As a Jewish boy, Jesus was circumcised eight days after his birth (Luke 2:21). Typically, Medieval and Renaissance images of this event treat it as a type of the Eucharist, with the baby posed on a small altar. In the first picture at right he even stands on a
paten.
a gold or silver plate used for holding the bread during the Eucharist
The circumciser will be pictured as a Temple priest, often wearing an episcopal mitre or the crown of Aaron
(example),
although the historical fact is that boys in Jesus' time were circumcised at home by the father or mother.1 The Eucharistic typology appears to be a feature only of images, not of patristic commentary. A few exegetes relate the circumcision to Baptism, but none that I have encountered says anything specifically about the Eucharist.2
After the Renaissance some Circumcision images strive to be more historical. In a 1717 fresco in Palermo, for example, the altar becomes a writing stand for a scribe on the left of the main action, the scene is outside the Temple (as it would have had to be in ancient times), and the priest's "holy crown" is inscribed with the sacred letters specified in Exodus 28:36-7. Some images will import details from the medieval Jewish brit milah ritual (as in the second picture at right). In Garofalo's Circumcision of Christ, for example, one congregant carries the customary candle, Joseph holds the wine vessel, and the circumciser wears a prayer shawl.3 A neo-medieval high relief from 1895 is another example with candle, prayer shawl, and wine. Sometimes a Circumcision image will include a basket of doves, as in the first picture at right. The doves can lead some viewers, and even some art historians, to confuse the subject with the Presentation in the Temple. In fact, the doves are present at the circumcision in the influential Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, chapter 15.
Prepared 2015-12-11 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University.
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SHOWN ABOVE
A predella panel from the Triptych of the Madonna and Child, Poreč Basilica, Croatia. See the description page. OTHER IMAGES ![]() In this early baroque painting of the Circumcision the baby is on a dish shaped like the paten on which the host is placed during the Mass, and on one end of the altar is a ritual book on a stand, just as there used to be at Mass. The basket of doves held by the woman on the far left is mentioned in Pseudo-Matthew's account. The candle is a feature of circumcisions in medieval Jewry. See the description page. ![]() A Jewish manuscript with a typical brit mihal. The baby lies on the lap of a man in a chair. The men on the right hold a candle and a small pitcher of wine. Source: Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons.
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