In the meantime I have looked up Peter Dinzelbacher, _Judastraditionen_
Wien: Selbstverlag des O"sterreichischen Museums fu"r Volkskunde, 1977 (=
Raabser Ma"rchen-Reihe, 2), who deals with this motif on p.30. His earliest
example is a Byzantine 10th century email, for which he refers to Maurice
Vloberc, _L'eucharistie dans l'art_, I, Grenoble & Paris 1946, p.81. In
addition he adduces:
Judas hiding a fish behind his back:
- altar of Klosterneuburg, by Nicolas of Verdun, 1181, ref. Hanna Jursch,
"Judas Ischarioth in der Kunst", in _Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der
Friedrich Schiller-Universita"t Jena 2 (1952/53), Gesellschafts- und
sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe (5), p.101ss., esp. p.102s.
- An English stained glass, ref. H. Read et al., _English stained glass_,
London 1960, picture no. 82
Judas hiding a fish under the table:
- high altar of the city church of Nieder-Wildungen, by Konrad of Soest,
1404, ref. Kurt Steinbart, _Konrad von Soest_, Wien 1946, picture no. 19;
Carl Georg Heise, _Norddeutsche Malerei_, Leipzig 1918, picture no. 14;
Dinzelbacher, picture no. 3
Judas hiding a fish under the table and grapping a second fish from the
table to add it to the first:
- Stained glass, Bourges, 13th cent., ref. Wilhelm Porte, _Judas Ischarioth
in der bildenden Kunst_, Diss. Jena (Berlin) 1883, p.54
Jesus handing the fish to Judas:
- l.c. (Porte?) and Louis Re/au, _Iconographie de l'art chre/tien_, II.2,
Paris 1957, p.414
Dinzelbacher points out that it is difficult to explain this motif and
refers to medieval sources (a mystery play of the passion of St. Genoveva
and a passion "selon Gamaliel", ref. Re/au as quoted above and Jacques
Robert Breitenbucher, _Die Judasgestalt in den Passionsspielen_, Diss. Ohio
SU, 1934, p.39s.) explaining the theft of the fish as an expression of
Judas' greediness or gluttony. Yet he also suggests the possibility that
the fish had originally been introduced into representations of the LS
because of its symbolic meaning as a figure of Christ, and was then mis- or
reinterpreted by using it as one of the elements appropriate for
characterizing the greediness/gluttony of Judas. Dinzelbacher gives no
references for representations of the LS where the fish occurs without
direct relation to Judas.
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