ABSTRACT
In the past decade, following the publication of Codex Tchacos and the Gospel of Judas, biblical and literary scholars have re-evaluated the presentation of Judas’s actions and suicide in ancient texts and early literary traditions. Yet there has been no such re-evaluation of visual evidence for the representation of Judas, and specifically the treatment of his voluntary death. Although the iconography of his suicide became the most prominent among the many pejorative images of Judas that were constructed and circulated across the medieval period, the origins of the iconography remain poorly understood. We know little about when the image was created; and, owing to the nature and prominence of its role in medieval art and literature, we may assume too much about its original purpose. This chapter will explore that purpose by returning to the earliest surviving depictions of Judas’s death, examining the pictorial contexts in which they appear and for which they were developed.
