Samson Wertheimer (1658–1724): An Icon in Jewish Art and History

• In Event: Jewish Icons: The Image of Early Modern Court Jews in Jewish History and Art

Abstract

In Jewish history and art, the image of the Viennese Jewish court factor Samson Wertheimer (1658–1724) is transmitted through hagiographies and academic accounts of his life and legacy as well as through visual representations. Paintings, engravings, and pictures have been created since c. 1700. All these sources depict Wertheimer as an influential banker, Jewish intercessor (shtadlan), and benefactor of European Jewry and the Jews of the Holy Land, and thus present him as a Jewish icon of the eighteenth century. Similar biographies and stories as well as images exist for other European Court Jews and famous rabbis of the early modern era. These textual and visual images reflect how Jewish historians and artists, particularly since the nineteenth century, saw earlier periods; they thereby helped to create a narrative of Jewish icons in history and art. More recently, scholars have shown how patronage, power, and art were intertwined in the early modern era and how these visual and conceptual sources and their intersections affect our image of this time period even today.
This paper will show how the images of Samson Wertheimer, both textual and visual, made him a Jewish icon of the early modern era. It will present emblematic images of Wertheimer, starting with a painting dated c. 1700 that was widely printed in the nineteenth century, and is privately owned today. On the basis of this portrait and the first biography (of Wertheimer) by David Kaufmann (1852–1899), published in 1888, another painting was produced at the end of the nineteenth century. For the first time, this painting of Wertheimer shows him with an imperial chain of grace. By comparing the Wertheimer images with the images of other Court Jews and rabbis of the time, the paper will analyze the larger context of Wertheimer’s representation, particularly in regard to his symbolic attributes and clothes. By tracing the process of Samson Wertheimer’s iconization, this paper will contribute to the debate about “Jewish art in history” and “Jewish history in art.”

Author

• Mirjam Thulin, Leibniz Institute of European History