I was dying to find out the reaction to the new “statue” of John Paul II near Rome’s train station. It is, in my opinion, horrendous. In the pages of the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano there is a short blurb about this new blotch on the City. Given the way L’OssRom has in the past gotten nearly everything wrong about the ultra-pro-abortion Pres. Obama, I figured I might find a pseudo-intellectual justification for the statues great thought-provoking depth. It’s have provoked my thoughts, I’ll tell you. But I digress.
In a piece by Sandro Barbagallo I read the acknowledgement that the face perched ominously on top of the menacing open-refrigerator-like glob, has “only a distant resemblance” to Bl. John Paul. “In sum, the result does not seem to at the level of the intention.” Later, it says that the head is “excessively spherical”.
When sketches had been presented, the symbolism seemed clear. And an idiot can figure out what this ugly thing was supposed to be saying to the onlooker. The writer also raises the point that, perhaps, given where it is situated and the number of people who will go past it the statue of Pope John Paul II could have been made in such a way that it resembled Pope John Paul II.
In an AP story I found these great quips.
Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed that the sketch “received a positive opinion by the culture commission” of the Holy See. What happened between sketch stage and the final result, he couldn’t say.
A Rome cleaning woman ventured some practical objections, as well as artistic. “With the shape of a cape, sooner or later the homeless people at the station will sleep inside it, and in no time, it will be full of bottles of beer,” said Grazia Liberti, 46, returning home after her night job.
It seemed like a good idea at the time….
