(March 14, 2021 at 5:24 am)Belacqua Wrote:(March 12, 2021 at 9:58 am)Brian37 Wrote: If you sample the historical artwork in Europe and the Americas one can quickly notice that the Jesus character has a tendency to be depicted with the same skin tones, facial features and hair as the locals in which the art work was made.
This was intentional. The artists and patrons had reasons for this.
As time went on, people of first century Palestine grew more remote from people in Europe. It was hard to picture what Jesus and the other characters looked like. But the historical accuracy was less important to them than the moral message. It wasn't "what did he really wear" but "how closely can I embody his example."
So the artists decided to put Bible stories in settings that would be familiar to the locals. The most famous of these are the Flemish paintings by Robert Campin, van Eyck, etc. Everybody knew that Mary wouldn't wear the same styles as 15th century Flemish people or live in the same kind of living room, but the goal was to provoke the locals to put themselves in her place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mérode_Altarpiece
Similarly, St. Theresa of Avila said that "Christ has no body now but yours." They cared less about his historical flesh and more about whether they were Christ-like.
Images are information. Text is information. Blueprints are pieces of information. Information is everywhere.
So if someone says "This bit of information is not important and starts painting something inaccurate", I'm going to have to question the entire thing.
Perhaps someone 1900 y ago decided the actual events surrounding Jesus is not important and started to take an artistic license and did some creative writing.
Who in this world wants false information?
Should I paint Jesus flying a jet fighter and blowing up romans and should I rewrite the Bible to match it because I'm a guy in the 20 th century?
"Similarly, St. Theresa of Avila said that "Christ has no body now but yours." They cared less about his historical flesh and more about whether they were Christ-like."
==Different people have different needs.
St. Theresa of Avila does not need accuracy.
I need accuracy.
--Ferrocyanide
