Jesus was dark skinned, why is he still portrayed as white?

kumate_champ07

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

Are you dark skinned?

are you a troll?

kumate_champ07

ok for those who are not sure, let's just take a leap of faith an imagine he was dark skinned as logic would dictate(apologies for what seems like a passive aggressive tone),
do you think that in the 21st century that Irish/European citizens could view Jesus as having dark skin rather than pale white with blue eyes(and a blond haired mother)

there is new stained glass being commissioned often for repair/new work, should the image of Jesus represent the reality rather than a biased view?

ryan101

What is "darked skinned" supposed to mean and how should it be portrayed in art exactly ?

I go "darked skinned" if I sit in the sun long enough, so does any Italian.

Here are pictures of Iraqi officials, for example :







Mary is not traditionally portrayed with blonde hair as you claim, but has been portrayed many ways in art :



including our lady of Africa

kumate_champ07

ryan101 wrote: »

What is "darked skinned" supposed to mean and how should it be portrayed in art exactly ?

I go "darked skinned" if I sit in the sun long enough, so does any Italian.

Here are pictures of Iraqi officials, for example :







Mary is not traditionally portrayed with blonde hair as you claim, but has been portrayed many ways in art :



including our lady of Africa

again that is not what I said,
Im made that point about western society, blonde haired Mary,


others have already made valid points on skin colors of different nationalities at different periods in time.


can you respond to my last question. are you unwilling to accept that Jesus may have had dark skin?

ryan101

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

again that is not what I said,
Im made that point about western society, blonde haired Mary,

What blond haired Mary ? Traditionally the statues, old pictures and artwork representing Mary have generally depicted her with black / brunette hair.

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

can you respond to my last question. are you unwilling to accept that Jesus may have had dark skin?

I couldn't care less what colour skin Jesus had, but what do you mean by darked skinned ? As the people of the middle east are not particularity dark skinned, unless recently exposed to prolonged sun the same as many of us.

Lady Chuckles

When I think of Mary and Jesus I don't think about what colour skin and hair they had.... it never struck me as relevant :)
(btw, I LOVE the pictures of Asian Mary)

tommy2bad

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

the images we have of Jesus seem to be mostly from the same period and by Italian painters working for the Church,

is it racist today to still show Jesus as being white when he was actually middle eastern with dark skin?

Like this?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/forensics/1282186
Is it racist? It is if the intention is to infer that Jesus being God could not look like of of them dark skinned people. However that's not the intention any more than it's the intention when depicting Jesus to say this is what he looked like.
The intention when depicting Jesus in paintings is to make us see Jesus in the people we see everyday.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:35-40

kumate_champ07

ryan101 wrote: »

What blond haired Mary ? Traditionally the statues, old pictures and artwork representing Mary have generally depicted her with black / brunette hair.



I couldn't care less what colour skin Jesus had, but what do you mean by darked skinned ? As the people of the middle east are not particularity dark skinned, unless recently exposed to prolonged sun the same as many of us.

you're still avoiding the question, Western Jesus does not look middle eastern, should his image be updated today to represent what he actually looked like? people have moved on in the past few centuries with race issues

Turtwig

Closing this mess.