God the Father was considered so completely inexpressible and unembodied that his visual appearance in early modern masterpieces has long challenged the theological accuracy of such works. A recent discovery complicates that issue. Albrecht Dürer’s 1500 Self-portrait as Christ is incorrectly considered an isolated example of divine self-representation. It was, in fact, as shown here, part of a long tradition throughout Europe between at least the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The praxis, potentially sacrilegious, raises questions about the truth of art at its highest level. To address this conundrum, this article analyzes works by three eminent, but very different, artists: Michelangelo, Raphael, and Dürer. Two current methodologies—visual exegesis and the poetics of making—support the argument. The analysis reveals that there is a fundamental unity to their work, which has not been recognized on account of three popular misconceptions about the nature of art, divinity, and the mind. This article concludes that depictions of God the Father and Christ by these artists are neither heretical nor false because, as the evidence shows, all three were part of a continuous spiritual tradition embedded within their craft.

中文翻译：

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近代早期杰作中上帝看不见的真理


父神被认为是如此完全无法表达和无形，以至于他在早期现代杰作中的视觉外观长期以来一直挑战此类作品的神学准确性。最近的一项发现使这个问题复杂化。阿尔布雷希特·丢勒 （Albrecht Dürer） 1500 年的《基督自画像》被错误地认为是神圣自我表现的孤立例子。事实上，如图所示，它是至少 15 世纪到 17 世纪之间整个欧洲悠久传统的一部分。这种实践，可能是亵渎的，在最高层次上引发了对艺术真相的质疑。为了解决这个难题，本文分析了三位杰出但截然不同的艺术家的作品：米开朗基罗、拉斐尔和丢勒。目前的两种方法——视觉解释和创造的诗学——支持这一论点。分析表明，他们的工作存在着根本的统一性，由于关于艺术的本质、神性和心灵的三个流行误解，这一点没有得到认可。本文的结论是，这些艺术家对父神和基督的描绘既不是异端也不是虚假的，因为正如证据表明的那样，这三人都是嵌入他们手艺中的持续精神传统的一部分。