Pericle Fazzini’s The Resurrection (1977, renovated 2011) at the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican. The giant 66 ft sculpture depicts Christ’s resurrection from the crater of a nuclear bomb in Jerusalem.
Quote from the artist:
“Suddenly there came to me the idea of Christ preaching peace for 2,000 years, and the place where He prayed for the last time: the olive grove of Gethsemane,” said Mr. Fazzini in a book about the work. ”I had the idea of depicting Christ as if He were rising again from the explosion of this large olive grove, peaceful site of His last prayers. Christ rises from this crater torn open by a nuclear bomb; an atrocious explosion, a vortex of violence and energy.”
(link)
This nuclear bomb comes 2000 years after Jesus is supposed to have begun his ministry (when he was 30).
So most of those skulls in the sculpture would be those of people alive today in Israel Palestine.
And the pope gives speeches in front of that.
Like, are you trying to look evil.
So this is probably my favorite painting right now!
Its petty intense.
done by R-L-Frisby
Engraved in the forehead are the Citipati, also known as “Lords of the Graveyard”. They are depicted in the “bow and arrow”-posture (elbows and knees intertwined) which referes to the highest grade of the Outer Tantra. The monk who teaches in the “Institut für Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde”, Punchok Namgal, told me that there are seven tantric levels. 3 levels of the Outer, and 4 levels of the Inner Tantra. On the highest grade of the Inner Tantra, the skeletons would be depicted copulating.
