{"id":5161,"date":"2011-12-11T16:19:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T21:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:00:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:00:21","slug":"what-did-jesus-really-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kathyschiffer\/2011\/12\/what-did-jesus-really-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What Did Jesus Really Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\n\"\"What did Jesus really look like?<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since there was no Kodak Easy-Share to be found in all of Galilee, we can only speculate whether Jesus looked more like Jim Caviezel<\/strong> (The Passion of the Christ) or like Willem Dafoe<\/strong> (The Last Temptation of Christ).<\/p>\n

In December 2002, the magazine Popular Mechanics<\/span><\/strong> featured a cover story titled \u201cThe Real Face of Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Based on information gleaned from forensic anthropologists, author Mike Fitton concluded that Jesus stood only 5\u20191\u201d tall, and he had curly hair and a prominent nose on a broad peasant\u2019s face, with dark olive skin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Egoists, all of us, we always seem<\/strong> to think that Jesus looked like us.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0For the medieval artists, that meant that Jesus frequently was painted with fair skin, blue eyes and long, light brown hair. Those same guys painted the Virgin Mary in a heavily adorned blue gown in a medieval castle.<\/p>\n

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And the self-adulation was not unique to the likes of Michelangelo and Botticelli.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Once when I was younger, my cousin\u2014who was serving in the U.S.military stationed in Japan\u2014gave his parents a one-of-a-kind gift, an oil painting of the Last Supper. \u00a0And there they were:\u00a0 Jesus in the center, with John leaning his head on the Savior\u2019s breast and Judas leaning back, holding onto the bag of money. \u00a0The only thing was, since it had been painted by an Asian artist, everyone in the painting\u2014Jesus and all the apostles\u2014had the sallow skin tone and angular, single-eyelid eyes of an Asian male.<\/strong><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/strong><\/p>\n

One retrospective that\u2019s sure to please art enthusiasts and people of faith<\/strong>is the Detroit Institute of Arts\u2019 current exhibition on Rembrandt and the Face of<\/p>\n

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Jesus.\u00a0 The exhibition\u2014which was organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre and the Philadelphia Museum of Art\u2014features 64 works by 17th<\/sup> Century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn and his students, including 52 small, intimate paintings, prints and drawings that portray Jesus and events described in the Bible.<\/p>\n

According to the Detroit Institute of Arts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Western portrayals of Jesus in the 17th century were based on ancient Greek sculpture and Renaissance imagery, and represented him as either performing heroic actions or the embodiment of profound suffering. \u00a0Rembrandt\u2019s own initial renderings of Jesus conformed to this tradition.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1640s, Rembrandt developed a radically different concept. \u00a0He was the first Western artist to present Jesus as Jewish, likely based on models from Amsterdam\u2019s vibrant Jewish neighborhood where he lived and worked.\u00a0 Additionally, he depicted Jesus as vulnerable and humble, one whose existence compelled reverence in the minds and imaginations of those around him. \u00a0In Rembrandt\u2019s art, Jesus became an object of meditation not because of his suffering but through his presence as an affirmation of goodness and a source of deep spiritual inspiration.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRembrandt\u2019s images were a bold departure from traditional renderings of Jesus by Western artists\u2014both of his time as well as before and well after him,\u201d said Graham W. J. Beal, DIA director. \u201cVisitors will have a rare opportunity to see how Rembrandt developed this image and how he employed his famous \u2018chiaroscuro\u2019\u2014light and shadow\u2014to profound spiritual effect.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\nIncluded in the exhibit,<\/strong> which runs through February 12, 2012, are two masterpieces which illustrate the significant shift in Rembrandt\u2019s approach:<\/p>\n