-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
What did Jesus look like?
Hello, Amanda Smith with you on RN, this is The Body Sphere.
There's a sort of novelty book out that's called Finding Jesus. It's the same kind of thing as Where's Wally, you know, where you have to spot him in various crowd scenes. And it entirely1 relies on there being a standardised, immediately recognisable image of Jesus: the slender chap with long, light-brown hair, pale-ish skin and a beard. That isn't always how he's been portrayed3 though. So how did Jesus come to look the way we're so familiar with? Later in The Body Sphere, I'll be speaking with Michele Bacci, the author of a book called The Many Faces of Christ.
First though, let's concentrate on the body of Christ, the crucified body.
Felicity Harley-McGowan is an art historian at Yale University, her special subject is early Christian5 art. And Felicity, the execution of Jesus is…well, it's utterly6 central to Christian faith, isn't it. When, as far as we know, do images regularly start to appear that depict7 the crucifixion?
Felicity Harley-McGowan: They appear quite late. Christian art itself as a definable thing doesn't emerge until the 3rd century. That's when the Christians8 began to commission images taken from the New Testament9. But the crucifixion is not one of the subjects at that early date. This is something that people find quite confounding, because of course the crucifixion becomes the central image, the defining image of Christianity. So it's rather perplexing to people that it's not among the first images that Christians commissioned for themselves and it doesn't appear regularly until after the 5th century…really into the 6th century.
Amanda Smith: Any thoughts on why the crucifixion doesn't appear in early Christian art?
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Well, let me take the standard answer first, and then offer something alternative. Generally you will find that this absence is explained by the fact that Christians were too ashamed to represent the death of their saviour10 in this way…
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Absolutely, that's right. It was an incredibly violent death, used particularly for slaves and for criminals. So it was a form of execution that was particularly repulsive12, and not much talked about at all by Roman writers. So that's the standard approach, that it was a horrendous13 form of death associated with criminals and so therefore Christians were too ashamed and didn't want to represent their saviour in that way. But amidst all of that actually the absence of images is a little more complex. So while I said that crucifixions or depictions of Jesus crucified didn't begin to emerge with any regularity15 until after the 5th century, in actual fact we do have evidence from before that date that there were attempts to represent the crucifixion, and indeed represent crucifixion per se, because generally you will not find any representations from the surviving body of Roman art of crucifixions at all in the Roman empire. But we do have two pieces of graffiti that survive from the Roman world…
Amanda Smith: So it survives in street art.
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Essentially16 that's right. And one of them is sort of poking17 fun at Christianity. The other is not a representation of Jesus but it's quite graphic18 and gives us a sense of the violence. So the record from graffiti is very important. But also prior to the 4th century there are several small engraved19 gemstones that preserve images of crucifixion and they indicate some experimentation21 with the subject.
Amanda Smith: Well, one of the rare, pre-6th century crucifixion images that's not street art and that's not a small gem20 comes as part of a series of four ivory panels that depict the Passion of Christ. It's early 5th century, probably from Rome. How is Jesus shown on the cross in this?
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Jesus is shown alive on the cross. He's muscly, he's not showing any signs of being affected22 by the nails, which the artist has shown very clearly in his palms, and not shown as being affected by the spear that the Roman soldier is plunging23 into his side. This is a very different depiction14 of the event in ways that we are not accustomed to seeing it. So it's represented in the guise24 of a triumph. That's the thrust of the story of the crucifixion for the early Christians, that it's almost inseparable from the resurrection. It's not really until after the 4th and 5th centuries that liturgically26 we begin to get Good Friday and Easter Day as quite separate, distinct celebrations. In the early Christian world those events are very much one event. So this 5th century representation is a window onto that understanding, that here's this crucified Son of God, on the cross, he's nailed to it, but there's already in his open eyes and his defiant27, strong, vigorous stance, that he's already showing the path to overcoming that, to resurrection.
Amanda Smith: Yes, as you say, his eyes are wide open, he's not at all slumped28 on the cross. And his nakedness, or near nakedness is not a sign of his abjection29. It's triumphant30.
