Most of the depictions of Jesus I’ve seen show a slim, Caucasian man with brown hair, a beard and mustache. What is the origin of this? Is there any historical basis for this?
The reason why Jesus is always portrayed that way is because that’s how He really looked. See, He didn’t really go up to Heaven–He’s been right here on earth ever since the Resurrection. And over the years, He’s appeared to enough people that we have a pretty good idea of how he looked. If you don’t believe me, you can read it for yourself here.
There’s probably good reason to think of Jesus as having a beard–shaving takes time and is a luxury. A poor guy like Jesus wouldn’t have done it.
He’s portrayed as caucasian because he’s portrayed by caucasians. Man making God in his own image, no?
Not all pictures of Jesus look like this tho. It’s sort of an evolved tradition. I remember a picture by Raphael (I think) that shows Jesus as clean-shaven, with short curly hair, and a six pack.
the shroud of turin.
no time to post a link now, but when you see it you’ll understand.
Jesus has traditionally been portrayed by each culture as a man from that culture. Early ikons and mosaics from Byzantium show a youthful man with dark eyes and dark, closely trimmed, hair, a trimmed beard following the jaw line, and other features common to the culture and ethnic groups of the eastern Mediterranean. Medieval and Renaissance paintings portray him in the general appearance of the peoples among whom the painters lived (whether among the Italian nobility or the Flemish and Dutch burgers, etc.)
The “Lady Clairol” look (as identified by an art history instructor I once knew–cover the lower part of the bearded face and you find feminine features with soft, flowing hair) arose in the 19th century as a form of devotional art and was carried into this century when lithographs made it possible for people with little funds to own their own copies of art. As people grew up surrounded by the prints of paintings that grandma had, they created a demand for more of the same (drek) and we now have far too much of that stuff floating around. There was a small movement beginning in the late sixties to cast Jesus in a more contemporary style (masculine features, close trimmed hair, etc.) but it coincided with a drop in the market for religious art of any kind, so the 19th century lithos (and their 20th century knock-offs) still predominate the market for portraits that one would encounter, today.
Well, that would only raise the question of why the person who created the Shroud of Turin chose to portray Jesus that way.
Did a quick search and found…
And in reality, Jesus was most likely olive complexion, with whatever features that were normal for a middle eastern culture ~2000 years ago.
~Anthony, Just a Random Scrub
Jews tend to be on the Caucasian side (though there are a few exceptions), so it is likely that Jesus was Caucasian, However, back then there was no sunscreen and people spent alto of time out in the sun all year round (not much winter in Pallestine (sp?)) So Jesus would also have likly been very tan, to the point of looking much darker than is usually depicted.
As for the beard, Jews didn’t shave. Haveing a shaven feace was a disgrace in their culture, so Jesue would have had a beard.
I have always seen jesus depicted with long hair, my mom always told me that he took a Nasserite vow, but I still haven’t found that in the Bible.
I agree with this. I recall seeing discussions about how the way Jesus has been depicted in art has changed over the centuries.
Even current depictions vary. I’ve seen modern day paintings of an Afro-American Jesus.
According to “The 20th Century Almanac” by David Wallechinsky (from the same family that brought us the “*Book of Lists” series), the “modern” version of Jesus can be credited to one specific artist. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy in front of me, so I can’t tell you his name.
*My favorite entry in the “Book of Lists” was the last page, which had a drawing of Franz Liszt. Ha Ha! That was a lot funnier than “The 10 Ages that Bradley Goldstein would most like to be.”
Maybe from the mural of The Last Supper.
I know the painting Mjollnir’s talking about, the one that was hanging (in reproduction) in every middle-class Protestant church in America during the '60s; there was a fascinating article about the artist in the New York Times a year or so ago.
I think the painting was done just after WWII…sepia-toned, very fey features, right? I believe this was a logical progression from the Pre-Raphaelite Jesus paintings of the 19th century…Christ as a languid decadent.
I’ll find it some damn place…gosh, there are a LOT of Jesus websites out there…
While everyone’s waiting, enjoy this! Bela Lugosi dressed up like Jesus Christ! No fooling!
http://members.spree.com/education/webbge/jesus/jesjan2000-005.jpg
I used to have a little prayer card (which I seem to have lost) that showed four different depictions of Jesus: an African Jesus (w/ closely trimmed hair and a short beard), two different Caucasian Jesuses (a Slavic Jesus with dark hair and a long tapered beard; and a blond-haired Germanic/Teutonic Jesus) and a Native American Jesus. The Native Jesus was the only one without a beard.
The time and place of the artist definitely does influence things. In Rome, there is a very ancient church next to the Forum, that’s been used as a church for over 1500 years (before that it was a temple). Over the apse
is a mosaic which shows Christ and the Apostles dressed up as Roman senators, with purple-trimmed togas and the whole nine yards. However, I believe they mostly had beards: there was a standard iconography for all the Apostles which
held from before that time to the end of the Eastern Empire in 1453. St. Peter, for instance, was always shown with a curly beard and usually curly hair, too. Where this system came from I dont’ know but suspect it may go back to people who actually met the Apostles and reported their appearance.
I saw a show recently about the artist mjollner refered to.
He was a commercial artist who took the “feminine Jesus” face from a painting and marketed it. It sold well, so he created other paintings with the same face, including illustrations that were included in many new testaments. Show that picture to most people, and they will immediately recognize it as Jesus. The show implied that the original model may have been a woman. I don’t remember the channel or show that this was on.
As far as “evidence”, in the Middle Ages/ Renaissance, there were such things circulating as a mosiac of the visage of Christ, Greco-Byzantine in style, that was allegedly done by (or for. . . wording on it is ambiguous) St. Gregory after he had his vision of the Man of Sorrows (kept in Sta Maria in Gerusaleme in Rome)-- a true vision and a true likeness of Christ so works that copied this mosaic were following a True model (just as images of the Madonna from the Byzantine period on allegedly followed St. Luke’s painting of her from life) and praying with them was worth hefty indulgences. In the later middle ages, other than the depictions that had come down from the Byzantines, a pseudo-scriptural text appeared (written late, of course, but they didn’t know that then) that claimed to be written by one of the apostles and included a detailed physical description of Christ (I can’t remember any more details on this-- I’d have to look it up, but it included the long chestnut colored hair, etc., that we are used to). I think the usual depiction of J.C. comes to us from a long, long lineage, ultimately tracable to depictions based on “evidence” of this sort.
Oh, when I say “Middle Ages,” I mean from around 350 AD onward-- some of these works were damn old.
The artist is Warner Sallman.
Thanks, Mjollnir! And here’s a link to his famous “Head of Christ,” probably the most famous 20th century depiction of that rascal, Jesus of Nazareth.
http://www.christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/sallman/head-of-Christ-gold.htm
Great site, BTW. Check out Sallman’s “Christ the Pilot.” I can almost smell the hymnal-dust.
My favorite depiction of him is “The Laughing Jesus,” which was used as an illustration for an article in Playboy in the late 60s or early 70s. He is holding a cup of wine and is shown just laughing his ass off. You just know the man had to have a sense of humor.