Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience Gods merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
There are hundreds of images of "Christ Pantocrator." It is simply not enough to say that "Christ Pantocrator" is the image of Christ. You have to point to a specific version by that name. I see the one you have posted. What is its orgin and time?
Do you mean specifically the 6th century portrayal of Christ found at St. Catherines Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula ?
The Savior (6th c.) The bust of the Savior is life sized, a common feature of early icons, and shows a traditional monumental image of Christ holding a Gospel book in his left hand while blessing with his right. The icon has been amazingly well preserved in the dry air of the Sinai Peninsula. The Savior presented on the Sinai icon has a very forgiving, tender face. There is a slight asymmetry in the eyes, which draws the viewer's attention to them. One can sense an affinity between the eyes of this Byzantine image and those that would be produced in Russia in the coming centuries, especially Andrei Rublev's.
Is Easter not the most wonderous time on the calendar!
Praise God for my Faith.
I'd read that the shroud had probably gone through several monasteries in Turkey and other places in the Middle East before ending up in Turin. It could possibly have gone with Mary, after the Resurrection, then taken up by Jesus's apostles, and their apostles as the Faith spread out from Judea. This could explain why iconographers from various places all painted Jesus in a similar fashion, though they likely never saw each other's works. They were working from the same model; the image on the Shroud.
I have always liked that image. Good to know that my cat is sitting on that lap now, purring. She'd purr for him.