“A Beautiful Man?” Joseph and the Character of Masculinity

in Judaism and Islam

Global Day of Jewish LearningNovember 12, 2017

Lori LefkovitzNortheastern University

Ivory Girls“Beauty is a Citation”

Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

David by Michelangelo, Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, 1501-1504

Bathsheba by John William

Godward, ca. 1905. Rebekah at the Well, Michael Deas

Queen Esther Edwin Longsden Long, 1829-1891

Judith with the head of Holofernes

by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, second half of 17th century

Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca in IvanhoeJewish Beauty

A doctor, a lawyer, a linguist, a sorceress, a Jewess

Wilhelm Von Schadow (1798-1862) Jacob and the Cloak Stained with Blood

Joseph in Potiphar's house: Potiphar's wife trying to seduce JosephFlemish tapestry (unknown creator) 1540-1560

Joseph in Potiphar's house: Potiphar's wife trying to seduce Joseph 1540-60

Joseph in Potiphar's house: Potiphar's wife trying to seduce Joseph17th century Flemish textile

Unknown (French) 16th centuryPlate with Joseph Fleeing Potiphar's Wife

Designed by Agnolo Bronzino and collaborators, woven in the workshop of Nicolas Karcher Joseph Flees from Potiphar's Wife, from the Story of Joseph 1548

Lionello Spada (1567-1622)

Circle of: By or close to, Balthasar Griessmann, Wasserburg (1620-1706)Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, by Guido Reni 1630

Guercino 17th centuryJoseph and Potiphar's Wife

Rembrandt 1634

Carlo Cignani 1680

Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985)Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar

Zuleika Ceremony Art painting on tiles of Mo'avin-Almamalik tekyeh, Kermanshah

A miniature Mughal painting depicting the tale of Yusuf and Zulaikha

Zuleika Persian Rug

Zuleika supplicating Joseph. Egyptian women can’t resist his beauty

Persian rug

Yusuf u Zulaykha (1595) The marriage of Yusuf and Zulaykha

Ephraem SyrusLife of Joseph, Interpreting Pharaoh’s Dreams

Ephraem Syrus, 17th centuryLife of Joseph, Joseph marriage to Asnath

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat Donny Osmond

Anthony Fedorov

Yusuf the Prophet, Shia TV

Shiatv Yusuf the Prophet