Jesus Christ: Pro Wrestler?

Jesus Christ: Pro Wrestler? May 6, 2015

Here’s the official logo for the upcoming Year of Mercy:

logo

My first thought was: Why does Jesus have two heads? Is it theological statement on his two natures? Is the other head supposed to be Rosy Grier?

Then I realized that the mustard colored thing draped across his shoulders isn’t a stole or something, but a man, and Jesus appears ready to body slam the dude into the mat. I think I saw King Kong Bundy do this to Doink the Clown once.

Why does he have no bones? And the merging eyeball is seriously disturbing, despite the silly reasoning:

The image, created by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, also shows one of Jesus’ eyes merged with the man’s to show how “Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ.”

That doesn’t make any sense at all.

Why are we getting bad art like this in 2015? I think this same illustration was on the cover of my 4th grade CCD textbook in 1977: Your Friend Jesus!

Beauty can’t save the world if the people responsible for Church design and expression have the artistic sensibility Norman Bridwell.

The sad part is that the original artist, Fr. Rupnik, is a talented creator of mosaics. But in transferring the visual language from one medium to another something essential was lost, creating this absurd image. What works in mosaic on a wall doesn’t necessarily work as pure graphical design on the screen or page. I appreciate the Byzantine influence on his work, but in this case the result is an aesthetic fail.

See also: Simcha Fisher


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