Tea at Trianon: The Statue

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Statue

There is a controversy surrounding the new statue of Blessed John Paul II. Liz Lev reports:

Regrettably, the statue resembles neither the handsome 58-year-old who charmed the Romans by speaking their dialect, or the suffering 83-year-old who inspired them with his courage. It evokes neither the warm sparkle in his eye seen during his 331 visits to Rome's 337 parishes nor the determined set of his face when he sternly denounced the mafia preying on the Italian people.

Mostly, the indistinctness of the work seems to be a betrayal of the man. John Paul II was clear and outspoken, never ambiguous. This is the man who restored the Sistine Chapel to return beauty to the world and the best Rome can offer is a befuddling bronze blob? For a city that immortalized Augustus with the Prima Porta statue, where Michelangelo left us Moses, and Bernini's sculptures seem to speak, Oliviero Rainaldi's efforts make one wonder where the proud tradition of art has gone.

Suddenly Pope Julius II, micro-manager of the arts, breathing over Michelangelo's shoulder or overworking Raphael, seems like a patron devoutly to be desired.

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3 comments:

Elan said...: I totally agree with you! That is a really ugly blob of bronze. One can hardly tell what it is supposed to be and that is a tribute to Pope John Paul II? It is a scar on the face of Rome.; June 1, 2011 at 8:50:00 AM EDT
Dymphna said...: Terrible. It looks like a combination of Mussolini and a vampire.; June 1, 2011 at 1:06:00 PM EDT
Julygirl said...: I get the symbolism, but it could have been depicted in a warmer way, It is not art.; June 3, 2011 at 1:55:00 PM EDT