Christian art used costume change to mark conversion from oriental Jew to Western saint

Evidence

Elsewhere even the disciples of Jesus can be portrayed as oriental if it is a matter of contrasting them with their master. The conversionist narrative of Christianity stresses points at which the individual becomes Christian; consequently, the same individuals are sometimes shown changing their attire from oriental to occidental as an expression of their deepening link to Christ. Doré’s Bible provides a rather charming illustration. In the artist’s Ascension (fig. 8), Jesus rises to heaven while his disciples look on, dressed as “typical” Bedouin. When the Holy Spirit subsequently descends on these bereaved worshipers, the event has a very curious effect on their wardrobe. In the Descent of the Spirit (fig. 9) we see, under the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, a gathering no longer of Bedouin but of classic Western figures. Though a long beard here and there, or the central figure’s hood, may conceivably be read as “Jewish,” they do not disturb the overall reference to traditional images of saints, monks, and nuns. Problematizing Thoreau’s injunction to “beware of enterprises that require a change of clothes,” Doré represents the ultimate stage of the disciples’ Christian spiritual journey as a divestiture of headscarves and staffs. Only now do the seekers finally manage no longer to be oriental—or shall we say, no longer Jewish? — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 217

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: costume as theological statement across traditions — how artists signal spiritual transformation through wardrobe, from Doré’s Bible to contemporary cinema.
• XREF: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article’s theme of dress as identity/political signaling, here extended to religious-spiritual transformation.