Christian art orientalized Israelites but never Jesus

Evidence

The essence of religious orientalism is revealed by the fact that, in Christian art, most Israelites can typically be shown as Muslims, but not Jesus Christ. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 158 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The above discussion shows that the choice of whom to represent as oriental in orientalist biblical art is rule-governed, and that its underlying rules remain the same even as its forms change historically, reflecting different geopolitical and ideological relations between the Christian and the Muslim worlds. I suggest that these underlying rules can be described in terms of two very simple principles, which together can generate all the varied choices that artists have made throughout the history of the type of representation we are discussing. One concerns the exceptional status of Jesus, and the other presents a hierarchy of choices concerning how to represent the rest of biblical characters. The first is the Occidental Jesus Rule. As has been stated before, Jesus is rarely portrayed with oriental headdress, that is, with a turban or kaffiyeh, in Christian biblical art. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 223 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Gérôme’s Flight from Egypt pictures an angel leading Joseph and Mary, dressed like Bedouin, in the desert. In his Entry of Christ to Jerusalem (1890), a blond Jesus approaches on a white donkey, accompanied by another blond male and a white donkey colt. The welcoming party is led by Magdalene, the ex-prostitute, a richly adorned character prefiguring the artist’s Woman of Cairo (1897). Behind Magdalene, a little hard to discern in the shade of the oscuro part of the painting, several male Jews prostrate themselves to the Son of God in the Muslim fashion. What clearer image could there be of the overlap between Christian conversion and European expansion? The white man Jesus has here risen above his swarthy Jewish-oriental surroundings. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 208 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Holy Land was primarily imagined as a Christian land by orientalist art; The orientalist depiction of Jews in Christian art did not stem from their absence — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 827; Christian art could depict biblical Jews as Muslims but never Jesus himself — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 158 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian art could depict biblical Jews as Muslims but never Jesus himself #corroborates (0.97) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 158
• Christian biblical artists consistently refused to depict Jesus in oriental dress. #corroborates (0.96) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 223
• Orientalist painting rendered Jesus as European and Jews as oriental #corroborates (0.95) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 208
• Even ‘realistic’ painters refused to depict Jesus with Semitic features #corroborates (0.94)