- When someone today looks exactly like someone in an old painting (or as time marches on, an old photograph) who lived centuries ago, there can be four reasons:
- They are a direct descendent of the person portrayed, showing that blood will tell.
- They might be the reincarnation of the person in the portrait, with the reincarnation extending to physical appearence.
- They are an immortal who in fact is the person in the portrait, and if they don't want this known have to pass themselves off as their own descendent.
- They are, or shortly will be, a time traveler who will end up having their portrait painted in the past.
For example, on Dark Shadows
when Barnabus Collins returned he looked exactly like the prominently displayed portrait of his "ancestor".