Ma'ayan Meder

The Levantine Judith: Reconstructing Florentine Identity for
Jewish Women under Medici Rule

Abstract

A region geographically understood today as the Eastern Mediterranean and known for its wide-ranging linguistic influence, The Levant is considered
the original home of Jewish migrants from Sefarad, or Spain. After Spanish expulsion in 1492, some Sephardic Jewish communities relocated to Italy, where they shook hands with oppression and assimilation for partial citizenship. This thesis engages a Renaissance lamp of Levantine make that bears the likeness of Judith, a Medicean model of female identity and Florence culture. Analyzing the lamp in relation to artistic renditions of Judith created
for Florence’s Christian community reveals the complexities of Jewish-Florentine national identity for Sephardic migrant women during the latter-half
of the cinquecento.