Oriental visual representation in Christian art was relational, not inherently disparaging

Evidence

A different message is encoded in the medieval example from the Limbourg Brothers’ Très Riches Heures, where Joseph is first shown with a peaked turban in the Nativity (fig. 4), but then bears a head of long, golden Nordic hair in the Adoration of the Magi (fig. 10). Here the intent is not to represent a religious conversion, but more simply a contrast. Joseph belonged to the generation before Christ, and in contrast to Christ remained a representative of the Old Testament. Church exegesis traditionally points out that he was extremely faithful to Jewish law, following its commandments meticulously. Indeed, in the case of the redemption of the newborn, a ritual act that could be satisfied by presenting a priest with the means to offer a sacrifice, Joseph went beyond the call of duty and presented the baby Jesus to the high priest at the Temple. His role in the New Testament narrative is that of forging a link between the Old Testament and the New. That he, the paragon of religious responsibility, can be pictured as an oriental (indeed, medieval art often pictures him with a “Jewish hat”) proves that it is a mistake to equate oriental representation with a disparaging attitude on the part of the artist: Joseph was, in Christian terms, definitely a “good guy.” What we see here, rather, is evidence that oriental representation was relative. In the case of Doré’s Bible the disciples are shown as no longer oriental when they are filled with the Holy Spirit. In the case of the Limbourg Brothers’ manuscript, Joseph, standing for the Old Testament, is shown as oriental in contrast with Christ, but he is shown as occidental in contrast to the Magi and their retinue. His golden locks contrast with the turbans of the visitors from the East. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 221

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The key insight — that orientalizing depiction is a relative relational marker rather than a fixed judgment — overturns the standard assumption that oriental representation in art always signals contempt. Dense with implications about how visual codes index identity.
• XREF: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article: dress-as-signifying-system, but extends it — the same figure (Joseph) can be oriental or occidental depending purely on whom he is contrasted against. — connects to: Latin American religious art naturalized the baroque by intermingling autochthonous elements into it — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 430