Since the late 19th century, modern art and literature have repeatedly referred to a factual-fictional ensemble called Paolo Uccello. A highlight of this relationship are several texts by Antonin Artaud, based on a ‚vie imaginaire‘ of the Renaissance painter by Marcel Schwob (1895). When first published (1926), the poetic prose ‚Uccello, le poil‘ was accompanied by a photograph of a core scene from the painter’s work ‚The miracle of the desecrated host‘. On the detour via Paolo Uccello, artists/intellectuals, the Jews, and the suffering from pain and anxiety are identified, and artistic production is closely linked to the theme of desecration.