A Comparative Study of Common Characteristics of Sacred Portraiture in Religious Civilizations (Buddhist, Christianity, Islam)

Through the history of art & religious civilizations, there are always sacred & spiritual artworks that endeavor connecthumanswith spiritual worlds,of whichthe most obvious manifestations aresacred portraits. Portraits of the pious humans give the opportunity to represent spirituality and divineness in form of human images that have always been taken into especial consideration by religious civilizations. These portraits have special characteristics so that if they are put together, it seems that they possessa united and collective essence. Therefore recognizing the common characteristics of sacred portraits in religious civilizations is the main goal of this research.In this essay by means of analyzing and explaining the ideal portrait and expressing the different viewpoints of experts in this area, it is tried to recognize the common characteristics of the sacred portraits andthe ways artists have manipulated them in their works. Using analytic and descriptive methods based on description of existing cases of portraits from some of the religious civilizationsandbesides exploring the artists’ perceptions of sacred portraits in various civilizations which are developed from the ideal portrait, some of the common characteristics of these portraits are recognized. The results of this essay show that there are common characteristics in sacred portraits in religious civilizations through which a perfect portrait may be conceived. As a result main common characteristics include: extended and arched eyebrows, bigand almond like eyes, extended nose, small lips, altar like and broad foreheads.