Koen, all this is very new to me, I'm scrambling to understand the Christian iconography, so I'm bound to make mistakes, but I just found another connection between Synagoga as the personification of the Jewish religion and the blindfold...
The blindfold was said to have been put on Christ by the Jews (not by the Romans), so it doubles as a metaphor for the events related to the debasement and crucifixion, and at the same time (or perhaps alternately in some depictions) the "blindness" to accept the new religion. Which means it's iconographically complex and there might be subtle differences in what was meant.
I'm confused with what I've been reading. The biblical passage indicates it was those who mocked him, beat him, or spit on him who blindfolded him. Others say it was a Jew. I don't know what to trust because many people confused the Romans with the Jews in the crucifixion stories. Let me find the original passages in the Bible....
It's a bit like the problem of the people on either side of the crucifix. Sometimes it's the people who saw him after the crucifixion (e.g., the women), sometimes it's the predecessors (the women in the Jesse tree), sometimes it's Mary and St. John.
But, the fact that the crown and the blindfold are paired might be the tip-off as to which one it is (I'm not 100% sure).
The blindfold was said to have been put on Christ by the Jews (not by the Romans), so it doubles as a metaphor for the events related to the debasement and crucifixion, and at the same time (or perhaps alternately in some depictions) the "blindness" to accept the new religion. Which means it's iconographically complex and there might be subtle differences in what was meant.
I'm confused with what I've been reading. The biblical passage indicates it was those who mocked him, beat him, or spit on him who blindfolded him. Others say it was a Jew. I don't know what to trust because many people confused the Romans with the Jews in the crucifixion stories. Let me find the original passages in the Bible....
It's a bit like the problem of the people on either side of the crucifix. Sometimes it's the people who saw him after the crucifixion (e.g., the women), sometimes it's the predecessors (the women in the Jesse tree), sometimes it's Mary and St. John.
But, the fact that the crown and the blindfold are paired might be the tip-off as to which one it is (I'm not 100% sure).