By Mary DeTurris PoustOkay, let's take a poll. What do you think of this hideously ugly statue of Blessed John Paul II, the first to be erected by the city of Rome? Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to remain unbiased in asking that poll question? Impossible. But maybe I'm just not looking at this the right way. Let's see what others think.
Here's what CNS Blog posted on the subject:
This week the city of Rome erected its first statue of Blessed Pope John Paul II. The Vatican newspaper said yesterday what a lot of people were thinking: it’s ugly.
Sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi intended to show the late pope with his cape billowing in the wind, as a symbolic image of welcome. The 16-foot-tall bronze sculpture was placed outside Rome’s main train station, where tens of thousands of visitors arrive daily.
But when unveiled May 18, it looked more like an open tent, or a sentry-box, or a bell, commented L’Osservatore Romano. The papal cape looks like it was split open by a bomb. More importantly, the newspaper said, it’s unrecognizable as John Paul II — the head is “excessively spherical.”
Excessively spherical is probably the nicest thing anyone could say about this sculpture. Okay all you art aficionados and JPII fans, let's have it. What do you think of this statue?