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Absolutely. The naked form does continue into the medieval period, but as the suffering body. But for early Christians there's a different understanding of nudity. The naked form, when it's shown as vigorous and athletic31, is associated with the qualities that a divinity would have. Even for representations of the emperor, for example…
Amanda Smith: Well, you mentioned the term 'triumph', and that does bring to mind the idea of imperial Rome.
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Yes. These early representations are drawing on those associations across the Greco-Roman world. In this case for the ivory relief that you mentioned, nudity is very much, in the way that it's used on that relief, associated with that sense of triumph, whether it be the emperor or divine beings, Apollo, for instance. Christ is often shown in the 4th and 5th centuries looking very much like Apollo, not just in terms of his nudity but also his hair, these long golden locks lapping around his neck gracefully32. This is indicating to the viewer that Christ, yes he has a human side but he's also divine.
Amanda Smith: Here in The Body Sphere the focus is on the body of Jesus Christ, and early images of the crucifixion, including a very early one, an ivory carving33 from the 5th century. It's in the British Museum and there's a link to an image of it on The Body Sphere website. I'm Amanda Smith, and I'm speaking with art historian Felicity Harley-McGowan.
Well, the body of Christ in this early 5th century carving is also stockier and a little bit chubbier34 than in later art, you know, certainly say in Renaissance35 crucifixion paintings and sculpture his body is very long and lean. Any thoughts on why?
Felicity Harley-McGowan: It's a very simple thing really, that was the fashion. The long, lean bodies that became more popular into the Renaissance, they're not the fashion.
Amanda Smith: Also the figure is very upright on the cross. I'm again thinking of later paintings, particularly Renaissance paintings, where you get that sort of S-shaped body, slumped, S-shaped body.
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Yes. There are a couple of factors involved there. One of them I think speaks to the models that were already existing for the depiction of mythical36 figures, for instance, who are tortured. One example is Marsyas, who challenges the god Apollo in a musical context and is flayed37 alive and strung up on a tree. His body is always shown very upright as he hangs from the tree. Other figures from Greco-Roman mythology38; Ixion or even Prometheus, figures who are tortured by the gods, often with their arms outstretched either side of them. In the case of Ixion he's tied to a wheel and is going to be rolling around on that wheel for eternity39, his body is also very upright.
So I think that there is some overlap40 here in terms of… It's not a situation where we have Christians who go to a workshop that might have above the door, you know, 'Christian Artists Come Here'. It's more a situation where you want the best ivory relief so you go to the best ivory workshop, and that workshop is probably taking commissions from Jewish customers as well as other Roman customers who might worship ten different gods.
So those artisans, it's possible that they may have had something akin4 to a copy or pattern book where you might go in and say, 'Hi, I'm Amanda, I'd like a representation of Jesus.' The artisan might say, 'Jesus, yeah, we've heard of him. Remind us again what happened.' And you would say, 'Well, he was crucified.' And they would say, 'Oh, yes, that's right.' And at the 5th century it's clear that there were not…going back to what we said before about the rarity of images, there were not a lot of models circulating it seems for Jesus on a cross. So I think it's more likely that they would have gone to other models that they knew, then they could say, 'Oh yeah, we've got a couple of examples like this, let's adapt those models.'
And over time, with some experimentation, obviously with Christ on the cross, by the 6th century when there's increasing interest in the story of his crucifixion, increasing numbers of people are making pilgrimages to Jerusalem and visiting the holy sites where Jesus died and was resurrected, so there's more interest in what he experienced. And liturgically things begin to change. As I mentioned before, the Passion narrative41 itself becoming broken up across Holy Week, and Good Friday and the day of Resurrection as separate liturgical25 entities42. This means that there's more scope for the artist to begin to explore different aspects of the story, and so there becomes more interest in what Jesus experienced as a human on Earth.
Amanda Smith: And as a human on the cross.
