The Face: Jesus in Art across two millennia

The Face: Jesus in Art, is a two-hour HDTV Program to be released by American Public Television on April 1, 2001 and air on KTCA Channel 2 on Sunday, April 15, from 1-3 p.m. (Check your local listing.)

Jesus Christ is arguably one of the most pivotal individuals in all of history. Certainly no single figure has had a greater influence on global art and culture during the last 2000 years. For centuries, the most important artists were painting and sculpting images of Jesus, and their work has had an immeasurable influence on the world’s aesthetic today.

Now, Thirteen/WNET New York and Voyager Productions, Ltd., Inc. have joined to create The Face: Jesus in Art, a documentary that traces the dramatically different ways in which Jesus has been represented in art by people throughout history and around the world. An unprecedented wide-screen travelogue of art and monuments from the early 3rd century to the present, The Face: Jesus in Art takes viewers from ancient Rome to 20th century America, from Europe to the Middle East, to illuminate the most beautiful and spectacular representations of Jesus and his stories.

In its global exploration of stunning and incredibly varied representations of Jesus, The Face takes viewers up close to Michelangelo’s Pieta and unveils and baths in beautiful light the revered Mandylion of Edessa for the first time on motion picture film; it explores the treasures of the Chartres Cathedral and journeys across the Sinai desert to glimpse the Byzantine icons of St. Catherine’s monastery. Viewers of this program will climb the stairs of St. John of Lateran, and they will descend deep into catacombs beneath Rome to see the earliest images of Jesus, captured by the light of lanterns and candles.

Amazing digital morphing sequences dramatically illustrate how the image of Jesus has changed over time. Unique special effects virtually reconstruct art that has been destroyed or lost forever. Advanced photographic and lighting techniques capture the beauty of the treasures filmed with an archival level of detail and quality.

The Face shows viewers these artistic masterpieces as they have never been able to see them before," said William F. Baker, president of Thirteen. "Using wide-screen 35millimeter film, the latest digital technology and motion control photography, we virtually reconstruct and relocate works into their original locations, so that viewers may appreciate them not in museums, but in the settings originally intended by the artists."

Backed by a team of over a dozen art historians, who have helped select images and illuminate the stories behind them, The Face: Jesus in Art offers not only stunning images but rigorous scholarship as well. A sweeping and visually riveting lesson in art history, The Face: Jesus in Art is a documentary of extraordinary educational potential.

The program is narrated by renowned actor Edward Herrmann, with other notable individuals reading selected passages.

The program will also be released as a home video in both DVD and VHS formats and translated for international distribution in languages other than English. Go to www.thefaceonline.org for more information.

Funding for The Face: Jesus in Art is provided in part by the contributions of parishes in the New Ulm diocese to the annual Catholic Communication Campaign.