'Beardless Jesus' found in Spain

[Methinx]

I am not sure this is the correct forum but some of you may find the article below interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-29480874

 

[bilby]

If Jesus existed as a single person, which is highly doubtful, then it is certain that none of the images of him that are currently popular have any relationship to his actual appearance.

Why an image made 400 years after his death is better than one made 1400 years afterward is beyond me.

Could you draw a likeness of Oliver Cromwell that his friends and family would have recognised?

As to the idea that a beard is an important characteristic of a man's appearance, I can tell you that I have worn a beard most of my adult life; but there have been times when I shaved it off, and I once had a passport that for eight years showed me as clean-shaven when in fact I had a beard.

In summary, who cares. Even if we did care what Jesus looked like, this finding tells us fuck all about his appearance.

 

[Methinx]

You are probably right.

Nevertheless, I believe that images like this disturb the 'stereotype' and weaken accepted dogma.
The more the merrier.

 

[skepticalbip]

There are plenty of different images. Here is another non-stereotypical one for you from a church in Rome dated to 530AD:




And one from 17th century Etheopia



And a Native American version:



However, I have an authentic autographed picture of Jesus. He looked like Yasser Arafat.

 

[Sarpedon]

Beardless Jesuses (Jesi?) were fairly common in the early church days. He was depicted in Roman clothing, with the typical clean shaven appearance normal in the greco-roman world of the time.

The idea of historical authenticity in art is relatively new. Artists throughout the classical and medieval periods had no qualms about depicting people from history in anachronistic ways. Thus you have roman legionaires portrayed with medieval armor and carrying halberds, and so forth.

Somewhere along the line, Bearded Jesus wearing toga (wtf?) became common enough to be adopted as the 'norm.'

 

[Kharakov]

I imagine it was after Animal House.

 

[bilby]

Many of the 'standard' religious images began life as political satire and/or propaganda; There is some evidence that the devil owes his goatee to Parliamentarian propaganda against Charles I, for example; and it wouldn't surprise me if the modern Jesus image stemmed from an attempt, or more likely multiple attempts at various times, to flatter a pope or cardinal, or perhaps just a powerful and wealthy patron. Artists have to eat too.