About this talk

Some of the greatest works of art - be it by Bosch, Dürer, Michelangelo, Magritte or Chagall just to name a few - share a common denominator: they relate to stories from the Tanakh (the Old Testament). This unique text, which earned the Jewish People its name of "the People of the Book", has been the greatest source of inspiration for major masterpieces of Western Art. So much so, that when we enter the best museums of the world, it is as if we plunge between the pages of the Bible, and it takes a certain skill to hear the voices of these paintings, that dialogue with us over the centuries.

Our encounter with Victoria Atlas will allow us to delve into those masterpieces that reflect on the three stories of the beginning of humankind (would you believe that! the humans were granted three starts in the Bible). And we'll discover that even though the stories are, apparently, the same, their understanding and representation by the great painters is different, depending on the historical, national and personal experience of the master.

About Victoria

Victoria Atlas is an expert in Western Art History and in the Medieval Jewish History of Spain. She is an assistant professor at the Institute of Biblical and Ancient East Studies (Madrid), specialising in the Old Testament in Art. She is also a licenced guide for Spain, guiding in all the museums and palaces of Madrid, Escorial and Toledo, as well as in the Historical Synagogue of Madrid. As a mother of a 5 y.o. boy, over the last years she has also been specialising in teaching history of art to the youngsters in a funny and playful way both in schools and through adapted tours to museums.