Popular imagination of how Jews were visually portrayed by non-Jews in different periods of their interrelationship often evokes negative associations. As antisemitic caricatures have been so commonly reproduced they have successfully engraved in the minds and imaginations of many a revolting, stereotypical image, overshadowing depictions of a different nature. Rembrandt is usually cited as one outstanding example of a major artist who portrayed Jewish life and biblical themes in an unbiased manner, thus attracting the attention of scholars and laymen alike. But such themes were taken up by other artists too, and the issue of how Jews were portrayed is much more intricate than a mere division between positive and negative images. Indeed, in Rembrandt's day and during the following decades, Dutch, German, and Italian artists of varying stature showed a keen interest in Jewish religious life and practice, and perceptively documented it in a variety of works and styles, leaving behind a rich treasure-house of visual representations with many observations of contemporary Jewish life, seldom fettered by negative intent. Depictions of synagogues, Jewish ceremonies in the public and private sphere, and Jewish encounters with non-Jews hang beside portraits of individuals, rabbis and lay people, offering an opportunity to better comprehend the social and cultural ambience of the respective communities. Certainly these representations, to be reproduced in various media in the following generations, were not created in a vacuum but as a product of several forces, not least of which were the growing anthropological interest in foreign cultures and religions, the spreading of Christian Hebraism, and the flourishing of scientific exploration, which granted priority of place to direct observation. Moreover, such representations did not completely replace recurrent symbolic depictions of Jews, common in the Middle Ages, which were bent on portraying Jews and Judaism in a most unfavourable guise. All told, western and central Europe witnessed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries an unprecedented visual concern with Jewish manners and customs, challenging any simplistic categorization of a non-Jewish depiction of Jewish life in these countries.