German-Jewish painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim’s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, thought to be lost for over a century, was recently rediscovered and then auctioned by Sotheby’s at their annual Judaica sale. Maya Benton details the controversial episode behind the art:
The painting, lost for more than a century, depicts the notorious case of Edgardo Mortara, a 6-year-old Italian Jewish boy seized by church authorities from his family’s home in Bologna in 1858, based on a rumor that he had been baptized by the family’s illiterate gentile servant girl.
If baptized, the boy would have to be considered a Catholic in the eyes of the church and would no longer be allowed to remain in the home of his Jewish family. Such unauthorized conversions of Jewish children were not uncommon in the papal states. Despite the family’s desperate pleas and protestations, little Edgardo was brought to a monastery in Rome, taken in by the pope, and raised as a Catholic. When he grew up, he became a priest.
The kidnapping of this boy, and his family’s tireless efforts to lobby the Vatican for his return, became a source of international outrage and controversy, galvanizing Jewish leaders, including Moses Montefiore, the Rothschilds, and rabbis throughout America and Europe, who lobbied the pope for Mortara’s return. The case became an international scandal with far-reaching political ramifications.
In an interview, David Kertzer, author of a book on the kidnapping, highlights the impact it had on church-state relations in Europe, especially Italy:
In Italy—well, I wouldn’t say that if not for the Mortara case there would still be papal states today—but the end of the papal states was a matter of convincing the various powers that be that this was an anachronism that could no longer be propped up. There was no more important figure in all of this than Napoleon III, because it was through his intervention, in 1859, that the Kingdom of Italy took shape. He had previously been the pope’s big protector. Indeed, he brought him back to power in 1849, even though personally he had his own anti-clerical past. But I think we have evidence that the Mortara case, which Napoleon III was well aware of, and in which he did indeed intervene, really made him feel that the papal states could no longer survive in the modern world and that he should not be propping them up. He had many other considerations, but the fact is that [the Mortara case] was one of them, and it’s remarkable that this totally unknown 6-year-old Jewish child in Bologna would play this role.
Update from a reader:
The kidnapping became an international incident because of a confluence of events. Jews were emancipated from European Ghettos during the 1840s and early 1850s at the time Europe was democratizing. Paul Reuter, a Jewish Englishman, invented the news wire in 1851. By the time of the kidnapping, 1858, newspapers, including Jewish papers – were being fed by a wire service offering international news. Denouncing the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara became a way for world leaders to emphasize their commitment to democracy and human rights. Might also be the first example of worldwide Jewry exercising any kind of political influence.
And a noble cause that was.
(Image of The Kidnapping of the Mortara Child by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, via Sotheby’s)
The Dish 