Sunday, October 3rd

Time: 12 ET / 5 pm UK
Admission: $8 -

This lecture will take place virtually, via Zoom. Ticket sales will end at 10 am EDT the day of the lecture. Attendees may request a video recording AFTER the lecture takes place by emailing proof of purchase to [email protected]. Video recordings are valid for 30 days after the date of the lecture.

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The tradition of depicting Jesus as a representative of a certain profession is old as the Christian religion itself. The first images of the jobs of Christ were associated exclusively with his biography – both evangelical and apocryphal. Jesus was depicted doing household chores, as a carpenter, or as a dyer. He also went to school and played pranks, so that his Mother was called to the director. From the nineteenth century onwards, allegorical images of Jesus’ jobs also appear. With the help of the realities of medieval life, these allegories pointed out the path to the salvation of the soul.

In this lecture we will talk about why in the Middle Ages and Early Modern times Jesus was portrayed as a warrior with a sword or club; as a doctor examining a flask with a patient’s urine; as an apothecary with medicines against aboriginal sin; as a merchant with chests of jewels; as a gardener with a shovel; or as a winemaker trampling grapes. Sometimes the very body of Christ became a metaphor, and he became a piece of bacon, parchment, washing, or a mousetrap. 

All these images not only brought the divine closer to the life of people, but also showed that God is present everywhere and patronized professions.

Sergei Zotov is an historian and doctoral student at the University of Warwick (Great Britain). He is a junior researcher at the Herzog August Bibliothek (Germany). Zotov is also the author of the three recently published Russian non-fictional bestsellers on iconography.