Counterpoint: look at those hands. Maybe they just weren't great at some things.
I'd believe they mastered lighting and painting techniques over accurate physical representation more than "Jesus was a perfect middle aged nippleless man with fucked up hands and that's represented perfectly here"
Well, you have to have something heavy to hold enough inertia to have a deterring impact.
How else are you supposed to suppress the growing second class citizenry? Communicate?