Evening star., 1933-03-05
A TRUE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKiN.

There has just been found in the
British Musuem at London a sketch,
copied from q painting in the Cata-
combs at Rome, which there is good
reason to suppose, is a true representa-
ton of the head of Christ, done by a
contemporary of the Savior. Thomas
Heaphy. an Englishman, made the
sketch In 1847, but no attention has
been paid 1t before. 1t was found in
the portfolio of other drawn of the
artist which have lain in the museum
for a nearly a century without ever
having been critically sorted.
Christendom has been familiar with
the face Of Christ for many centuries.
to the same type, although 1t has been
considered that all Representations
necessarily were imaginative. The most
astonishing fact concerning the Heaphy
drawing is that 1t reveals precisely the
same face which has been for so long
accepted. An effort Is to be made to
attempt to find the original which
Heaphy's notes and sketch describe. A
new search of the Catacombs will be
made in an effort to locate the original
painting.
Reasons why there have been no ac-
cepted portraits Of Christ are many. In
the first place, in His lifetime He was
not the type Of man likely to be posing
for portraits. His position was such
that His likeness did not appear on
coins nor was He the subject of the
artists Of His time. He was too obscure.
Except for His immediate following of
disciples, He was generally regarded as
no different from the many itinerant
preachers of the time
Moreover, from about the time Of the
crucifiixion onward the profession of
Christianity was dangerous In the
prosecutions 1t would have been dan
gerous to display enough interest to
have portrait Of Jesus in possession.
Sources Of Present Portraits.
The conventional Christ portrait
which has come down was presumed to
have miraculous sources It was Joseph
OF Arimathea who placed the kerchief
over the face on the descent from the
cross and the miraculous story is that
when 1t was removed 1t bore the i'm
print Of the Savior's features. Joseph
OF Arimathea went to Britain, where
he planted the Glastonbury thorn,
which still blooms every Christmas, and
the kerchlef became one of the greatest
Of relics. But not the sole one of this
type.
The Shroud Of Turin, another holy
relic kept at that city, was the cloth in
which the body was wrapped After
the resurrection, when this shroud was
discarded, 1t. too. bore the miraculous
likeness. There are two other shrouds
claiming the same office-one at ST.
Peters at Rome and one at st. Bar
tholomew'S at Genoa
There has been one likeness which
has claims to being contemporary 1t is
the famous Jewel of Tiberius Tiberius
was Emperor of Rome at the time Jesus
was teaching in Galilee, and he was
the Caesar under whom Jesus coun-
seled the people to render what was his.
1t appears that Roman Centurion
either himself carved a head of Jesus
on an emerald or procured some one
else to do SO. At any rate, he sent the
reputed likeness as a gift to the Roman
Senate. together with detailed descrip-
ton of the appearance Of the man who
was beginning to make something Of a
stir in Palestine.
The Jewel of Tiberius dropped out of
sight for several centuries 1t does not
reappear until the fifteenth century
The Grand Turk. then occupying Con-
stantinople had come into possession OF