A fresco, not moving images, but still... A case of suspected vandalism in a church in a northeastern village in Spain has turned out to be probably the worst art restoration project of all time. An elderly woman stepped forward this week to claim responsibility for disfiguring a century-old “ecce homo” fresco of Jesus crowned with thorns, in Santuario de la Misericordia, a Roman Catholic church in Borja, near the city of Zaragoza. Ecce homo, or behold the man, refers to an artistic motif that depicts Jesus, usually bound and with a crown of thorns, right before his crucifixion. The woman, Cecilia Giménez, who is in her 80s, said on Spanish national television that she had tried to restore the fresco, which she called her favorite local representation of Jesus, because she was upset that parts of it had flaked off due to moisture on the church’s walls. The authorities in Borja said they had suspected vandalism at first, but then determined that the shocking alterations had been made by an elderly parishioner. The authorities said she had acted on her own. But Ms. Giménez later defended herself, saying she could not understand the uproar because she had worked in broad daylight and had tried to salvage the fresco with the approval of the local clergy. “The priest knew it,” she told Spanish television. “I’ve never tried to do anything hidden.” Ms. Giménez said she had worked on the fresco using a 10-year-old picture of it, but she eventually left Jesus with a half-beard and, some say, a monkeylike appearance. The fresco’s botched restoration came to light this month when descendants of the 19th-century artist, Elías Garcia Martínez, proposed making a donation toward its upkeep. --The New York Times August 23, 2012
This news hit Spain becouse is The example of what is hapenning here, everything is a disaster here and this is quite an example of The situation
What i want to say is that of this work would be made by a professional this things wouldnt happened but instead of that an old lady of The village do The Job, They didnt want to Pay an artist, thats your product!
There is a lot of wonderful art in Spain. Hopefully this a rare case of good intentions leading to a bad result.
I was thinking that a rough parallel could be drawn between this situation and people with little or no experience who acquire grading software of one kind or another and attempt to market themselves as colorists. Also, it's my understanding that Ms. Giménez decided on her own to undertake the project, rather than the village deciding not to pay a professional to do the job.
She was clearly going for a Picasso like Cubist re imagining of the original classical deist representation. -Rob-
Looks like it was done by a kid on a laptop with a free version of a popular color program, and only a laptop screen for a grading monitor. But then again, it could have been done by a kid with a laptop and a color plugin. At any rate, they probably overcharged the client. Just sayin'. Best, J
