Bible and Visual Art

Visualization of biblical narratives and characters has a long and valued history, attested to both in Jewish synagogue art (e.g., Dura Europos from the 3rd century ce) and in early Christian catacomb and funerary art (See the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies article “Early Christian Art” by Robin Jensen and Lee Jefferson). Indeed, in many centuries, the visual has been the primary mode by which ordinary Christians engaged the Bible. The legitimacy of visual art has not been uncontested, whether in Judaism, given Mosaic strictures against images (Exod 20:4; Deut 5:8), or in Christianity (e.g., the iconoclastic controversy in the East; Reformation debates over images in the West). Nonetheless, the dynamic relationship between biblical text and image is reflected in the work of artists across the centuries and into the modern period. Visual media include fresco, icon, altarpiece, sculpture, tapestry, and illumination. Much scholarly treatment of biblical art in the 19th and 20th centuries has come from art historians, whether through iconographic surveys or treatment of specific artists and artistic movements. More recently, an appreciation of visual art as scriptural exegesis (various described as “visual exegesis” and “graphic exegesis”) has been taken up by biblical scholars. This is part of a wider movement interested in biblical reception and Wirkungsgeschichte (“the history of effects” or “effective history”), which has encouraged interdisciplinary scholarship and dialogue between biblical exegetes, theologians, historians, and art historians. Global perspectives are gradually balancing the overemphasis on western European medieval and Renaissance art, while interfaith perspectives have renewed interest in Jewish art (ancient, medieval, and contemporary) and in biblical influence on Islamic art.