I've been studying art history & I've noticed in many paintings, etc. the Virgin & Jesus look pretty Italian! Is this because the artists were Italian, or the patrons were?
I've always wondered, so let me know! thx.
2006-10-01 12:05:42 · 11 answers · asked by tara 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Painting
First you need to think why the paintings were produced?
They were comissioned a lot of the time to hang in churches which were the public domain.
Why should they icons look familiar or be presented in a certain manner?
Because the general public could usually neither read nor write and they had to be able to identify the icons from the way that they looked.
Why do the Virgin and Jesus look like Italians?
Well I'd dispute that all the renderings of the Virgin look Italian as Verrochio certainly used Norse looking models in his versions as did many of his followers. As for Jesus Christ, well that's a different matter. He tends to be depicted in the likeness of great men who are easily recognised. In the very early Christian period he was depicted rather like Alexander the Great and during the Renaissance and thereafter we can see a startling ressemblence to Cesare Borgia.
It's simply a matter of using an image that the patron, the chuch consented to and whom the public could recognise.
2006-10-02 09:17:34 · answer #1 · answered by samanthajanecaroline 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is because the Renaissance began in northern Italy (and then spread through Europe) during the 1400s, where most early artists congregated (Leonardo Da Vinci, Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, etc.). Europe has been associated with Christianity for a long time and people back then adopted the idea that Jesus must have looked like them.
The Bible never gives any physical description of Christ. The closest thing we get to a description is in Isaiah 53:2, “...He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” All this passage tells us is that Jesus looked like any other man, that He was just ordinary-looking. Most of the images we have of Jesus are probably very inaccurate. Jesus was a Jew, so He likely had very tan skin, dark eyes, and dark hair. This is a far cry from the blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned Jesus in most paintings and pictures.
2006-10-01 12:25:47 · answer #2 · answered by TY 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're probably looking at paintings from the renassiance, so yes, most of the artist and patrons were italian which probably explains that. If Jesus or Mary actually existed, they would have probably been hebrew in terms of ethnicity. Also, since Jesus was a carpenter, he would've likely had a tan. Those light-skinned depictions of him are way off.
2006-10-01 12:10:27 · answer #3 · answered by Queue256 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Both, I think. The Renaissance originated in Italy. Hence, the painters and patrons would think that Italian would be befitting.
Also, without worldwide media, they did not have too many models of how other people looked like, to choose from. No cameras, pictures, realistic art, etc. No geography books, illustrated history books, etc.
Remember, they were just barely climbing out of the Dark Ages.
2006-10-01 12:17:47 · answer #4 · answered by DinDjinn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The vision we see of Jesus and Mary is the work of Da Vinci and other italian rennaisance painters and sculpters. Jesus would actually middle eastern or Mediterranean because that was where he was from.
2006-10-01 12:12:00 · answer #5 · answered by rswdew 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually both. The artists were commissioned by patrons, and painted what the patrons wanted.
2006-10-01 13:43:20 · answer #6 · answered by dmarie_525 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The biggest share of artists were Italian.
2006-10-01 12:21:11 · answer #7 · answered by old man 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, that's pretty much it. If you go into black churches you see a picture of Jesus and his skin is black, which is probably closer to the truth since he was from a region of the world where people are dark skinned. If you go into a white Baptist church you see Jesus portrayed as a white person.
2006-10-01 12:17:49 · answer #8 · answered by synchronicity915 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Precisely! Also if you look closely in many of those works, you'll see european architecture and landscapes. They were beutiful works, but Jesus and Mary were middle eastern born Jews with no european ancestry so they probably looked very middle eastern and dark skinned. Good question!
2006-10-01 12:16:18 · answer #9 · answered by coandso 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on the artist.
If the artist had been African, Jesus and Virgin Mary could have been black.
If the artist had been Asian, Jesus and Virgin Mary may have been Asian.
2006-10-01 12:09:05 · answer #10 · answered by curious 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