Jewish Symbols and Secrets: A Fifteenth-Century Spanish Carpet

329 Pages·2012·26.468 MB·English

by  Anton Felton

FeltonHBv7:HB.qxd 05/04/2012 12:33 Page 1
After a distinguished career during which he emerged as an authority on the intricacies AJ For years this brilliant fifteenth-century carpet,
of the international taxation of copyright, Anton Felton has now boldly entered what e now in the Vizcaya Museum in Florida, has
F bedazzled experts and visitors alike. In this
has aptly been termed the Spanish labyrinth. Here, in early modern times, converts to w
i totally original study of the private lives of the
Christianity known as Conversos (converted Jews) and Moriscos (converted f
ti noble family who commissioned the carpet,
Muslims) struggled to establish their place in an increasingly intolerant Catholic ees and of the humble weavers who wove it, it is
h
Spain, negotiating a labyrinth of family secrets and manoeuvres for social status and n clear that neither were Christians nor Muslims
economic power. Using a fifteenth-century carpet commissioned by the Enriquez, a th S – they were secret Jews, conversos.
In the hundred years leading up to their
Spanish noble family, as his point of departure, Felton casts a novel and revealing -
cy expulsion in 1492, hundreds of thousands of
light on artistic patronage, cultural identity and Jewish tradition in Renaissance Spain. em Jews of Spain, in the face of discrimination
n
and persecution, converted publicly, but not
ANTON FELTON Born in 1935, educated at t
Walter Denny, Professor of Art History and Adjunct Professor ub privately, to Christianity. But they left us some
University College School and University
College London, Anton Felton qualified as a of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Massachusetts ryo clues as to their dangerous secret lives. Their
artefacts, of which the Vizcaya carpet is a prime
Chartered Accountant. From 1959 he advised l
many best-selling authors on taxation and In this magisterial study Anton Felton has delved deeply into the Vizcaya carpet, one Ss example, their literature and contemporary
p accounts, as well as the records of the trials
copyright, helping to negotiate their contracts, of a distinctive group of fifteenth-century carpets handwoven in Murcia, Spain … aa of the Inquisitions and the taxes of the kings,
editing their books and archiving their records. Felton takes the reader on a fascinating voyage of discovery, visiting the history of nn reveal their compelling story.
His other passion was for carpets with Jewish i
symbols – then neglected both in carpet stud- weaving in Murcia and revealing the major role played by Jewish craftsmen in this sd The age-old symbols in the carpet, with
h their hidden messages in Judaism and in the
ies and Jewish studies. Gaining an M.Phil in specialized activity, viewed against the background of the intense and yet insecure
Jewish Studies he wrote the first book ever on Jewish–Christian interaction in medieval Spain. Drawing on a wealth of evidence, CS mysteries of Kabbalah, are analysed along
with their alternative meanings in medieval
Jewish carpets and has exhibited and lectured much of it unravelled from the iconographic content of the carpet itself, the author, ae
on them widely. Married with four children who is a recognized expert of Jewish carpets, finds a wealth of new meaning in the rpc Cmharjoisrt isaynm bmoal giisc thaen dS taIrs loafm Dica vicdu latnudre .i n Othnies
and six grandchildren he lives in Israel and con- er
justly famous Vizcaya carpet. original work its history in Judaism is traced
tinues his studies. te
from Biblical times to 1600 CE.
t
The hitherto neglected but illuminating
Professor David M. Jacobson, Buckinghamshire New University; s
role of textiles as cultural chronicles in Jewish
Editor, Palestine Exploration Quarterly
history is uncovered, as is the ancient history
of the Sephardi weavers of Spain and of
The art of weaving floor coverings precedes the history of architecture, which is why the Mediterranean from Biblical to Roman to
you are probably sitting in a rectangular room. Now, Anton Felton, an international Visigoth and on to Christian and Islamic times,
authority on the history of Jewish textiles has produced this work. It is a real thriller casting light too on the mystery of the origin of
the Mamluk carpets. Further original insights
Jacket Photo: The Vizcaya carpet, courtesy of for it reveals the true history of the Vizcaya carpet, a revered artefact of fifteenth-
are gained in the oft-debated question as to
the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Florida. century Spain. In doing so, Felton looks at the neglected but age-old role of the
the total number of Jews who converted to
Jewish weavers in the history of Mediterranean culture. In this carefully researched Christianity.
Jewish Symbols
account, powerful symbols, religious prejudice, secret lives and art are entwined to In understanding the worlds and the guarded
make a remarkable and important story. secret lives of the people who came together
to create this carpet, we now see it as an
extraordinary and beautifully encoded statement
and Secrets
Len Deighton, Author of Jewish faith and survival.
F
A
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L
T
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O
O A Fifteenth-century
VALLENTINE MITCHELL ISBN 978 0 85303 834 4 N
N
Spanish Carpet
Middlesex House 920 NE 58th Avenue
29/45 High Street Suite 300
Edgware, Middlesex Portland, OR 97213-3786
HA8 7UU, UK USA
ANTON FELTON
VALLENTINE
www.vmbooks.com VALLENTINE
MITCHELL
MITCHELL 978 0 85303 834 4
JEWISH SYMBOLS AND SECRETS

