An imaginary enemy: Gentiles in medieval iconography. Mayzuls M.

Coats of arms and flags with the image of Scorpions, exotic turbans and caps, hooking noses, red hair, crimson-red, black or even blue faces, unnaturally turned poses, obscene gestures and malicious and aggressive grimaces. In the art of the medieval West, many signs were used that marked and denounced Gentiles (Jews, Muslims and Gentiles), heretics, other sinners and outcasts. All of them were correlated with the “father of lies” - the devil, as well as with each other, as if they were part of the global conspiracy against the Christian society. The pagan -scanners sometimes represented in the Jewish caps and with pseudo -Jewish inscriptions on clothes, the Jews - of Muslim turban, and Muslims were accused of worshiping idols and calling for the ancient Roman gods. In the new book, Medieval Mikhail Mayzuls shows how from the XII to the XVI century. The image of the enemy was constructed, as in the space of images and on the streets of cities, stigmatization mechanisms worked and as techniques that arose in the Middle Ages went into pamphlets, posters and caricature of the new time.