Walk through the ancient world and you would have been surrounded by images of all kinds of beings鈥攈uman figures, animals, hybrids, and creatures that blur the line between the familiar and the fantastic. These images appeared everywhere: in streets and homes, bathhouses and synagogues, public buildings and sacred spaces. In this talk, Professor Rafael Neis explores a handful of striking examples from ancient Jewish art and asks what happens when we look at them with fresh eyes. Instead of sorting these figures into modern boxes about 鈥渉uman,鈥 鈥渁nimal,鈥 鈥渕ale,鈥 or 鈥渇emale,鈥 Neis invites us to step back and see how ancient artists and communities imagined bodies more broadly. By letting go of some of our present-day assumptions, we begin to notice new patterns and possibilities鈥攁nd gain insight into how people in the ancient world understood identity, difference, and the sacred. The result is a richer, more surprising picture of Jewish visual culture, filled with creativity, complexity, and imagination.
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