Time: 12 EDT / 5 pm UK
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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.