This is why so much of the art from Europe in the Middle Ages, before photography or widespread travel, depicted biblical narratives in a European context. Much of the architecture, clothing, technology, and even skin tones of biblical characters—Jesus included—looked European to emphasize that the story of Scripture applied to people in their context. Depicting Jesus as he actually was—a Middle Eastern, dark-skinned Jew—wasn’t a value at that time because the goal of art wasn’t historical accuracy; it was accessibility. This is why so many European paintings of biblical stories from that time
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