This is 99% Invisible.

I'm Roman Mars, and I'm in the studio with Christopher Johnson.

Hey, Christopher.

Hey, Roman.

So I want you to do something for me, okay?

And I'm coming in kind of hot, all right?

Okay, okay.

So I want you to picture in your head an image of Jesus Christ, okay?

Specifically, the Jesus that you saw in your imagination when you were growing up.

Okay. When I was growing up. Okay. This does feel like a trap. But I will play along. So mostly I'm picturing a kind of, you know, flowy brown hair, you know, a peaceful face, lean,

bearded, white with blue eyes. I recognize what territory we're getting into here with blue

eyes. Okay, good. You know, but like a nice surfer, like a mild, peaceful, nice surfer.

Yeah, same.

Listen, this is not a trap, man.

And the way that you described him, that's exactly how I grew up thinking about Jesus, too.

And a lot of our listeners may have also grown up seeing this same mental image of Jesus.

And so what I'm here to tell you today is that that mental image that's in so many of our heads,

that idea of what Jesus looks like, it actually comes in large part from one single painting

that was made in 1940 in Chicago.

And it was called the Head of Christ.

And it's the single most popular, most ubiquitous image of Jesus in the world.

Wow. Okay.

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