I saw a pretty amazing story today where they used they scanned the Shroud of Turin then used AI to generate an image of Jesus. Here is a clip on it.
With that said, here is what caught my eye. The image has a resemblance to the Del Parson’s image of Jesus in a red robe. Here are the two side by side here:
To me, there are quite a few similarities. But some differences. In the AI image, the face is a bit longer. The cheekbones a bit higher with his cheeks sunk in a little. With those differences, it still seems to have a lot of similarities. The main thing is that I find it interesting. Nothing more.
Here is a story behind the painting as told by the artist.
I know you’ve talked a lot about this, but I wanted to hear the story behind the Red Robe Christ painting, since it’s so iconic in Mormonism.
For me, the really important part is that I had a wife and daughter killed in a car accident. The only reason I say that is that when I did that painting, it was after the accident, and at that particular time in my life I was about the most teachable, humble person, and I don’t think you can dismiss that.
Then the Church asked me to paint three paintings of the Savior. It was so they could have things to reproduce for publishing, so if they needed an image, they’d have an image. One was washing the feet, one was knocking on the door, and the other one was a painting of a portrait.
And so they asked me to do that, and I met with a group of designers and general authorities—it wasn’t the First Presidency or anything—and we talked about what they would like in these paintings. I guess it would probably be called the correlation committee. What they said was, “We want a strong Mormon image of the Savior, a more masculine image.”
After that, I started going through a sketch process. I’d do a sketch and send it to the Church. I don’t know for sure who saw those sketches—I really don’t—but I sent them to an art director, Warren Luch. He would take that sketch to different people and they would write comments and send them back. I went through at least five sketches. It’s been twenty years or more, so it’s hard for me to remember exactly.
But you know, sometimes I’d get discouraged. I’d do a sketch and they’d write, “No, don’t like that one.” You know what I mean? It’s not easy. You go out there and you do the best you can.
I sent a sketch to the Church. One night I had a dream that somebody was talking to me and they said, “In the morning, the Church is going to call you and tell you that that sketch isn’t going to work, but don’t worry about it because everything will work out just fine.” Then in the morning, Warren called me and said, “Your sketch isn’t going to work. Give us another sketch.” So I was ready to do another sketch, but the sketch came back in the mail about three or four days later, and there was a letter with it saying, “Don’t worry about doing another sketch. Develop this one into a painting, but do these things—more intensity, more love, older looking, more Jewish-looking, no forked beard, wider shoulders.” Just things like that. And then I painted the painting and submitted it to the Church.
I don’t know for sure who saw it when it was accepted. I do know that if it’s a painting of the Savior, it has to be approved by the First Presidency. And that’s all I really know about what happened there.
The only other thing that happened was after that, this Warren Luch called and said, “Would you mind signing some prints that we’re making for the general authorities of the Church? We’re going to give every one of them a picture of this painting. Would you mind signing them?” I said, “Sure,” and then that was kind of it. But nobody called. I’ve heard all kinds of interesting stories about it, but no one ever said something like, “Oh, you nailed it,” or anything. But it got approved.
I really feel like I was inspired on it and got some help. I felt like I was really trying my very best to go by the Spirit.
Del Parson — Mormon Artist
