BYU exhibits images of Jesus

Though "moving pictures" have been around less than a century, filmmakers have always struggled within their medium to create portrayals of Jesus Christ that reflect a balance of humanity and divinity.

And audiences ultimately accept or reject such portrayals, based, in part, on their own preconceptions about Christ and his relationship with humanity — just as they've done with painting and sculptural depictions for centuries past.

A variety of filmmakers' depictions were explored Thursday at Brigham Young University, during the first day of a two-day public symposium focused on depictions of Christ in art. The event kicks off a new exhibit at the school's Museum of Art titled, "Beholding Salvation," featuring some 170 images of Jesus Christ by a variety of artists old and new.

Jay Fox of BYU's English department and director of the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature said filmmakers face several problems in depicting Christ, including artistic, literary and historical challenges.

In early film depictions, Christ was often portrayed as a stiff figure that was often nearly motionless. Some historians had argued it was inappropriate to show his face on screen, and one filmmaker superimposed an image of the cross on Jesus at one point in his film to emphasize his divinity.

A silent film depiction of Jesus by the now-legendary director Cecil B. De Mille in his 1927 "King of Kings" carefully draws the fine line between humanity and divinity, Fox said, showing Christ as a loving figure who embraces children. He has just healed a young boy's broken leg, when a young girl presents him with a wooden doll whose leg has broken off and asks for a "healing."

Christ puzzles over the request, then looks to his apostles, whose facial expressions show they're as interested in the solution he'll come up with as the young girl who is counting on him. He uses a small reed as a pin to hold the leg in place, delighting the girl on a human level while maintaining the integrity of his divinity.

More contemporary depictions have ranged widely in their portrayal of Christ as more human than divine and vice versa.

One episode of a 1999 television mini-series titled "Jesus" shows a jovial man excited to attend a relative's wedding feast at Cana, and an integral participant in the dancing and celebrating that attends it. His mother, Mary, uses the event to implore Christ to reveal himself as the Son of God by turning water into wine, thus convincing a skeptical Andrew that despite his humanity, he is divine.

Fox asked whether the portrayal was "too human for some LDS viewers, some of whom have come to prefer the 'tableau' Jesus who only speaks scripture."