A Mysterious Woman Haunts Christian History

From age to age, “Wisdom” looks the same

In 1879, the earliest known illustrated manuscript of the Bible surfaced in Italy. There were startling images of the Jesus story, and all prefaced by a portrait of a woman who was dictating the text

Christianity tries to ignore the mysterious Rossano Gospels, and that depiction of a female figure who hovers over the biblical author as ‘muse’—or author? But scholars study her, noting a curious fact.

They have seen her face before.

portrait of Evangelist and “Wisdom” figure in the Rossano Gospels

In Christian art, the same faces tend to be reproduced across the millennia.

To be a Christian artist has often been to copy existing portraits, and so the same people are seen in many forms. The scholar Barbarba Crostini notes that Peter, the apostle of Jesus, is presented from the 2nd century into modern art as an older man with a similar face.

It’s like artists remember what others forget.