It goes without saying that the Hebrew Bible exerted a tremendous impact upon religious culture throughout the course of history. Commentators of various faiths have offered new readings of this revered text.

This course focuses upon interpretations by such famous artists as Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and other early modern masters. We will investigate varied media from the Renaissance through the Age of the Baroque (1400-1700), including such Jewish art as illustrated marriage contracts, Purim scrolls, Torah curtains, and other objects of material culture. We will study illustrated Bibles, prints, and paintings of such heroic and "evil' biblical women as Eve, Sarah, Bathsheba, Susannah, and Judith, which will be a particular emphasis of the course.

Works of art will be analyzed in relation to the texts and commentaries of the Hebrew Bible. Students will compare the treatment of the same biblical subject as it appears in the art of Italy, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Eastern Europe.

The course will focus upon such themes as: Adam and Eve; Abraham and Isaac; Jacob; Joseph; David; Solomon and Sheba; the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; and many female biblical figures.

Biblical narratives were variously viewed as divine providence; moral examples; prophesies of a messianic age, or as foreshadowing Christianity; and such heroes of the Hebrew Bible as David and Esther were linked with powerful, contemporary rulers.

All of the works of art considered in this course will be investigated within the religious and political contexts of the period in which they were created.

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