Images of Jesus
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There are no undisputed historical images of Jesus. There is no reliable evidence that a surviving portrait of him exists, or even ever existed. Nonetheless, countless illustrations of what Jesus may have looked like exist, the most common being Christian icons. Images flourished in Medieval art. Most surviving images of Jesus have in common a number of appearance traits which are now almost universally associated with Jesus despite lack of evidence for the accuracy of these depictions.
No detailed physical description of Jesus are contained in any of the canonical Gospels. During the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians, Christian art was necessarily furtive and ambiguous. The earliest surviving Christian art comes from the late 3rd and early 4th centuries on the walls of Christian tombs in the catacombs. Here, and only here, Jesus is portrayed in two different ways: older, bearded and robed and another as a bare faced youth holding a wand. He uses the wand to change water to wine, multiply the bread and fishes, and raise Lazarus. When pictured healing, he only lays on hands. The wand is thought to be a symbol of power. The bare faced youth with the wand may indicate that the Jesus was thought of as a user of magic or a wonder worker by some early Christians. Some scholars suggest that the Gospel of Mark, the Secret Gospel of Mark and The Gospel of John,(the so-called Signs Gospel) portray such a wonder worker, or user of magic, a magician. (Only the Apostle Peter is also depicted in ancient art with a wand). The mysterious images of "the Good Shepherd" a beardless youth in pastoral scenes collecting sheep; also found in this early art, are also interpreted by some as Jesus, or the Shepherd of Hermas.(Jensen, 2000 & 2002)
The more familiar, bearded Jesus figure became dominate. Egyptolgist John Romer, in his Seven Wonders of the World, has pointed out the portrayal of Jesus is very similar to the surviving portrayals of Zeus or Jupiter, the father of the pagan Gods, who was the protector of the Roman Empire. As a practicing Jew, it is assumed that Jesus had a beard. The source or model for his physical features remains unknown. It is possible that the portrait may have been based on an eyewitness's sketch or reproduced from a tradition of verbal descriptions of Jesus' appearance. On the other hand, artistic depictions of Jesus may have been based originally on inaccurate or imagined ideas of how Jesus looked. Regardless, once the bearded, long-haired Jesus became the traditional representation of Jesus, his facial features began to take shape and become recognisable.
There are, however, some images which have been claimed to realistically show how Jesus looked. One early tradition, recorded by Eusebius of Caesarea, says that Jesus once washed his face with water and then dried it with a cloth, leaving an image of his face imprinted on the cloth. This was sent by him to King Abgarus of Edessa, who had sent a messenger asking Jesus to come and heal him of his disease. This image, called the Mandylion or Image of Edessa, appears in history in around 525. Numerous replicas of this "image not made by human hands" remain in circulation. As recently as the 19th century, it was not uncommon to find prints of this icon in the homes of Anglicans, along with framed copies of the correspondence between Jesus Christ and the King of Edessa.
There is also the Shroud of Turin, which appears in history in 1353 and which some have speculated is the same image as the Mandylion of Edessa, which disappeared in the wars surrounding the fall of the Byzantine Empire shortly before then. Controversy still surrounds the claims made for the Shroud of Turin. There are also two or three paintings of Jesus and Mary that are ascribed to Luke the Evangelist, at least one of which is still preserved.
Scientific reconstructions of Jesus' appearance
Recently, a team of forensic scientists from the UK and Israel attempted to construct what Jesus may have looked like. Starting with a skull from that time period, they reconstructed the face.
Critics point out that this method only produces an image of a (perhaps typical) Jew from the first century, and does not say anything more about what Jesus looks like than a photo of one modern man tells you what another specific modern man looks like.
However, the project was never intended to determine exactly what Jesus looked like; it was designed only to provide an image that would be closer to what Jesus looked like than modern depictions are. [CNN article]
Christian images of Jesus
The earliest Christians did not often depict Jesus, if they did at all, using instead symbols such as the Ichthys (fish), the Labarum (or Chi-Rho), or an anchor. Common themes in early Christian art are Jesus as a healer and the baptism of Jesus (who is generally shown standing in water up to the ankles, as John the Baptist pours water over his head). This sort of imagery dominated the first five centuries of Christian art.
As Christianity emerged from the catacombs and became a state religion, the images of Jesus began to take on a more imperial look. He was depicted in royal robes, and the halo became very prominent. Themes of the Good Shepherd still remain, as can be seen on the apse mosaic in the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in Rome, where the twelve apostles are depicted as twelve sheep below the imperial Jesus. By this time Jesus had begun to be depicted with the distinctive "look" that dominated much of the history of art, with shoulder-length hair and a beard.
