefining Jewish visual elements but also safeguarding Jewish spectators and artists from unwittingly committing idolatry.
The Golden Haggadah is just one example of cultural translation between Jews and other cultures. By adopting the Gothic visual idioms of their environment, 14th-century manuscript illuminators redefined Jewish artistic tradition, demonstrating that cultural borrowing did not necessitate religious assimilation. Adopting the distinction between religious and educational texts gave artists more freedom to interact and learn from other artists. Depicting figures such as Moses and Pharaoh in a Iberian Christian manner exemplifies this relationship and shows how Jewish figures were also elevated in this relationship. However, Jewish arguably artists still kept Jewish beliefs separate by removing elements that could be associated with Christological significance. Through these positions, Jewish artists maintained religious identity while engaging constructively with surrounding visual culture.
Bibliography
Foster, Elisa. "The Golden Haggadah." In Smarthistory. August 8, 2015. Accessed November 16, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/the-golden-haggadah/.
Hammerman, Jessica and Dr. Shaina Hammerman. "Jewish history to the middle ages." In Smarthistory. August 8, 2015. Accessed November 16, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/jewish-history-to-the-middle-ages/.
Gutmann, Joseph. “On Biblical Legends in Medieval Art.” Artibus et Historiae 19, no. 38 (1998): 137–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/1483588.
Kogman-Appel, Katrin. “Coping with Christian Pictorial Sources: What Did Jewish Miniaturists Not Paint?” Speculum 75, no. 4 (2000): 816–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903543.
Kogman-Appel, Katrin. “Jewish Art and Non-Jewish Culture: The Dynamics of Artistic Borrowing in Medieval Hebrew Manuscript Illumination.” Jewish History 15, no. 3 (2001): 187–234. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20101449.
The Kehot Chumash. Los Angeles: Chabad House Publications. Accessed April 30, 2026. https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.20.3.
Appendix
1Joseph Gutmann, “On Biblical Legends in Medieval Art,” Artibus et Historiae 19, no. 38 (1998): 137–42, https://doi.org/10.2307/1483588
2For example, scholars have looked at the Bible of Saint Louis as a clear example of a Gothic Christian illuminated manuscript.
3Katrin Kogman-Appel, “Coping with Christian Pictorial Sources: What Did Jewish Miniaturists Not Paint?” Speculum 75, no. 4 (2000): 816–58, https://doi.org/10.2307/2903543.
4Exodus 20:3-6, The Kehot Chumash, Sefaria, accessed April 30, 2026, https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.20.3?ven=english|The_Kehot_Chumash%3B_Chabad_House_Publications,_Los_Angeles&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
5Ibid, 3.
6Katrin Kogman-Appel, “Jewish Art and Non-Jewish Culture: The Dynamics of Artistic Borrowing in Medieval Hebrew Manuscript Illumination,” Jewish History 15, no. 3 (2001): 187–234, httpPharaohs://doi.org/10.2307/20101449
7Foster, “The Golden Haggadah”.
8Ibid.
9Kogman-Appel, “Coping with Christian Pictorial Sources”.
10Midrashic refers to the rabbinic method of interpreting, expounding, and embellishing Hebrew Biblical texts to uncover deeper meanings, fill narrative gaps, or derive law.
11Ibid.
Photography
Eroding Silence
Eroding Silence is a black-and-white photographic series centering on a Black male figure wearing a sculptural head and shoulder piece constructed from black zip ties made by the photographer. Inspired by the forms of African warrior jewelry which were historically worn as symbols of protection and strength, the construction as well as the photography and digital manipulation reimagines it as a cage that encloses the head, reflecting on the often-unspoken realities of sexual violence experienced by Black men and the social conditions that silence or confine these experiences for minority groups. Drawing conceptual influence from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the work considers how structures meant to signify dignity and resilience can become systems that restrict voice, movement, and recognition. The adornment becomes both armor and confinement, echoing the tension between protection and captivity.
Across the series, the photographs begin intact and slowly deteriorate through digital manipulation, mirroring a psychological erosion of purpose and autonomy. As the structure tightens around the body, the figure becomes increasingly obscured by distortion and fragmentation, leading to an immediate negative print release from the sexual trauma and a confrontation to these systematic forms of oppression.
Special mentions for Individual Photographs from Series
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Esteban Viale
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See workDual Degree in Business Administration & International Relations
Video
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“Residual Image”
Description of the Work
This artwork explores how personal images change once they pass through digital systems of fragmentation and reconstruction. The original photograph, taken by the artist, shows a young woman lying on the floor holding a flower- a quiet, intimate moment that feels both calm and slightly distant. Using Adobe Photoshop, the image was intentionally reduced into a low-resolution pixel structure, creating a contrast between emotional closeness and digital processing.
A layered grid was then built over the photograph. The first layer introduced a rigid pixel matrix inspired by image compression and distorted digital memory. A second layer of cross-patterned forms was added using Photoshop’s “Overlay” blending mode, allowing the marks to absorb and react to the colours beneath them instead of remaining fixed or uniform. This created subtle shifts in tone and texture across the image, transforming the photograph into something that sits between portrait, textile, and coded surface.
The work reflects on how technology reshapes the way we store, remember, and experience personal moments. Even through fragmentation and abstraction, the human presence in the image remains visible, suggesting that intimacy and emotion can persist within increasingly digital forms of representation.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop
Original photography: Captured by the artist
