Under the Inquisition, the biblical Joseph proliferated in art
On a 2019 Lisbon trip, I found great discrepancy between early modern Portuguese patrons’ aesthetic embrace of the Old Testament figure and the ways they treated their actual Jewish neighbors.
Portugal’s Jewish history is written in disappearing ink, ravaged by natural disasters like fires and earthquakes and unnatural forces, such as the Inquisition. So I was surprised that Joseph, favorite son of the biblical Jacob, adorned Portuguese royal and sacred spaces even as Jews were being expelled and massacred. I found myself face-to-face with Jo…