French scholar Paul Vignon has listed fifteen similarities (like tilaka) between most of the icons of Jesus at the time, particularly in the icons of "Christ Pantocrator" ("The all-powerful Messiah"). He claims that these are due to the availability of the Image of Edessa (which he claims to be identical to the Shroud of Turin) to the artists.
The earliest image believed by some to be of Jesus is a piece of early 2nd-century wall graffiti near the Palatine hill in Rome. It was apparently drawn by a Roman soldier to mock another soldier who had converted to Christianity. The caption reads, in Greek, "Alexamenos worships God", while the image shows a man raising his hand toward a crucified figure with a donkey's head. The head of the donkey seems to refer to a Roman misconception about Jewish religion, so that the image would be at once anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. However, many others dispute whether this image depicts Jesus, proposing that this image may be a reference to Dionysus or another deity.
Many modern artists have focused on the incarnational aspects of the Jesus story and thus some have created images with unconventional depictions of Jesus, sometimes to reflect a belief in the universality and non-literal existence of Jesus. Hence there are paintings of black, European, and Chinese Jesuses, and also of Jesus as a woman.
Jesus in Islam
Several Hadith quote Muhammad describing Isa (the Islamic name of Jesus) as he appeared in a dream, and during Muhammad's ascension to Heaven:
- "While I was sleeping, I saw myself (in a dream), performing Tawaf (circumambulation of the House of God in Makkah). I saw a reddish-white man with lank hair, with water dripping from his head, I asked, "Who is this?" They replied, "The Son of Maryam (Mary)..." (Bukhari, Muslim)[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- "Narrated Abdullah: The Prophet mentioned...While sleeping near the Ka'ba last night, I saw in my dream a man of brown color the best one can see amongst brown color and his hair was long that it fell between his shoulders. His hair was lank and water was dribbling from his head and he was placing his hands on the shoulders of two men while circumambulating the Kaba. I asked, 'Who is this?' They replied, 'This is Jesus, son of Mary.'" (Bukhari [
Example images
Image:Good shepherd 02b close.jpg|Jesus as the Good shepherd. Ceiling of S. Callisto catacomb, mid 3rd century. Image:ChristAsSol.jpg|A representation of Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol Invictus riding in his chariot. Mosaic of the 3rd century on the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica. Image:Christ with beard.jpg|Mural painting from the catacomb of Commodilla. One of the first bearded images of Christ, late 4th century. Image:6thCenturySinaiJesus.jpg|Depiction of Jesus in St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, 6th century. Image:Solidus-Justinian II-Christ b-sb1413.jpg|Jesus depicted on an early 8th-century coin. Image:Christ pantocrator daphne1090-1100.jpg|This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. Such depictions are characteristic of Eastern Orthodox iconography. Characteristically, he is portrayed as similar in features and skin tone to the culture of the artist. Image:jcgreek.jpg|A Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Jesus icon. Image:Churchdesecrationposter.JPG|An Italian propaganda poster from World War II using the image of Jesus to elicit support for the fascist cause from the largely Catholic population. The portrayal of a black US Army soldier desecrating a church also fosters racist sentiment. Image:Baptism-christ.jpg|The Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 1449. Image:Jesus and the doctors of the Faith dsc01783.jpg|Jesus, aged 12, teaching the doctors of the Faith, painted by José Ribera. Image:Michelangelo Petersdom Pieta.JPG|Michelangelo's Pietà shows Mary holding the dead body of Jesus. Image:ChineseJesus.jpg|A Chinese depiction of Jesus Christ and the rich man, from Mark chapter 10. Sculpture
Image:Redentor.jpg|Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro Image:Cristo del Otero (Palencia).jpg|Cristo del Otero, above Palencia, Spain Image:Statua lignea di Gesu ad Oropa.jpg|Statue at , Italy Image:Jesus London 2004-10.jpg|Statue of Christ in London See also
- Iconography
- Salvator Mundi
- Christ the Redeemer (statue)
- Christ the Redeemer (icon)
- The Last Supper (Leonardo)
- Michelangelo's Pietà
- Crucifixion
- Holy card
- Unusual depiction of a religious figure
References
- The Two Faces of Jesus by Robin M. Jensen, Bible Review, 17.8, Oct 2002
- Understanding Early Christian Art by Robin M. Jensen, Routledge, 2000
External links
- [Popular Mechanics Jesus photos (various)]
- [Icons of Jesus in the Byzantine tradition] at monasteryicons.com
- [Pictures of Jesus Perhaps Derived from the Shroud of Turin] December 2005
- [link]
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