Images of Jesus

In the Gospels, there is no description of Jesus. During the persecution of the Christians under the Roman Empire, Christian art was necessarily furtive, secretive and ambiguous. There was still a lot of hostitily in regard to idols in a group that was made up of members by and large of mostly Jewish origin. Portrayals and images of Jesus would have been disapproved of and remain in issue of controversy until the end of the fourth century. The earliest surviving art comes from the second to fourth century from walls of tombs in the Roman catacombs of what is considered most likely, wealthy Christians. The earliest Christian symbols were pictograms of the fish, peacock or an anchor. Later the image of the good the good shepherd, a beardless youth collecting sheep in a pastoral scene, was one of the most common images .

The depiction of Jesus in artwork took a number of centuries to reach a conventional standardized form for his physical appearance which has consequently continued to be largely constant since that  time. Most images of Jesus have in keeping several traits that are now almost universally associated with Jesus, although variations are seen.
The image of a fully-bearded Jesus with long hair did not become well-known before the 6th century in Eastern Christianity, and much later in the Western world. Earlier images were a great deal more diverse. Depictions of Jesus tend to show cultural characteristics comparable to the ones from the traditions where the representation had been created.  Beliefs that particular pictures are historically authentic, or have developed an authoritative status from church custom, remain powerful among a number of the faithful, in both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism

The Shroud of Turin is currently the best-known example. although the Image of Edessa and the Veil of Veronica were better known in medieval times.