Icon of Christ Pantocrator
Although the gospels tell us a great deal about the life of Jesus, they don’t provide any details whatsoever about his physical appearance. We’re accustomed to seeing Jesus portrayed as a slim man with long hair and a beard but there is nothing in the bible to suggest that this was how He looked. Indeed whilst there are some early Christian artworks that depict Jesus with long hair and a beard, there are many others that portray Jesus as clean-shaven and short-haired.
However, from the middle of the sixth century, a stylised portrayal of Christ began to appear in Byzantine art and it has informed the way artists have depicted Christ ever since. Several historians have concluded that the catalyst for this sudden emergence of a stylised representation of Christ was a desire to faithfully reproduce a trusted representation, such as a recently discovered acheiropoietos (not made by hands) image.
The earliest known example of this representation is found in St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai. This image, known as Christ Pantocrator dates to approximately 550 AD and shares several features in common with the face of the Man of the Shroud, including:
- Long hair, parted in the middle
- Large eyes with a raised left eyebrow
- Prominent cheekbones
- Long, straight nose
- A hairless area between the lower lip and the beard
Emperor Justinian I reigned during the period 527 to 565 AD, some five centuries after Jesus Christ walked on this earth. We do not know for certain how Justinian’s trusted advisors were able correctly to establish the true height of Jesus Christ but the fact that their measurement exactly matches the height of the body that had been covered by the Shroud indicates that it is very likely that their source was this sacred cloth.
One of the first scientists to closely study the Shroud was a French biologist named Paul Vignon. He noticed that a number of facial features seen on the Shroud were consistently found in Byzantine paintings, frescoes and mosaics of Christ. He spent many years studying hundreds of these icons and comparing them with the face seen on the Shroud, before publishing his findings. These included a list of fifteen specific facial characteristics that appear to have been inspired by the Shroud, which are today commonly referred to as Vignon markings.
The extraordinary similarities between the Shroud facial features and those found in early Byzantine portrayals is evidence that the Shroud must have existed before 550 AD, the date when the St. Catherine’s Monastery Christ Pantocrator icon was produced.
The following links provide further information on this topic
Byzantine Frescoes and the Turin Shroud. Article by Lennox Manton originally published as the Runciman Shroud Monographs No 2 (1994) and reprinted with permission by the BSTS.
The Cappadocian Frescoes and the Turin Shroud. Article by Lennox Manton originally published as the Runciman Shroud Monographs No 3 (1996) and reprinted with permission by the BSTS.
