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Church masterpiece 'restored' as Mr. Bean would do it
The efforts of an elderly parishioner to restore a 120-year-old fresco on a column inside a Spanish church have some wondering if a Mr. Bean movie was the inspiration for the effort.
The fresco, titled Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), is a depiction of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns. It was painted on a wall of the Sanctuary of Mercy at Borja, near Zaragoza, Spain, by artist Elias Garcia Martinez more than a century ago.
Its troubling "restoration" occurred after the local Center for Borja Studies received the donation of a canvas done by Garcia from one his granddaughters who lives nearby, according to the center's blog.
Center staff noted that the only other known work by Garcia in the area was Ecce Homo, went to the church to photograph the fresco, and realized it was in bad shape.
Parishioner Cecilia Giménez said she was asked by the church to fix things up.
“The priest was aware … he knew,” she is quoted as saying in a report on Euronews.com. “Of course I did it because I was told to do it."
In its blog, the center expresses "astonishment" that "an intervention was done" on the painting.
"As unbelievable as it sounds, this is what remains of the work of an artist whose relatives still live in our city," the blog reads.
Giménez said her work was done in the open and nobody tried to stop her, according to Euronews.
"Everybody that came into the church saw me. I never tried to hide,” she is quoted as saying.
"Clearly, she has destroyed the painting," Garcia's granddaughter, Teresa Garcia, is quoted as saying.
The center says it doesn't know if the "restoration" can be fixed.
"We don’t know if this indescribable act has a solution, but there is no doubt that someone should adopt strict measures so that there is not a repetition of acts like this, which despite its intentions, should be strongly condemned," its blog says.
But in reader comments on the blog, some wonder whether the "restoration" is a repetition of a previous act, one from the 1997 Rowan Atkinson film "Bean."
“Something similar happened in the movie Mr. Bean. … It probably inspired whoever did this,” one commenter writes.
In the movie, Mr. Bean accidentally sneezes on the masterpiece "Whistler's Mother" and attempts a crude repair.
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The Ecce Homo "restoration" is arguably better than Bean's line drawing, and that might be just as well, because there's doubt that Ecce Homo can be returned to its original splendor. And at least one commenter on the blog sees a silver lining.
"I think that the city of Borja should conserve the painting in its current state," the person writes. "It could become a tourist attraction for the town.”
I don't like christianity but I do like old catholic art. This restoration is a total piece of crap. If you know you can't do something that is delicate and requires skill, don't try. Especially not on something like this.
The meaning behind the art was more important than the art itself. It's just a painting.. not something to be worshiped.
Reading the comments it appears you all need to pay more attention to the words of jesus, than art articles on cnn. Bunch of judges and hypocrites..
Artwork is critiqued and judged. Get over it.
You need to get over yourself more than I need to get over this..
i hope you have hobbies other than replying to every single comment you disagree with. if you think someone shouldn't care about a painting of jesus, then you REALLY shouldnt care about anonymous comments left on the internet. because that is about 1000x lower in terms of importance.
Are you off your meds or something? This has nothing to do with worshiping Jesus, Mary, Joseph. It could just as easily been a painting of Juan Valdez holding a can of Folgers Coffee The art restorer is a hack and shouldn't be touching ANYBODY's ART not even with a 10 foot pole on her paint roller.
Thanks for tying in Mr. bean and clips. I was already chuckling at the real situation and Mr. Bean mitigated the
fiasco.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t even imagine what the baby Jesus must have looked like. Clearly the three wise men dropped their Frankincense and myrrh–along with anything else that might have been weighing them down–and then ran like hell in the opposite direction. This is why we have Christmas.
This is upsetting as a christian.. I could have done a better job.
If your a christian you shouldn't really be caring about a painting... can't take it with you.
It's not THAT bad. it is a bit different, because it includes the bottom of the scroll, which corrects the mistake of the original. The original does not have the bottom of the scroll curved. But the new one improves that aspect of it. It's not as skilled as the old one, but i do like the improvement of the bottom of the scroll.
She's no artist.
Jesus wasn't an artist either.
LOL
Too much communion that afternoon....
The new one looks more appealing than the sad jesus with thorns stuck in his head. I always wondered how many children were terrified by this grotesque imagery and immediately became nonbelievers.
She purposely destroyed it. There is no other explanation. She was asked to RESTORE the painting, not to put her own interpretation on it. Saying that "others saw her work" is no excuse.
Its very close if you look at it out of focus. I suspect the restorer may need glasses.
This is why we don't let women do things
bad answer, but it made me laugh!
Jesus wept.
For you and your awful comments maybe..