Numerous accurate sculptures vs paintings and stained glass Only 150 years apart.. I understand they're from different areas geographically and culturally, but it's this vs this?
I know I linked google image searches, just trying to show you the image result spectrum from both of em.
EDIT: I really want to clarify: I'm NOT trying to argue whether he existed or not. I'm just interested because I had no idea Marcus Aurelius lived that long ago but I cant imagine busts and sculpting as a whole were created in that specific 150 yr span.
They were fundamentally different kinds of people. Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor, a person with significant political and military clout, had several notable successful military campaigns as well as being known for his stoic writings. Added to this, creating sculptures of Roman Emporers was a well-established tradition: Augustus of Prima Porta is one such example, but there are many others.
Contrast this with the social station of Jesus of Nazareth: he was an intinerant apocalyptic preacher who likely was executed. In this we can compare him to the preacher known as John the Baptist. It's true that Jesus' followers claimed he was the Messiah, but those claims were not unique (Simon bar Kokhba is another example of a claimed Messiah from around the same time and Rabbi Akiva, who proclaimed him Messiah, was executed by the Romans). Although such figures had followings, we don't have evidence of there being a tradition of creating scuptures of these leaders: Simon bar Kokhba lead a briefly successful rebellion against Roman rule, creating an indenpendent Jewish state, yet we have no existing scupture or image of him. The coinage he created in his three year reign don't bear a portrait, but instead have religious imagery.
In essence, Marcus Aurelius' position and culture was much more likely to leave behind artefacts such as busts and scuptures, whereas the relative position and culture of Jesus of Nazareth was not.
There is two reasons. First is Jewish Law. Exodus 20:4-5 reads
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.”
Even if more liberal-minded (so to say) Jew could except non-religious statues or paintings, any visual depiction of Divine was big NO for Jews. Many of prominent Fathers of the Church ( like Clement of Alexandria or Eusebius of Caesarea ) opposed visual depictions of Jesus up until IV century and community preferred symbols like Ichthys, Chi-Rho or Tau-Rho rather actual statues/paintings. Hence we have few depictions of Christ from the I-III centuries and whose are from places were majority of Christians were Hellenic, not Jews (like catacombs of Rome).
Second reason is that Marcus Aurelius was emperor and the center of imperial cult- his images were made a plenty, because Romans used them somewhat similarly to as we use national flags today. While Jesus was not important figure during his lifetime or in the few upcoming centuries.
Hi, while waiting for an answer to your specific question, you may be interested in checking out our FAQ section "Did Jesus exist".