Imagine discovering a lost treasure on the wall of your dining room!

This was the good fortune of the Jesuit community in Dublin. To learn more about this  story, read Willard Spiegelman‘s “Confrontation Amid the Shadows,” in The Wall Street Journal.

Those interested in coats of armor, as exemplified by the Roman soldier in the center of the Caravaggio painting, will enjoy the Frick Collection’s current exhibition, Men in Armor, which features the portraits by El Greco (1541-1614) and Scipione Pulzone (1550-1598).

See Roberta Smith’s “Two Silent Men, Deep in Conversation” in The New York Times to learn more about this collection.

Some artists live in the shadows of their time.

The Florentine Piero di Cosimo (1461? – 1521?) took his surname from the Christian name of his teacher, Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507).  Failing to sign and date his works, he left a challenge for art historians.

He will receive considerable attention in an upcoming exhibit running from February 1 – May 3, 2015 at Washington’s National Gallery of Art: http://bit.ly/PierodiCosimo.

To learn more about Piero di Cosimo and his work, see also the story by Carol Vogel in the New York Times: http://bit.ly/Cosimo.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), recalls the spiritual beauty of medieval art.

Among them, William Holman Hunt is known especially for his painting, Light of the World, which illustrates his interpretation of the Apocalypse 3:20. Father Jason Smith recently wrote a wonderful analysis of Hunt’s painting on the Biltrix blog, which you can access here.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is currently presenting a range of Pre-Raphaelite artistry until October 26, 2014. To learn more, visit the Met online at The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy: British Art and Design.

Congratulations to Dr. Peter Schäfer, former director of Princeton University’s Program in Judaic Studies, on his recent appointment as the new director general of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

Because Dr. Schäfer is a highly respected expert in rabbinic literature and history, early Jewish mysticism, and Judaism and Christianity in antiquity, I invited him to deliver the inaugural lecture of the 60th anniversary celebration of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies last year. His thought-provoking presentation, Two Powers in Heaven? The Emergence of Binitarian Ideas in Pre-Christian Judaism, was a great success and well received by the audience.

The Institute and I wish Dr. Schäfer the best in his new role at one of the largest Jewish museums in Europe. You can learn more about the Jewish Museum Berlin at its website at http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/homepage-EN.php, including its complex historical development and details regarding its permanent exhibit, which highlights two millennia of German-Jewish history.