The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-01-19
LIKENESS OF CHRIST.
GREATEST AUTHORITY ON THE
SUBJECT
Speaks of Authenticity of the Accepted
Portrait.

Regum." president of the Royal Socie-
ty Of British Artists. has written an ar
ticle that has revived in England the
question of whether the face that is re,
cognized throughout the world as that
Of Christ is an historical truth or the
creation of some great artists magma
ton. This question has puzzled Chris
tians of every denomination for centu-
ries past.
Sir Wyke Bayliss is regarded as the
greatest living authority on this sub
ject. He believes that the likeness of
Christ is not the invention of artists of
any age, but can be traced back to an
original portrait in the form of fres-
CO found in the catacomb of San Calisto
at Rome.
The earliest pictures of Christ" he
declared in an interview, ARE those
which were found in the catacombs. and
the likeness of the Savior which exists
in all its splendor to-day overshadowed
| the graves of the first Christian mar
tyrs.
In the frescoes of the catacembs
only two representations of Christ are
found. One is that of a Roman youth,
the other of the likeness we know so
well. The former probably was painted
during the two centuries which followed
| the preaching of the apostles in Rome.
During that terrible period it was
not safe, either for the artist or for the
Christians who employed him, to paint
the true likeness likeness known to
| the populaee as that of the founder of
the hated sect.
THE natural alternative was symbol.
Instead of painting in the direct like
ness they painted in allegory, in a form
| such as would appeal TO Romans and
Christians alike. Thus Christ subduing
the hearts Of men was typified by Or
pheus attracting the wild beasts; and
Christ as the Good Shepherd by the
| beautiful Roman youth.
What marks the Gladstone fresco as
earlier than the representation of the
Roman youth is the fact that it is alb
| solutely without any symbol. 1t is d
portrait pure and simple, framed in a
circle, according to the Roman custom,
to indicate portraiture. Faces so
drawn We're called images clypeatae,
from image, a likeness, and Slypeus, a
round shield. This fresco / believe to
have been painted by Roman artist
who had himself seen Christ.
Some critics have declared that we
know not what Christ was like because
the art of the period was primitive and
primitive are is not to be taken serious
lily. ''-.-
| This is an argument founded upon ig-
norance There was one phase of art,
and one only, which Romans practieed
with any marked success-and that was
portrafture. Instead Of collecting pic
lures, the wealthy citizens decorated
their houses and galleries with collec'
lions Of portraits of men and women of
mote, 49, s-.@
/ IF ever there was a period when
Rome possessed consummate portrait
lists, it was when the face of Christ was
| first being painted. Christ came at the
livery time when the world was specially
prepared to receive and record its inn
pressions OF the aspect Of his human
nature.
"As additional evidence of the au-
have the Veronica images. The old le-
gend is that one of the women who met
| Christ ON his way to the cross offered
to him her handkerchief to wipe the
sweat from his brow, when the divine
features were miraculously Imprinted
upon it.
1.-The abstrdity of this legend is
shown by the fact that there are sew
eral of the Veronica likenesses. AS a
matter of fact, they are simply face
cloths from the graves of the first mar
tyrs, on which the likeness of Christ
has been painted by Roman artists.
The darkness of a Veronica is really the
imprint of a faee-the dead face on
| which it was laid; the likeness dis
cerned through the imprint is the draw
| ing originally made on the cloth, and II
is the well-knewn likeness OF Christ.
Again we find that within the graves
OF the early Christian martyrs were
placed the sacramento cups each had
used in life. This was in the time when
each communicate possessed his own
cup. If you take the base of one OF
these cups, which were made of glass,
4 you will find again the same likeness OF
Christ. fT'
Passing on to the days when Italian
art had sunk to its lowest level and BY
zantine art supplanted it, we still find
the likeness Of Christ repeated in the
mosaics of the basilicas. The workers
of these mosaics were copyists; they
learned the design by heart and execu-
tied the likeness as they had learned it.
There was no originality, no variation,
and to this is due the preservation of
the likeness during the ten dark and 81
lent centuries when art scarcely so
much as existed.
IF any suppose that the great paint
ers of the Renaissance invented thei,
iikenesses of Christ, it may interest
them to know that Michael Angelo, the
most daring and imaginative painter
who has ever lived, in his unfinished
}painting Of Christ, followed the Veroni
ca of st. Silvestro line for line. A trac-
ing of his picture superiniposed on the
Veronica is indistinguishable from a
tracing of the Veronica itself.
when critics declare that the like
ness of Christ as it is now presented
does not faithfully portray such man
as they would expect they must re
member that each artist depicts him