One of many images of a holy relic said to have directly captured the true features of Christ. This version was painted in Italy in about 1500. It represents a standard image of Christ that survived, in thousands of variations, from the early Middle Ages right until today. A show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with an interfaith panel on Sunday, looks at how Rembrandt was one of the only Old Masters who dared break with that tradition. The images in this gallery show Christ in both the “standard” version, and in Rembrandt’s updating.
To read more about the face of Jesus in art, go to Blake Gopnik's article on our Art Beast page.