Resumen de Iconoclasmes et malentendus. Une image méconnue du Sacrilège de Cambron
The writer identifies the theme of a painting in the collections of the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, France, as a Sacrilège de Cambron. Since 1982–83, this work has been considered to be an allegorical representation that is entirely exceptional in the iconoclasm of the 16th century, showing the two great enemies that threatened Christian art: Muslims and Protestants. However, various anomalies in the work suggest that this identification is incorrect. This is is not an allegorical work but a narrative painting with historic aims, illustrating a medieval legend with strongly anti-Semitic connotations. This legend is associated with the Cistercian abbey of Notre Dame de Cambron in Belgium, which boasted a holy picture that had become miraculous after being mutilated by a Jew. The writer relates the legend and situates the Douai panel in the context of traditional representations of the Cambron legend. He concludes by discussing how and why the work came to be misidentified.
