Fr Z has posted today on a new statue of Blessed John Paul II that has been erected in the Piazza Dei Cinquecento in front of Rome's Termini Station. The Romans in the video below are, by and large, not happy: their looks of glum disappointment are hilarious. I especially liked the long peroooooooo of the lady who was trying to be polite but couldn't find the right words.
At Fr Z's there is a poll with a choice of 1-5 ("Love it" to Ghastly"). At the moment 80% of people are voting "Ghastly".
Meanwhile an article at the 06blog.it, quotes a Roman lady saying "ci farà fare brutta figura con i turisti" (it will make us look really bad with the tourists.) They also have a poll - a sondaggio - where you get the chance to vote "No, fa veramente schifo" which currently has 70% of the vote.
If you want to be more intellectual and deep than the Plebs Romana, you can take a cue from the Mayor of Rome who said that the statue is "strikingly beautiful and evocative: a modern work that as such stimulates and moves the imagination."
27 comments:
It could either mean he was too open to the world, as the sedevacantists would say, or be a reference to how he denied himself (died to himself, "emptied himself") to follow Christ. Ambiguous artwork is bad artwork. True artwork edifies and communicates clear truth.
Hardly surprising that Alemanno should like it, given his political preferences - and their associated aesthetic.
Here is a better statue from Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Doylestown PA USA.
http://www.23hq.com/bkovacs/photo/6701654
Basically, it's just a head; nor does it look much like the new Blessed. The rest looks as if there should be a seat inside it, but perhaps it's meant to represent his warmth, reaching out to embrace us all. It also reminds me, in a stylised modern way, of the hollowed-out trunk of an ancient, decayed but still living oak tree.
I'm doing my best, but it's grim work.
Hi, Father!
Here's another VERY UGLY statue of the Pope. This was made back in 1980! But, yes, the one in your post wins! :)
http://parquesepracasdecuritiba.com.br/parques/bosque-do-papa.html
And here's a close up of this thing ....er... I mean, "art":
http://www.parquesepracasdecuritiba.com.br/images/papa12.jpg
In Christ,
Patricia
Why, on first look does it resemble Winston Churchill, and then, on closer inspection, look a little like a podgy Paul VI?
Crud. Pure and simple... good for the pigeons though; hope they make good use out of it ;c).
One might be able to forgive the inept attempt at meaning if the artist had succeeded in providing a plausible likeness. Too bad an artist with an innate need to produce bus shelters was hired to produce an image of Blessed John Paul.
Its like a cross section of a bell made out of a giant sheet of blue tac opened outwards with a head stuck on it.
My cat could have produced something more appropriate than that... and she died several months ago.
So the mayor of Rome said "strikingly beautiful and evocative: a modern work that as such stimulates and moves the imagination."?
It isn't and it doesn't.
It just sits there unmoving and unstimulating like a huge unloved tea cosy.
The only way in which my imagination is moved is trying to remember if Dante`s inferno had a specific level of Hell for artists that inflicted such works on their unsuspecting fellow Italians.
Eagle eyed readers may have formed the impression that I am not keen on it.
At least the artist didn't depict his head as empty.
It looks like Winston Churchill's head on top of a bus shelter. Noting remotely JPII about it. :-(
It looks as if the statue won first prize in an "ugly is the new beauty" competition
Truly ghastly. Though, in fairness, at least they gave him a head...unlike whatever artist made a strange representation of Our Lord on the cross for a crucifix in a church I attended a few weeks ago. Our Lord was given a little blob to the side of his neck, but it would hardly qualify as a head to any reasonable person.
Initially, I too thought it looked like Churchill, but now I think it is Mussolini. Do you think they have reused a head dug up from somewhere round the back of the station?
At any rate, I wonder who will be first to be photographed standing under it in a 'cappello romano' –you or Fr Z?
I'm afraid the interior is likely to be used as a pissoir.
Looks like a public lavatory.
I thought it was a rather fat Ian Hislop first of all, but then I thought "Winston Churchill". Glad to see others have had the same reaction.
Brings to mind Winnie's famous reaction to the Sutherland portrait presented to him on his 80th birthday. "It is", he said, "a remarkable example of modern art".
Just so!
Not only is it ugly, it also already looks old and dirty. What are those big brown splotches on it? Is that rust or dirt?
It's brash enough to grab one's attention, but actually it's hollow at the core and contains little merit. Reminds of those JPII papal masses!!!
Maybe this is genuine public sculpture and it's up to the great Roman public to finish it off by making it look like a human rather than the entrance to a JPII theme park ride.
Well they say de gustibus non est disputandum but in this case I think the gustus is very much disputandum.
We'll see if the Romans embrace it con gusto!
Statue ? Statue ? I thought it was a modern day Cathedral.
Off topic, Fr. Three Mill on Sunday ?
Yes, it is looking like that. Probably late on Sunday, though. I'll get some champagne and cake for after evening Mass on Monday :-)
It kind of looks like Jabba the Hut from the old Star Wars movies. It probably won the Crescat's Bad Art Makes Baby Jesus Cry award.
It's.....well......it's.......hm.
They've turned him into a Blue Meanie.
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