Today I was looking up some images for Lash's art thread and revisiting some of my favorite Byzantine icons when I flashed back to art history class and a very brief discussion of how artists had a hard time depicting young Jesus. Most often he shows, child sized but with adult features and manners:
A typical icon -
[img]http://[/IMG]
The Renaissance didn't do much better. Here are some depictions from well regarded Renaissance artists:
Giotto -
da Vinci (even St. John suffers the fate of making him look adult (and strangely, this image has editied out St. Anne's hand but anyway....))
Rapheal:
I could list a lot more examples but I think this is a good example. In fact, I would be hard pressed to find an image of Jesus where he didn't have adult features.
Do you know of any?
Why do you think that the greatest artists of our world have a hard time depicting a child Jesus?
What I remember is that, rather abruptly, ________ painted Jesus as an actual baby-looking baby and that was revolutionary. I don't remember who, and I don't remember why not before that. What comes to mind but I can vouch for is that it had something to do with his divinity. That he was divine from the moment he was born, and that somehow that translated to making him look adult...?
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace