Have You Seen This Man?

In which Doris muses on one apparent rule of church statuary.

Catholic churches contain many statues.  Sid and Doris were brought up in the Church of England traditions, which feature fewer statues, hardly any crucifixes, but a wealth of brightly-illustrated bible stories in Sunday School.

There are no set views on what the various saints, martyrs and other people look like, so the carvers and painters usually have to give you clues – martyrs with their instrument of doom, saints with their appointed symbols (lambs, flags, keys, dragons etc) and the Virgin Mary is never without a baby Jesus except when, at apparently the same age she was when she gave birth, she cradles a dead Jesus.

However one person always looks the same.  Have you seen this man?  He is in his mid-thirties, of medium-tall height, perhaps 5’11”, with shoulder-length wavy medium brown hair parted in the middle.  He has fair slightly-tanned skin (definitely not weatherbeaten), a longish face with a longish straight nose and deep-set eyes.  He is on the thin side of well-fed, and his hands and feet show no signs of hard work.  He has a strong chin, concealed by a neatly-groomed short to medium-length beard. When he smiles (which he doesn’t often do), he has surprisingly good teeth.

Like the saints and martyrs, he is usually portrayed associated with his individual instrument of doom, so it is vaguely surprising that the artists stick to such a consistent view of his face.  I was struck by this again when looking at some representations in various Canaria churches.

PS It is probably just as well that this blog has so few readers.  I hope that neither of you take offence at this post which is meant only in a spirit of artistic enquiry.