In this, the 32nd Walter Neurath Memorial Lecture, Julius derives a Jewish aesthetic from the Second Commandment and identifies and celebrates those Jewish works of art which, by their irony, subvert artistic and politic idolatry.

'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth' - Exodus 20:4 In this ground-breaking book Anthony Julius derives a Jewish aesthetic from the Second Commandment. The prohibition of idolatry is not just an injunction against idol worshipping, but a call to idol breaking; it promotes a creative iconoclasm which exposes through irony inflated claims about art. Julius identifies and celebrates those Jewish works of art which by their irony subvert artistic and politic idolatry. Idolizing Pictures is a manifesto for Jewish art.