Jewish Symbols
and Secrets
A Fifteenth-century
Spanish Jewish Carpet
ANTON FELTON
VALLENTINE MITCHELL
LONDON • PORTLAND, OR
First published in 2012 by Vallentine Mitchell
Middlesex House, 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300
29/45 High Street, Edgware, Portland, Oregon,
Middlesex, HA8 7UU, UK 97213-3786 USA
www.vmbooks.com
© Anton Felton
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Felton, Anton.
Jewish symbols and secrets : a fifteenth-century Spanish
carpet.
1. Jewish rugs--Spain--History--To 1500. 2. Jewish art
and symbolism--Spain--History--To 1500. 3. Jews,
Spanish--History--To 1500. 4. Marranos--Spain--
History--To 1500. 5. Weavers--Spain--History--To 1500.
6. Sephardim--History--To 1500.
I. Title
746.7'9'0089924-dc23
978 0 85303 834 4(cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
Printed by Short Run Press Ltd, Exeter, Devon
This book is dedicated to June:
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before
My heart did leave its dwelling place
And could return no more
(after John Clare)
Oh June, my love, my darling wife
I love you more than my own life:
Fifty three years have flown so fast,
Time earned, time spent, time gone, time past,
Still love-struck now I was then –
Gladly would I you wed again.
(A.F.)

Contents
List of Plates ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Does It Really Matter? xv
PART 1. BACKGROUND HISTORIES
1.Weaving in Spain and Murcia 3
2.The Jews of Spain 11
3.The Role of Carpets in Jewish Culture 23
4.The Jewish Weavers of Spain and North Africa 33
PART 2. THE CARPETS
5.The Vizcaya Carpet 65
6.The Spanish Synagogue Carpet 71
PART 3. THE TURN OF EVENTS
7.The Enriquez 81
8.1391–1492: Action and Reaction 101
9.Where, and by whom, was the Vizcaya Carpet Woven? 129
10.‘For Things Are Never What They Seem’ 147
PART 4. THE SYMBOLS
11.Symbols 157
viii Jewish Symbols and Secrets
12.The Star of David 167
13.The Menorah and The Hamsa (The Hand) 203
14.Pomegranates and Walnuts 209
15.Birds 213
16.Sheep 219
17.Torah Arks 221
18.Other Symbols, Numerology and Orant Figures 224
PART 5. SUMMING UP
19.Conclusion 231
20.Postscript 239
Appendix: A Summary of the Main References to Stars, 241
Rosettes and Star Forms in the Text
Glossary 247
Bibliography 253
Index 271
Plates
1.Israelite ship on a seal, eighth century BCE.
2.A Spanish, possibly Jewish, weaver’s tombstone, Roman era.
3.Hebrew, Latin and Greek inscriptions on a Spanish sarcophagus, fifth–
sixth century.
4.Spanish Jewish weavers at work, Bezalel and Aholiab, fifteenth century.
5. Parokhethanging before the Ark, detail from the mosaic floor of the Beth
Shean Synagogue, sixth century.
6.Stars of David decorating the Passover table, the Barcelona Haggadah,
fourteenth century.
7.Jewish weavers in Hellenist Alexandria.
8.Jewish Egyptian weave with Star of David and menorah, eighth–ninth
century.
9.The Jewish Quarter, Murcia, 1481.
10.Copy of a Sephardi carpet, early seventeenth century.
11.The Vizcaya carpet.
12.Star-studded carpet in a fresco by Matteo di Giovanetti da Viterbo
(c.1300–68) in the Palace of the Popes, Avignon.
13.The Spanish synagogue carpet (thirteenth–fourteenth century) as
originally presented.
14.The Spanish synagogue carpet (thirteenth–fourteenth century) as
restored, post-Second World War.
15.Synagogue carpet (thirteenth–fourteenth century) as published in 1923.
16.Stars of David on the Ark, fourteenth–fifteenth century.
17.Geese or ducks guarding the Ark. Detail from the mosaic floor of the
Beth Alpha Synagogue, sixth century.
18.Draped hanging before the Ark. Detail from the mosaic floor of the Beth
Hammath Synagogue, fourth century.
19.Ark form in an Egyptian Hebrew Bible, tenth century.
20.Star of David on a tallit, identifying the designer or possibly the player,
in the ‘Book of Games’, Castile, thirteenth century.
21.Map of Granada and Murcia, sixteenth century.