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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Dear Rabia,

I realize that your query is about textual rather than visual interpretations, but-- looking closely at the Albertina drawing, I see a slight gap between the lips of Jesus and Judas. This image would then fit into your category of "close, looking at one another, as if about to kiss on the mouth, or just having pulled apart". This is the same way that the scene is depicted on some fourteenth-century ivories. See one example in my archive, from the first half of the fourteenth century: http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/PassionChrist.html row 3 image 4. The major difference between this and the Dürer image is not the distance between the figures, but rather the angle from which we see them. For more examples, see http://www.gothicivories.courtauld.ac.uk/ where you can do a quick search for 'Judas kiss' and get 425 photos.

best,
Genevra

On 2/15/2013 8:59 PM, Gregory, Rabia wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite">medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear all,

I am currently hunting references to the kiss between Jesus and Judasand would appreciate your assistance.  I am particularly interested in literary accounts which specify whether or not Judas and Jesus kissed on the lips/mouth.  My interest in this iconography began with a commentary on the Song of Songs by the German layman Brun von Schönebeck, which contrasts the kiss on the lips in the biblical text with Judas's false kiss on the cheek, and bydepictions of the Arrest as an intimate kiss on the lips by


Albrecht Dürer

 - the earliest example is his 1503 ink drawing from the Green Passion (Albertina Inv.


3085

http://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/?id=tms_39298 ) but this kiss on the lips is repeated in the Small Passion facing a Latin verse insisting that Judas did not actually kiss Christ at all!

 

I'm no art historian, but from what I've seen, most authors and artists present the kiss as either on the cheek or  the pair looking at one another or being pulled apart. There is a subset of images which portray the two as close, looking at one anothe, as if about to kiss on the mouth, or just having pulled apart, but the kiss on the mouth seems very uncommon. At this point in my research, I have consulted medieval and patristic commentaries on Mark, Matthew, and the Song of Songs, the Glossa Ordinaria on the relevant passages, read a few passion sequences and Ludolf of Saxony's Life of Christ, as well as browsing through as many digitized versions of the kiss as the internet has revealed, but have not yet found much precedent for the kiss on the mouth between Jesus and Judas. I am about to start reading through MHG sermons dating to easterweek. So far, most authors leave the manner of kissing unaddressed, or describe it as a kiss on the cheek or a kiss blocked by Judas's beard. Few other artists have repeated the kiss on the lips-- most of those are imitators of AD himself, and many of his imitators, including Caravaggio, rewrite the kiss.

 

Does anyone perhaps have references to the kiss as either explicitly a kiss on the cheek or a kiss on the lips in medieval sermons or biblical commentaries? I am particularly interestd in sources that might have been known to Dürer, or in examples which might help explain the significane of a kiss on the lips in the context of betrayal.  I understand that the Greek text in Mark (and repeated in Matthew) uses kataphilew, which might be read as an intensifier, and it is plausible that the kiss on the lips reflects some sort of familiarity with the Greek text amont Nuremburg humanists, but this is just wild speculation so far. Any leads would be most welcome!

Thanks so much

-Rabia

 
~*~*~*~*~
Rabia Gregory
Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Women's and Gender Studies
University of Missouri - Columbia
221 F Arts & Science Bldg.
Columbia, MO 65211
(573) 882-5505
Fax: (573) 882-4495
 

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