Felicity Harley-McGowan: Absolutely, that's right. So you begin to get, after the 6th century, blood at the site of the nails in the palms and the feet…
Amanda Smith: Yes, there's no blood, sweat and tears on this very early image, is there?
Felicity Harley-McGowan: No, that's right. And at the same time, moving through into the 8th, 9th and into the 10th centuries, there begins to be a shift theologically as well, in terms of more pointed43 concentration on that human suffering. So when the body begins to be shown more realistically, I guess, hanging from the cross, perhaps twisting in pain, this occurs at a time both of shifting focus in private devotion as well on the human suffering of Jesus and also artistic44 developments. Artists become a little bit more experimental in how they might position the body on the cross and how they might demonstrate that, okay, so if the hands are nailed on this cross bar and Jesus is beginning to die, then the body's becoming heavier, that pulls the body down on the cross. There's sort of like a chain reaction from head to toe in terms of how the limbs and so forth45 respond.
So it's really not until the 12th and 13th centuries that we begin to get a more profound S-curve, if you like, in the body, which is not just about artistic or technical proficiency46 in articulating a reality of what happens to a human body on the cross, but also a profound interest, theologically and at the level of private devotion in the pain and agony of Christ. And that's when the change is really quite profound, the crucifixion becoming this symbol of God sending his only son to share in our own pain. That's when the story, in a sense, becomes what we know it today, as a symbol of human suffering. Which is actually not at all what early Christians were interested in when they first came to represent the crucifixion.
Amanda Smith: And Felicity Harley-McGowan is a historian of early Christian art at the Yale Divinity School; an Aussie at Yale!
And, as I mentioned, if you want to have a look at that very early crucifixion, the ivory carving that's in the British Museum, there's a link to an image of it on The Body Sphere website.
So we've talked about the body of Christ on the cross, but what about his face in portraiture47? After all, Jesus is surely the most portrayed man in the whole history of western art. But what did he look like? The standard image, yes, is he had long hair and a beard, and pale-ish skin. But that's not the way he's always been portrayed. So when and why did the Jesus who looks as we're most familiar with become the accepted iconography?
Michele Bacci is professor of Medieval Art History at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and the author of The Many Faces of Christ. Michele, does the Bible, the New Testament, give any description of Jesus, of what he looks like?
Michele Bacci: It says almost nothing, actually.
Amanda Smith: So there's no clue as to his actual features.
Michele Bacci: No, not at all.
Amanda Smith: So when do the earliest known images of Christ date from, and what does he look like in those?
Michele Bacci: Well, the first images we know of Christ date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Basically we have different images circulating in that period, one showing him with long hair and beard, one showing him with short, curly hair and short beard.
Amanda Smith: And does Jesus ever appear in these images, in these early images, without a beard?
Michele Bacci: Yes. Normally the absence of beards was a way to hint at his young age. It was also characteristic of beauty since we have to think that a beard in the Greco-Roman culture was considered to be an attribute of barbarous peoples or persons living in the margins48 of Greco-Roman society, such as mendicants or philosophers.
Amanda Smith: Yes. Now there's also a tradition of more mystical images as well. The Shroud49 of Turin is a late example of a tradition of images not made by human hands. Even more recently, there was a bloke in Manchester last year who put some bread in his toaster and the toast popped up with Jesus' face on it! Now, perhaps not in the case of the toast, but generally, these images are supposed to be 'the real' Jesus Christ, yeah?
Michele Bacci: Yeah. Actually they're paradoxical images. They are not considered to be portraits in the sense of recording50 the actual features of Christ's face. They were rather considered to be imprints51 which bore traces of the bodily substance of Jesus.
Amanda Smith: So they don't really assist in determining what Jesus looks like, how he's to be portrayed. What were the debates in the early church about how to portray2 Jesus Christ?
Michele Bacci: Well, there was a big debate between theologians about the visibility of Jesus during his terrestrial passage. Some of them said that he changed his outward appearance almost continuously. He was a kind of chameleon52.
Amanda Smith: Shape-shifter, almost.
