Pseudo-Hebrew

Pseudo-Hebrew script on the bustier of Jan van Scorel's Maria Magdalena, 1530

Pseudo-Hebrew is the artistic use of symbols meant to appear like Hebrew script but that are not in fact Hebrew letters. ^{[1] [2] [3]} The related phenomenon of the use of actual Hebrew letters in ways that do not represent actual language may be called "nonsense Hebrew". ^[1] Gary Schwartz, an art historian, notes that the use of pseudo-Hebrew in 15th-century art is not distinctive, as other works of the time also contain pseudo-Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. ^[4]

History

In medieval European artworks, faux-Hebrew was used in paintings to identify and portray Jewish people or as a reference to Jewish people, often in a negative light. Following the Renaissance, the frequency of faux-Hebrew increased in artworks and was often used to signify its status as a Holy language for Christians. ^[5]

See also

• Faux Hebrew
• Pseudo-Kufic
• Pseudo-runes

Notes

1. Resnick 2023, pp. 81–82.
2. Schwartz 2010.
3. Menczel n.d.
4. "309 Pseudo-Semitism – Gary Schwartz Art Historian". 2010-11-22. Retrieved 2024-10-07.
5. Benner, Gabriela (2019-07-01). "El Faux-Hebreo: un alfabeto con errores". CEM - Cultura, Espaço & Memória. 2018 (9): 357–367.

Bibliography

• Benner, Gabriela (2019). "El Faux-Hebreo: un alfabeto con errores". Cultura, Espaço & Memória (9): 357–365.
• Leiman, Rivka Elitzur; Leibner, Uzi (2016). "An Amulet from Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam". Israel Exploration Journal. 66 (2): 220–231. ISSN   0021-2059. JSTOR   44474007.
• Menczel, Linda-Saskia (n.d.). "Hebrew Inscriptions in European Art of the 15th–18th Centuries — A Sign of Erudition". Academia.edu. Originally published in Romanian in Caiete de Arte și Design 8 (2020): 58–63. CEEOL   924543
• Resnick, Irven M. (2023). "'Lingua sacra et diabolica': A Survey of Medieval Christian Views of the Hebrew". In Daniel Stein Kokin (ed.). Hebrew Between Jews and Christians. De Gruyter. pp. 67–93. doi:10.1515/9783110339826-004.
• Rodov, Ilia (2013). "Script in Christian Art" . Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Brill. pp. 462–477. doi:10.1163/2212-4241_ehll_EHLL_COM_00000707.
• Schwartz, Gary (22 November 2010). "Pseudo-Semitism". Art History from Holland.
• Vera, Vicente Jara; Ávila, Carmen Sánchez (February 2017). "Four Versions of the Christus by the Massys: Deciphering the Meaning of the Letters". Religions. 8 (2): 19. doi: 10.3390/rel8020019 . ISSN   2077-1444.