The official portrait of Jesus

Byzantine Empire, anonymous follis (Constantinople, late 10th - early 11th c.).
Obv. +ЄMMA-NOVHΛ, facing bust of Jesus holding a book, in field IC - XC
Rev. +IhSuS / XRIStuS / bASILЄu / bASILЄ'. (in a mixture of Greek and Latin letters).
The portrait of Jesus on the obverse is not fully frontal, there is more hair visible on the right side of his neck, and is the reproduction of an icon type called the Pantocrator.

In the New Testament there is no physical description of Jesus Christ. In the early 3rd c. Tertullian even thought Jesus was ugly, that his beauty was inside (like Socrates). The oldest graphic depiction of Jesus we know is a drawing from Dura Europos (Syria) in the first half of the 3rd c.: Jesus is a young man with no beard and short hair.


Dura Europos, wall-painting of the baptistry : healing of a paralytic. “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Mark 2:11). First half of the 3rd c.

In the 4th c. Jesus was depicted the same way on Roman catacombs mural paintings, teaching among is disciples. Such depictions are influenced by traditional images of philosophers teaching. But, unlike Plato or Aristotle, Jesus looks young, younger than some of his pupils.


Rome, Catacomb of Domitilla. Jesus teaching (4th century).


In the late 4th c. new images of Jesus show him with long hair and a beard. Why Jesus grew a beard is a matter of debate, for in 360-363 it was the emperor Julianus who had done it and was represented bearded on coins. The beard was the attribute of pagan philosophers, free spirits opposed to the dogmatic Christians, and in one of his speeches Julianus even called the Christian people of Antioch "misopogon", "enemy of the beard". The Christian emperors who succeeded Julian were all shaved. Despite this, in the 5th and 6th c., most of Jesus representations were bearded.


Rome, Catacomb of Commodilla, bust of Christ. Specialists date this painting of the late 4th c.

In the early 6th c. a new icon appears, which is called the Pantocrator: it is a bust of Jesus holding a codex. The bust is not 100% frontal, there is more of Jesus' long hair visible on the right side than on the left. This not fully frontal facing portrait was perhaps influenced by the standard facing imperial bust on solidi from Constantius II to Anastasius. The name of the icon type comes from Revelation 1:8 : " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty", in original Greek "Pantocrator", literally the universal lord. What the codex he holds may be is not clear : the Bible? The Gospels? The Book of Revelation? The book with the names of the saved?

The oldest specimen of this icon is in St Catherine in Sinai and dates from the early 6th c. It was surely painted in Constantinople and may have been offered to the monastery by the emperor Justinian.

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The Pantocrator, icon of the early 6th c. (according to most art historians). St Catherine Monastery, Sinai, Egypt. The dissymmetry of Jesus' face is interpreted by some as symbolizing Jesus' double nature, divine and human. It is one of the oldest known icons, predating the Iconoclast Crisis when all icons were destroyed in the Byzantine Empire. Ironically, the iconoclasts could not access churches and monasteries in lands already under Muslim domination, this is probably why this icon avoided destruction.

In the following centuries the prototype of this icon would become Jesus' official portrait, reproduced on coinage. The same Christ is seen with Abbot Mina on another one of the oldest known icons (6th-7th c.) from the Monastery of Baouit in Egypt.


Jesus Christ and Abbot Mina, icon from the Monastery of Baouit, Egypt, 6th or 7th c. (Louvre). The bust of Jesus holding a book, not fully frontal, is inspired by the Pantocrator.

In the late 7th c. this icon is represented on the obv. side of solidi of Justinian II (first reign, 685-695). Curiously, some time after, during his 2nd reign (705-711) Justinian II tried another icon on which a fully frontal Jesus had a short beard and a completely different hairstyle, but this alternative portrait was not very successful.



Solidi of Justinian II, first and second reign (not my coins)

From the 10th c. until the present days the not fully frontal Pantocrator with long hair, like on the Sinai icon, has been the standard portrait of Jesus. We find it on Byzantine gold coins of the 10th c. and on the anonymous folles, later on mosaics of St Sophia and on innumerable frescoes and icons.


The Pantocrator, mosaic of St Sophia basilica, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). 12th c.

Please post your coins showing Jesus !

 

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I have only one anonymous follis.



Attributed to John I (11 December 969 - 10 January 976 A.D.) Constantinople
Anonymous Follis Æ Class A1
23 mm, 6,54 g
Obverse: +ЄMMA-NOVHL. facing bust of Christ, wearing nimbus cruciger, two pellets in each cross limb, pallium and colobium, holding ornamented Gospels with both hands, to left IC, to right XC; reverse + IhSuS / XRISTuS / bASILEu / bASILE (Jesus Christ King of Kings).Reverse: +IҺSЧS XRISTЧS ЬASILЄЧ ЬASILЄ, legend in four lines across field, circle below.
Sear 1793

 

Jesus wasn't a white dude. Here is my brown Jesus:

 

Two solidi of Justinian II with the portrait of Christ with a short beard (looking exactly like the Emperor’s beard) and curls, from Justinian’s second reign. Purchased from Freeman and Sear in the 1990’s.

