The Face of Jesus

The most iconic face in art over the past two thousand years has been that of Jesus--as the central figure in Christianity, he has been a source of comfort and consolation to followers around the world. In The Face of Jesus, art historian Edward Lucie-Smith traces Jesus' life in famous works of art by artists such as Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco, Rembrandt, Georges Rouault, and Jean Michel Basquiat. With these magnificent images, Lucie-Smith shows how the depiction of Christ has remained roughly the same over the years--a man with fair skin, a beard, and long hair parted down the center--but also been shaped by stylistic changes in art and the spread of Christianity. For example, converts to Christianity needed images of Christ with which they could fully identify, sometimes resulting in images of Christ with a different ethnicity, depicted as black, Chinese, or Japanese. Containing both old masterpieces and modern works, The Face of Jesus guides readers on a biographical narrative of Jesus' life, from his birth, to his teachings, to his crucifixion, and finally his resurrection. Similar to Saints and Angels, The Face of Jesus is a beautiful collection of three hundred images gathered in an accessible and intimate format, making it an ideal gift for both art lovers and the religious market.