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Depiction of Jesus

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11th-century Christ Pantocrator with the halo in a cross form, used throughout the Middle Ages

There is no undisputed historical depiction of Jesus.

The most common illustration are 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.

General history

No detailed physical description of Jesus is 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, user of magic, a magician, or a Divine man. (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. Once the bearded, long-haired Jesus became the official and real traditional representation of Jesus, his facial features began to take shape and become recognizable. Egyptologist 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. As a practicing Jew, the historical Jesus presumably had a beard.

Part of a series on
Jesus
Jesus in Christianity
Jesus in Islam
Background
Jesus in history
Perspectives on Jesus
Jesus in culture

Christian depiction 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 centuries of Christian art.

Engraving of a crucified donkey believed to be an early anti-Christian graffito, it reads: "Alexamenos worships god."

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.

Alexamenos graffito

Main article: Alexamenos graffito

The earliest image believed by some to be of Jesus is a piece of 3rd-century wall graffiti near the Palatine hill in Rome. It was apparently drawn by a Roman soldier to mock another soldier who was a Christian. 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. A small minority of scholars dispute whether this image depicts Jesus, proposing that this image may be a reference to Dionysus or another deity.

Conventional depictions

Conventional depictions of Christ include:

Unconventional depictions

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.

Miraculous images

Main article: Acheiropoieta
File:HolyFace.jpg
Secondo Pia's negative of his photo of the Shroud of Turin. Many Christians believe this image to be the Holy Face of Jesus

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.

The current image used by the Vatican is based on the Shroud of Turin, whose records go back to 1353. Controversy still surrounds the Shroud of Turin and some have speculated it to be the same image as the Mandylion of Edessa, which disappeared in the wars surrounding the fall of the Byzantine Empire shortly before then. The image from the Shroud of Turin is based on amateur photographer Secondo Pia's photograph of 1898 and is used by the Vatican as part of the official Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. The image can not be clearly seen on the Shroud of Turin with the naked eye and surprised Pia to the extent that he stated that he almost dropped and broke the photographic plate when he first saw the developed image on it the evening of May 28, 1898.

Prior to 1898 devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus used an image based on the Veil of Veronica, where legend recounts that Veronica from Jerusalem encountered Jesus along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary. When she paused to wipe the sweat from Jesus's face with her veil, the image was imprinted on the cloth.

The establishment of these images as Catholic devotions traces back to Sister Marie of St Peter and the Venerable Leo Dupont who started and promoted them from 1844 to 1874 in Tours France, and Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli who associated the image from the Shroud of Turin with the devotion in 1936 in Milan Italy.

There are also icon compositions of Jesus and Mary that are traditionally believed by many Orthodox to have originated in paintings by Luke the Evangelist.

Jesus in Islam

Several Hadith quote the Prophet Muhammad describing Isa (the Islamic name of Jesus) as he appeared in a dream, and during prophet Muhammad's ascension to Heaven:

"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 Template:Bukhari-usc)
"Narrated Salim from his father: No, By Allah, the Prophet did not tell that Jesus was of red complexion but said, "While I was asleep circumambulating the Ka'ba (in my dream), suddenly I saw a man of brown complexion and lank hair walking between two men, and water was dropping from his head. I asked, 'Who is this?' The people said, 'He is the son of Mary.'" (Bukhari Template:Bukhari-usc)
"Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "On the night of my Ascension to Heaven...I saw Jesus who was of average height with red face as if he had just come out of a bathroom." (Bukhari Template:Bukhari-usc)

Examples

Sculpture

See also

References

  1. New Catholic Encyclopedia: Portraits of the Apostoles
  2. The Two Faces of Jesus by Robin M. Jensen, Bible Review, 17.8, Oct 2002
  3. Jesus, the Magician by Morton Smith, Harper & Row, 1978.
  4. The Two Faces of Jesus by Robin M. Jensen, Bible Review, 17.8, October 2002
  5. Understanding Early Christian Art by Robin M. Jensen, Routledge, 2000

External links

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