"The physical characteristics of the child Jesus will always remain a point of discussion. No artist has ever produced a type, nor ever will, that has in it all that the varying minds of all time will acknowledge as complete"

This quote by Henry Ossawa Tanner speaks to the trouble of properly depicting the physical attributes of the child Jesus. It recommends that no artist has actually ever had the ability to create a representation of Jesus that is widely accepted as precise. This is since the physical qualities of Jesus are open to analysis and can be seen differently by different people. Tanner implies that no artist will ever be able to develop a representation of Jesus that is accepted by everybody, as everyone has their own idea of what Jesus appeared like. This quote highlights the difficulty of accurately illustrating Jesus and the impossibility of developing a representation that is universally accepted.