Michele Bacci: Yeah, looking always like something else. And he looked ugly to ugly and bad people and he looked beautiful to those who were able to understand that he was the Son of God. So this was more or less an idea that circulated widely in the first centuries. But the problem of early theologians with Christ's visibility stemmed from their interpretation53 of the few clues in the Old Testament about the outward appearance of the Messiah. So on one side, Psalm54 45 stated that the Messiah had to be the most handsome of all men, whereas the Prophet Isaiah spoke55 of a man who was deprived of all possible beauty.
Amanda Smith: It's not very clear, is it?
Michele Bacci: So theologians had to find a solution, and they tried to make a compromise between these different authorities in the Bible. And finally, the most accepted idea was that he had a kind of ordinary, not especially appealing appearance during his passage on Earth, during his public life, whereas he manifested his divine beauty during this episode of the revelation on Mount Tabor. The same outward appearance describing him as a very handsome, luminous56 person was also manifested after the resurrection in the appearances with his disciples57.
Amanda Smith: The debate really is around his contradictory58 nature, you know, he's a man but he's also divine, so to what extent does Jesus look like an ordinary human being.
Michele Bacci: Yeah, that's a problem. It proved very difficult to attribute a specific iconography to Christ. The problem was if you provide Jesus with a too-human appearance, you will immediately and implicitly59 deny that he has a divine nature. If you represent him in a very divinised way, you will communicate the message that he was rather a god than a man, so they had to find a visual compromise between these two instances.
Amanda Smith: So when does the image of Jesus, the sort of standardised appearance as we are familiar with, when does that get established?
Michele Bacci: You mean the image of Christ with long hair and beard? Well, it's a kind of long process. The first representations are already known in the 4th century but, as I said before, they circulated along with many other possible representations, they were just a variant60. But we can say that by the 6th century the type with long hair and beard had become the most important image of Christ used in the Byzantine Empire.
Amanda Smith: So this is in the eastern church.
Michele Bacci: In the eastern church. Whereas the Latin church still preferred the type without beard, the youngish type.
Amanda Smith: Now, in the development of that standardised image that we've now come to know, it's actually quite odd, isn't it, that Jesus has long hair?
Amanda Smith: Yes, he says that men should keep their hair short.
Michele Bacci: Yes. There are different possibilities. In a way we know that this peculiar62 look was a characteristic of people who in the Greco-Roman world describe themselves as philosophers or as miracle workers. But in the Jewish tradition of late antiquity63, this look was associated with people who consecrated64 themselves to God since their birth. This was known as Nazirite condition. We have a source which clearly states that images representing Christ with long hair were made by people who considered Christ a lifelong Nazirite.
Amanda Smith: The interesting thing, though, following on from St Paul and his view about hair for men, is that Christian men down the centuries, in their hair, don't follow the hairstyle associated with Jesus, the long hair.
Michele Bacci: Yes, in general terms we can say that this look was regarded, especially in western Christianity as something subversive65, if you want, something which could be tolerated for Christ, since he is Christ and therefore somebody…
Amanda Smith: Exceptional. It sort of marks out his exceptionalism, I suppose. As far as choosing a hairstyle for Jesus and choosing his beard and his skin colour, what are the factors? If not necessarily historically based, is it simply that people made Jesus in their own image and one came to dominate?
Michele Bacci: Obviously we have to understand these developments on the background of contemporary conceptions of human beauty. But also we have to take into account that facial features, and especially hair, were considered to be symbolic66 manifestations67 of moral qualities. So, for example, in physiognomic treatises68 of late antiquity, curly hair came to be regarded as a symptom of greed, for example. So it is probable that the type with curly hair did not succeed in the Greco-Roman world because it was associated with this negative aspect of an individual's personality.
Amanda Smith: So what's the skin symbolism that's operating in the dominant69 image of Christ? From the 6th century his complexion70, as I read in your book, is often described as 'corn-coloured'. What does that mean?
