The Second Commandment, which forbids the making of “any graven image,” might suggest that Jewish art is a contradiction in terms. Yet the rich history of Judaic visual culture is inseparable from the construction of Jewish identity. In this lecture we examine some of the greatest masterworks of Jewish art, including ritual objects and manuscripts, early synagogue architecture, the ancient frescoes of Dura Europos and the mosaic floors of the Beth Alpha Synagogue, and the work of such celebrated 19th-century Jewish artists as Moritz Oppenheim and Maurycy Gottlieb, the School of Paris, and Marc Chagall.
