The Lost Mirror. Jews and Conversos in Medieval Spain

Workshop of Jan Van Eyck, The Fountain of Grace, 1440 - 1450, Museo Nacional del Prado. Copyright ©Museo Nacional del Prado

The lost mirror. Jews and conversos in medieval Spain is the first major exhibition in terms of both the number and importance of works included to reconstruct a particular medieval mirror: the portrait of Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity devised by Christians in Spain between 1285 and 1492. 

Featuring 71 works, its visual discourse illustrates how images stimulated exchanges between Christians and Jews but also their key role in disseminating the growing anti-Judaism present in Christian society. Furthermore, it reveals the use of images to encourage the conversion of the Jews and to confirm the new Christian’s sincerity. Finally, the exhibition draws attention to the creation of images and staged settings during the early years of the Inquisition.

The altar frontals from Vallbona de les Monges, The Fountain of Life by the studio of Van Eyck, and Pedro Berruguete’s altarpieces for Santo Tomás in Ávila, among many other works from the Museum’s collection, are shown alongside major loans such as the Canticles of Alfonso X the Wise (Patrimonio Nacional), the Golden Haggadah (British Library), and the Fortalitium Fidei (Bibliothèque nationale de France), accompanied by an important selection of works from around thirty churches, museums, libraries, archives and private collections in Spain and abroad.