THE DEPICTION OF JEWS IN SELECTED WORKS BY PAOLO UCCELLO AND PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

Abstract

The purpose of this Capstone Project is to investigate the depiction of Jewish peoples in the art of artists Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca, fifteenth-century painters in Italy. Many Italian city states could not function without their Jewish populations, and yet Jews were persecuted, ridiculed, segregated from the general Catholic population, and vilified in the religious art of the period. The project will focus on two works: The Miracle of the Profaned Host predella by Paolo Uccello for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini at Urbino and The Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Franciscan church of San Francesco at Arezzo. The paintings will be examined to determine if they portray Jews in the stereotypical manner of the times, and what or who may have influenced the complex way Jews are depicted in these works by two renowned Italian artists of the Quattrocento.