The good, the bad and the forgotten: biblical women in the visual arts

This course will look at the reception of the stories of biblical women in the visual arts, using a variety of tools from narratology, feminist interpretation, sociology, politics and visual exegesis. We will look a number of biblical texts where women appear as central or marginal and will examine the ways in which their story is depicted. We will look at the ways in which paintings will sometimes fill a gap in the story, or indeed diverge from its biblical model. The range of paintings will range from the medieval period, passing through the Renaissance to contemporary art.