Julia Biggs

I am an Art Historian based in Cambridgeshire.

I graduated with first-class honours in Theological and Religious Studies from Trinity College, Cambridge, where my main research interests centred on Christian art and material culture, questions of taste (why the notion of taste is disabling in our contact with art), and the role of the arts in Holocaust remembrance. Recently a Guest Lecturer for Cambridge University on the representation of Jews in the Italian Renaissance Courts, specifically Urbino, Mantua, and Ferrara (examining how Renaissance paintings became part of a policy of tolerance that deflected violence to a symbolic status), I am currently researching the depiction of Jewish figures in Venetian narrative art.

My particular area of interest is the painting, sculpture, and to a lesser extent, architecture of the Italian Renaissance, with a strong emphasis on image-making, artistic patronage (exploring less frequently examined topics such as female patronage), and the study of Classical Mythology and symbolism. I enjoy organising private lectures for adults and leading informal art history study visits to museums and galleries.

I have been a tutor with the Open College of the Arts since 2008 on its Understanding Art 1 and 2 courses, working with students of varying ages and abilities to develop their confidence and ability in looking productively at artefacts as material objects within a historical and sociological context. Examining themes such as style and technique, and covering a wide range of periods and schools, the courses help foster visual sensitivity, competence in formal analysis, and with tutorial support, focus on the interpretation and evaluation of primary sources/appropriate methodologies.

In addition to Art History, I also tutor in History and Religious Studies, and I am an examiner in English.