The Shroud of Turin · Chapter 17 of 21
Faces through the centuries: the Pantocrator, the coins, and the Pray Codex
Before the cloth appears in France in the 1350s, its history is thin. Three kinds of material have been compared with the Shroud to fill part of that gap: a sixth-century icon of Christ, a set of gold coins struck in the seventh century, and an illustrated manuscript from the twelfth. Each comparison is interesting, and each depends on a particular reading of the image. This chapter sets out the comparisons, the arguments for and against them, and what they can and cannot establish.
The Pantocrator at St Catherine’s
The icon of Christ Pantocrator, a ruler of all, at St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai is dated to the mid-sixth century and is among the earliest surviving images of Christ with the features that became standard in Byzantine art: long hair, a full beard, and a frontal, solemn face.1 The icon has been compared with the face on the Shroud, and the comparison has drawn attention to features that are asymmetric in both faces, such as the swollen right cheek, the crooked nose, and the divided beard.
The comparison has been made by several researchers, and it has been tested with landmark methods. One such study, published by Otangelo Grasso in 2025, placed twenty-two anatomical landmarks on both faces and compared them after a similarity alignment. It reported a mean error of about five per cent of the distance between the pupils, and a permutation test in which no random pairing matched as closely.2 That study is a self-published analysis, and it has not been independently reviewed. The choice of landmarks, the alignment, and the null model all affect the result, and an independent replication with a blinded landmark protocol would be needed before the figure could be relied on.
Vignon’s markings
The French biologist Paul Vignon argued in 1902 that a set of features recur across Byzantine images of Christ, and that several of them match features on the Shroud. His list includes a transverse line across the forehead, a V-shaped mark at the bridge of the nose, an asymmetric beard, and a line across the throat.3 Some of these features may be bloodstains or creases on the Shroud. Other researchers argue that the features are common enough across Byzantine art that they do not require a single physical model, and that the choice of comparison images was not made blind. The question is whether the pattern is more than the common language of a tradition, and the answer is not settled.
The timing of the Byzantine image
The bearded, long-haired Christ becomes clearly visible in surviving art from about the middle of the sixth century, the period when early sources describe the Image of Edessa.4 The coincidence in time has been noted, but it does not show that one caused the other. Art historians have offered other explanations, including Syrian artistic influence and theological emphasis on the humanity of Christ.
What the icon can and cannot show
The comparison shows that an artist in the sixth century could have produced a face with features that also appear on the Shroud. It does not show that the artist had the Shroud in front of him. A painted face is a different kind of object from a linen image that encodes distance, and an artist working from a painting or from a verbal description would not be expected to reproduce the Shroud’s negative character. The icon is evidence that the iconography of the face was developing in the right period and region. It is not evidence that the Shroud existed in the sixth century.
The solidus of Justinian II
In 692 the Byzantine emperor Justinian II struck a new gold solidus showing Christ on the obverse, the first time Christ appeared on the standard imperial coinage.5 The move was made in the context of a dispute with the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, who had begun to replace Byzantine coinage in his own territories. The coin showed Christ with long hair, a divided beard, a prominent nose, and an asymmetric face, which some researchers have compared with the Shroud.
The coins are dated and their chronology is well documented. Christ appeared on the coinage in 692, disappeared when Justinian II was deposed in 695, and returned with a different face when he regained power in 705.5 That sequence is a natural experiment in iconography, and it shows how quickly a face could change. The comparison with the Shroud has been made for specific features, but the features are common to many images of Christ, and the coins are a mint product made for a political purpose. The similarity is suggestive rather than conclusive.
The coins travelled, and Byzantine coins circulated in Western Europe. Some researchers argue that Justinian II’s coins carried the image to England and beyond. That argument depends on the circulation of the coins and on the influence of their design, and it has not been established for the Shroud’s features in particular.
The Pray Codex
The Pray Codex is a Hungarian manuscript dated from about 1192 to 1195. It is named after the Jesuit scholar György Pray, who described it in 1770. Its most famous illumination shows the burial of Christ in two panels, the anointing of the body and the discovery of the empty tomb.6
Several features of the illustration have been compared with the Shroud. The cloth beneath the body shows a pattern that some researchers read as herringbone. In the lower panel, the cloth has small holes in an arrangement that some researchers compare with the L-shaped burn marks from the 1532 fire. The hands of the body appear to lack visible thumbs, and the hands are crossed over the pelvis. Other researchers argue that the herringbone is conventional decorative hatching, that the holes are part of a common pattern, and that the hands follow standard convention. The comparisons are reported in the literature, and each is contested.6
The Pray Codex does not show an image on the cloth. That absence has been read in two ways. Some argue that a manuscript illustrator who had seen the cloth would have shown its image. Others argue that the image is hard to see at close range, and that a scribe who examined the cloth for its weave and damage would notice those features and not the image.
What the three comparisons can and cannot show
Each of the three comparisons is suggestive. The icon shows that a face with features similar to those on the Shroud was being made in the sixth century. The coins show that a face with comparable features was struck on the imperial coinage in the seventh. The Pray Codex shows a burial scene with a cloth in the twelfth century that some researchers read as resembling the Shroud. Each comparison depends on a reading of features that are common in their period, and each has been disputed.
Taken together, the comparisons suggest that a cloth or a face of the kind the Shroud shows may have been known in the Byzantine world. They do not show that the Shroud existed before the Lirey record, and they do not show that the Shroud was the model for any of these works. The next chapter turns to the scientific investigation of 1978, which provided the best evidence about the cloth itself.
References
- Icon of Christ Pantocrator, St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai. Dated to the mid-sixth century in the art-historical literature. Publication details to be confirmed before publication.
- Grasso, O. (2025). Geometric morphometric comparison of the Shroud face and the Pantocrator icon. Self-published analysis, not independently reviewed.
- Vignon, P. (1902). Le Linceul du Christ. Paris: Masson. Publication details to be confirmed before publication.
- Early Byzantine images of Christ and the Image of Edessa. Discussed in the art-historical and historical literature. Publication details to be confirmed before publication.
- Grierson, P. (1982). Byzantine Coinage. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. The coinage of Justinian II, including the solidus of 692. Publication details to be confirmed.
- Pray, G. (1770). Description of the Pray Codex, Budapest. The Pray Codex, National Széchényi Library, Budapest, c. 1192–1195. Interpretation of its illustrations is discussed in the art-historical and Shroud literature. Publication details to be confirmed.