The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice

by Dana E. Katz

Overview

Dana E. Katz examines the Jewish ghetto of Venice as a paradox of urban space. In 1516, the Senate established the ghetto on the periphery of the city and legislated nocturnal curfews to reduce the Jews' visibility in Venice. Katz argues that it was precisely this practice of marginalization that put the ghetto on display for Christian and Jewish eyes. According to her research, early modern Venetians grounded their conceptions of the ghetto in discourses of sight. Katz's unique approach demonstrates how Venice's Jewish ghetto engaged the sensory imagination of its inhabitants in complex and contradictory ways that both shaped urban space and reshaped Christian-Jewish relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316732779
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	32 MB
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About the Author

Dana E. Katz is Joshua C. Taylor Associate Professor of Art History and Humanities at Reed College, Oregon. Her research explores representations of religious difference in early modern Italy, with a particular focus on Jewish-Christian relations. Katz is the author of The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance (2008), as well as articles in The Art Bulletin, Art History, and Jewish History.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Margins as laboratories of urban planning; 2. Enclosures as topographies of vision; 3. Windows as sites of visual disturbance; 4. Walls as boundaries of the night; Conclusion.