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Portraits_of_Jesus_in_Christian_History.pptxImages of Jesus
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These are the earliest known representations of Jesus made by Christians, dating from the 3rd century. The catacomb (UPPER RIGHT image) is where the image on the left is located. In these images, Jesus is clearly being represented symbolically as the Good Shepherd. Note that he is young and clean shaven, represented with sheep or goats.
These images are also quite old, but notice that here Jesus has dark skin and a beard rather than being clean-shaven, with fair skin. Also notice the symbolic halo, indicating holiness.
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This is one of the most famous paintings of Jesus’ death on the cross, called the Isenheim Altarpiece. It dates from the 16thC. In this painting, Jesus’ skin is full of sores caused by a painful disease known as St. Anthony’s fire. This painting was made specifically to be placed in the chapel of a hospice that cared for people with this fatal disease. At the time, no one knew what caused it and it had no cure.
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This is a detail from the painting on the previous slide. In this close up, you can see the marks of the skin disease
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The medieval image on the left shows Jesus in a similar manner to the image you have in your book on p. 460. In these sorts of images, Jesus is depicted as the Lord or King of the entire universe. His right hand makes a symbolic gesture of blessing and he holds a jewel-encrusted Bible in his left hand as he sits on a throne, symbolizing royalty. The halo is now more stylized and the Greek letters indicate that he is the Christ, the messiah. The image on the upper right became dominant in the U.S. among Protestants, especially, by the mid twentieth century. The image on the lower right is from a movie, in which the actor was clearly chosen for resemblance to the popular portrait above. In all these images, Jesus is represented as a white male.
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This image is called the “Forensic Jesus.” It is an artistic reconstruction of a face based upon a first century male skull found in the area where Jesus lived. It is meant to imagine what a typical first century Jewish male may have looked like, based upon the archeological find of the skull.
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The image on the upper left is an icon depicting Jesus as Native American, specifically, an Apache; the other two images draw upon Asian cultural representations to depict Jesus. The image on the far right shows Jesus sitting in the posture of the Buddha. All of these images are made by Christians. Also look at the wood carving of Jesus depicted as African on p. 444 of your textbook.
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Jesus of the People
Winner of the National Catholic
Reporter Jesus 2000
Art Competition
The artist of this piece has said the figure is intended to be androgynous and also of indeterminate ethnicity. The competition was sponsored by a national Roman Catholic newspaper in the U.S. which asked artists for an image of Jesus to carry the faith forward into the 21st C.
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