The Iconoclast Emperors who followed shortly thereafter allowed no divine or saintly images on the coinage.

 

these 2 solidi are sumptuous !
Jesus has the same short beard as Justinian II, but his hairstyle is completely different. I don't know where it came from.
In the 6th and 7th c. in Egypt you could still find a variety of hairstyles for Jesus' portraits in the monasteries frescoes:



... and on this Ethiopian manuscript of the 17th c. (British Library).

 

This is the earliest portrayal of Christ of which I am aware. 280-90 AD. https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.241

 

Great write up with wonderful coins and illustrations
And good point here that there is no real image of Jesus, just idealized propaganda. Like a political candidate. Better make him handsome to get the female vote. But rugged too to get the guys
I have purchased a few though to give to my Mormon father in law:


And if you don't like the way he looks on and off those I do have the dude whose beard was stolen by the PR firm of Jesus with an excellent calf on the back to worship:


And a laugh

 

All of the portraits in the anonymous bronze series were reproductions of famous depictions of Jesus in churches in the empire. Today, most of these are lost and all we have are the coin copies.

Btw @furryfrog02 Jesus was a Jew. So he was Semitic. Whether you classify that as "white" or something else is your call. I do believe scientifically they would be classified as Caucasian, but if someone disagrees or I am wrong please correct me.

 

Nice writeup but an early or even the earliest depiction of Jesus many forget is this interesting grafiti from the 2nd or 3rd century, that was scratched into a room wall at the palatine hill in rome. It shows Jesus as a crucified donkey what seems to have been the image of Jesus many "pagans" had at that time.

Having no earlier depictions I guess we may never know how he looked like but I guess looking at this grafiti we might just have to accept that what a looks like will always change through time because he is more of a symbol that a person.

 

In a way, some of the Egyptian mummy portraits from the Fayyum resemble a Jesus-like character - young men who are full-faced and wearing beards for the most part. If you want to see how the citizens of Roman Egypt appeared in the second and third centuries A.D. google "Egyptian mummy portraits" - the issue of the "race" of the ancient Egyptians is sort of a politicized discussion, but the Fayyum portraits found by the archaeologist Flinders Petrie illustrate the wide variety of depictions, some Greek like and some of more African origin.

 

Well... it's not Jesus himself, it's the guy Jesus was speaking about in one of his parables. It shows that in the 2nd-3rd c. people weren't that comfortable with the idea of drawing Jesus because nobody knew what he looked like. Like Socrates, as Tertullian seems to have thought? Like Apollo? Many had rather drawing mere symbols, like the X-P, or the Good Shepherd who is not supposed to be Jesus himself.

 

Pagans... or Jews ! The Greek inscription is "Alexamenos sebete theon". It does not mean "his god" or "this god", but God. "Alexamenos worships God" : such a formula makes more sense in a Jewish than in a Pagan context, don't you think?

 

What does "race" mean? On this double "mummy-portrait" from Antinoopolis we see two Egyptians who lived in the mid-second century (they may have been brothers or lovers, we do not know their names). What is obvious is that they are depicted as members of the same community, only distinguished from each other by their costume : the chlamys of ephebes for the younger one, the toga or himation of adult men for the older one. But same facial expression, same rank : both pose as proud citizens. What we call today "race" was ignored in the Roman Empire...



But it has not always been so in Egypt. The Egyptians, especially under the New Kingdom, used racial stereotypes to symbolize the enemies of Egypt. On this painted relief we see Ramses II smiting a bunch of enemies : a black-skinned Nubian, a brown-skinned Libyan (with a natural beard) and a light-skinned Syrian or Hittite (with a big beard).



Egyptians were always painted the same colour and aspect : brown-skinned for adult males, light-skinned for women and children. In Egyptian art the skin colour was a question of gender, not of "race". This is perhaps why on the double "mummy portrait" the ephebe is painted lighter than the adult. This is also why on their famous family portrait painted in Egypt, Septimius Severus is much darker than Julia Domna and their children...

 

What a most excellent contribution by all. I have been collecting the anonymous folles for a longtime and you all have presented us with a concise primmer of this series. Thanks to all.

 

Awesome post and information, @GinoLR ! I think my Secret Saturnalia Santa sent me a Jesus coin, but I can’t post it before Saturnalia which begins on the 17th of December.

 

@GinoLR. Jesus had long hair because he was the eldest child. Jewish tradition to distinguish the eldest boys in society.

 

Also because women and children avoided the sun, and men did not?

 

I"m not doubting you, but I'm curious as to your source for this.

 

It's interesting to see how the Christian perspective of Jesus' appearance changed over time. But there's no point in speculating about the actual appearance of a person that may or may not have even existed in the first place. Speculation about speculation essentially amounts to nonsense.