Synopsis
While Jesus lived, no one made a record of His face. In His time, no one made a picture, nor a sketch, nor a painting. Since then every image of Jesus came from the minds and hands of those who lived after He died. Thus begins this fascinating film, produced by award-winning filmmaker Perry Wolff, which traces the evolving look of Christ from the first figurations from 320 AD of Jesus as an astonished shepherd boy, to the present day. This is the definitive art history of Jesus Christ. Wolff documents the wooden icons of the Eastern church. The stained glass windows of the great cathedrals. The fresco paintings of the poorer churches. Woodcuts on paper. Silk paintings from the east. Giotto's Lamentation... Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper... The Pieta... The Sistine Chapel... Michelangelo's The Last Judgment... El Greco's Allegory of the Holy League... The dead Christ by Paul Manet... Paul Gauguin's green Christ and yellow Christ... Marc Chagall's stained glass crucifixion... Pablo Picasso's crucifixion... Salvador Dali's Last Supper... Rembrandt's infant Jesus... De la Tour's sleeping savior... Tiepolo's three wise men who came to adore Christ... Jerome Bosch. Mantegna. Albert Durer. Lorenzo Ghiberti. Mantegna. Velazquez. Zubaran. William Holman Hunt. Titian. El Greco. While Jesus lived, no one made a record of his face. No sketch, no painting, no photograph. The look of Jesus has been created by man. The face of every Jesus you see was made by someone's mind and hand. Famous artists... and unknown artists. From different places and different ages. For two thousand years the sacred mysteries of Christianity have inspired artists of every generation. The look of Jesus emerges from the history of art.