Michele Bacci: Corn-coloured means actually a kind of intermediary colour between white and black. Ancient physiognomers considered a purely71 white skin or a purely black skin as something negative, something connected with people living in the far north or in the far south. So the Greeks and Latins who lived in an intermediary zone of the world, considered themselves obviously to be the best population. But the corn-coloured complexion was also associated with other symbolisms. For example, corn colour was used in some church fathers to describe the consecrated bread of the mass. So one could easily establish a parallelism between the Eucharist and Christ's body.
Amanda Smith: Yeah, 'this is my body'…
Michele Bacci: Exactly, that's the point.
Amanda Smith: So, look, what are the chances of Jesus actually having looked just as we've imagined him to look for centuries, with the long wavy72 hair, parted in the middle, short beard, pale-ish skin?
Michele Bacci: Well, it's very difficult to answer this question. We have to confess that we don't know and we'll never know how he really looked like.
Amanda Smith: Michele Bacci is professor of Medieval Art History at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and speaking to us there from Geneva. He's the author of The Many Faces of Christ, and there are details for that book on The Body Sphere website. And that's of course where you can also post a comment if you'd care to. I'm Amanda Smith.
点击收听单词发音
1 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 portray | |
v.描写,描述;画(人物、景象等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 portrayed | |
v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 );描述;描绘;描画 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 depict | |
vt.描画,描绘;描写,描述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 testament | |
n.遗嘱;证明 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 saviour | |
n.拯救者,救星 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 repulsive | |
adj.排斥的,使人反感的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 horrendous | |
adj.可怕的,令人惊惧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 depiction | |
n.描述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 regularity | |
n.规律性,规则性;匀称,整齐 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 poking | |
n. 刺,戳,袋 vt. 拨开,刺,戳 vi. 戳,刺,捅,搜索,伸出,行动散慢 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 graphic | |
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 engraved | |
v.在(硬物)上雕刻(字,画等)( engrave的过去式和过去分词 );将某事物深深印在(记忆或头脑中) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 gem | |
n.宝石,珠宝;受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 experimentation | |
n.实验,试验,实验法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 guise | |
n.外表,伪装的姿态 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 liturgical | |
adj.礼拜仪式的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 liturgically | |
adj.礼拜仪式的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 defiant | |
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 slumped | |
大幅度下降,暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 ); 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 abjection | |
n. 卑鄙, 落魄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 triumphant | |
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 carving | |
n.雕刻品,雕花 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 chubbier | |
adj.胖乎乎的,圆胖的,丰满的( chubby的比较级 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 mythical | |
adj.神话的;虚构的;想像的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 flayed | |
v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 );把…打得皮开肉绽;剥(通常指动物)的皮;严厉批评 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 mythology | |
n.神话,神话学,神话集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 overlap | |
v.重叠,与…交叠;n.重叠 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 entities | |
实体对像; 实体,独立存在体,实际存在物( entity的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 proficiency | |
n.精通,熟练,精练 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 portraiture | |
n.肖像画法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 margins | |
边( margin的名词复数 ); 利润; 页边空白; 差数 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 recording | |
n.录音,记录 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 imprints | |
n.压印( imprint的名词复数 );痕迹;持久影响 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 chameleon | |
n.变色龙,蜥蜴;善变之人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 psalm | |
n.赞美诗,圣诗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 disciples | |
n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 );门徒;耶稣的信徒;(尤指)耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 contradictory | |
adj.反驳的,反对的,抗辩的;n.正反对,矛盾对立 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 implicitly | |
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 variant | |
adj.不同的,变异的;n.变体,异体 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 condemns | |
v.(通常因道义上的原因而)谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 );宣判;宣布…不能使用;迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 consecrated | |
adj.神圣的,被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 );奉献 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 subversive | |
adj.颠覆性的,破坏性的;n.破坏份子,危险份子 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 manifestations | |
n.表示,显示(manifestation的复数形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 treatises | |
n.专题著作,专题论文,专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 dominant | |
adj.支配的,统治的;占优势的;显性的;n.主因,要素,主要的人(或物);显性基因 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 wavy | |
adj.有波浪的,多浪的,波浪状的,波动的,不稳定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|