![]() ![]() To modern eyes, jaded by television, movies, photography and 1,500 years of art history, the Mandylion is not too impressive. From the sixth to the early 13th century, it was considered the most famous miraculous image of Christ "not made by human hands." Now on view through Sunday as part of the exhibit "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" at San Antonio's Convention Center, the Mandylion is considered one of the five oldest - if not the oldest - images of Christ. (Edessa is now known as modern Urfa in Turkey, near the Syrian border.) The face of Christ that most of us recognize probably first made its appearance in 525 A.D., when the Mandylion of Edessa was discovered hidden in a wall of what is believed to be the first Christian city. ![]() Sensitive looking and handsome, Jesus is tall, thin and fairly masculine. Generally, we expect Jesus to have long hair parted in the middle, a full beard, a narrow aristocratic nose, a penetrating gaze and intelligent, expressive features. Muddled by superstition and science, the history can be traced back through the legend of the Veil of Veronica, the mysteries of the Shroud of Turin and "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, whose rendering of Christ is the most imitated in the world.Īdd great paintings by the likes of Rembrandt and Michelangelo, countless works of religious art in churches around the world and contemporary images of Christ in popu-Ĭhrist in popular culture, from "Jesus Christ Superstar" to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," and you have a bewildering number of faces of Jesus to choose from - yet most look remarkably similar. Tracing the art history of the face of Christ isn't made easier by the many books and Web sites devoted to the subject. Instead, symbols were used: a ship, the ark of salvation or a cross and fish, because the letters of the Greek word for fish, ichthys, are the first letters of the Greek words meaning "Jesus Christ Son of God Savior."īut believers, especially the common people, desired a visible image, and they pushed church authorities to come up with a portrait. So deeply is this conception of the face of Jesus embedded in the national consciousness that few think to question its authenticity.īut do we really know what Jesus looked like? The Bible offers scant description, even by the disciples, and for more than 300 years after His crucifixion, church authorities forbid images of Him to be created, fearing that pagans would regard a depiction of Christ as an idol. With more than 500 million copies in circulation, Sallman's "Head of Christ" is the most common religious image in the world. SAN ANTONIO - We all recognize Jesus of Nazareth.Ĭatholic or Protestant, Jew or Hindu, believer or not, if you grew up in the United States within the past 60 years, chances are your image of Jesus looks a lot like the long-haired, kind-eyed man gazing up to heaven in a 1940 portrait by a Chicago graphic artist, Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ." ![]()
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