by cyranorox » June 30th, 2008, 1:12 am
Hideous! Jesus with 'bad hands'!!? jerking his steed's mouth open??
Young-earth, or, as I call it, flat-time, theory is always falling into these betisses, usually without a literal beast.
The Sinai Christ is one of the treasures of world art, imho, and a survivor of a time when art flourished, then was crushed by an incrudescence of iconoclasts. I live with a half-size reproduction, and i observe that the difference in the eyes faithfully represents an effect of light falling from above and a little before the bright side of the face; you can see such an effect of one darker eye in many formal photographs. Later art seems to have mentally edited out, and ceased to represent, this phenomenon.
The idea of two halves of personality is very 20th century, and probably a late addition to the body of interpretation.
I find it strikingly beautiful and subtle.