Biblical subjects

For more than a thousand years the Bible was the most important source for European art. From the Good Shepherd of the catacombs to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Swedish painted wall hangings and hidden Christian images in Japan, the biblical stories have been interpreted in countless ways.

• Catacombs and sarcophagi: the first Christian images
• Byzantium: mosaics and icons
• Giotto and the narratives of the Gothic
• The Nordic countries: wall paintings, Madonnas and painted hangings
• Ghent, Isenheim and Dürer’s Apocalypse
• Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael
• Baroque light: Caravaggio, Artemisia and Rembrandt
• From Thorvaldsen’s Christ to Chagall’s Crucifixion
• Christianity in China and Japan