Ecce Homo

Sometimes, after seeing it for so long, I think to myself, son of mine, you are not as ugly as I thought you were in the beginning.
~Cecilia Giménez

Hi y'all,

You might think that I would have caught up with the blog now that the holidays are over, but you would be incorrect. I posted Wellness Wednesday on Tuesday because I was completely positive that it was Wednesday. I didn't realize my mistake until the end of the day.

I didn't get something together for Art Thursday before this morning, but at least I know what day it is, ha ha! So, I'm turning to a topic close to home-ish. My older daughter heard a podcast about the messed-up restoration of Spanish Jesus, aka Monkey Christ, aka Beast Jesus, and she was fascinated.

Here's some info about it from Christie Chu of Artnet:

In 2012, Cecilia Giménez, an 82-year-old widow and amateur painter, attempted to restore Ecce Homo, an almost century-old fresco of Jesus crowned with thorns in her local church in Borja, Spain.

Despite a valiant effort, the tragically failed restoration went viral and Giménez’s attempt was met with mockery and scorn. Images of the botched fresco swirled around Twitter and Facebook, inspiring a slew of memes and parodies now found on the Internet.

But, two years later, the village has reassessed their attitudes and turned their ridicule into gratitude, reports the New York Times. The viral images and memes gifted the rural town with free publicity—150,000 tourists from all over the world came to see Giménez’s artistic endeavor and visit the sanctuary overlooking Borja.

“Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art?” asked Andrew Flack, an opera librettist who traveled to Borja for research on a new production. “It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon. God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle.”

Ariana told us about it and her sister painted one for her:

by Elena, after Cecilia Giménez

Miracles and disasters, all bound up together! Life and art.