Evidence for the material culture of ancient Israel comes mostly from artifacts and archaeology and attests to the influence of the great empires that surrounded Israel.
The Christian parable of the prodigal son, from Luke 15:11–12, was a favorite subject of artists from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. A son squanders his inheritance and is reduced to…
Among Catherine da Costa’s surviving paintings is the full-length portrait of her father, Dr. Fernando Mendes (1647–1724). Mendes was a prominent Jewish physician, who attended both King Charles II…
Depicted in a relief from Sennacherib’s Palace in Nineveh, these musicians, followed by an Assyrian soldier, hold stringed instruments against their chests, plucking the strings as they walk. Dressed…