The season of Lent is a time for Christians to strip away their attachments to worldly pleasures and stand naked before God, but the Italian artist Jacopo Cardillo has taken this to another level with a sculpture of a shirtless Pope Emeritus which is currently on display in Rome.
In a piece titled, “From Benedict XVI to Ratzinger”, the sculptor known as “Jago” shows the retired Pope wearing just his white zucchetto skullcap and the fisherman’s ring - a symbol of the office of the papacy - on his right hand.
Jago is a huge admirer of the 90-year-old Benedict, who was the first Pope in more than 600 years to resign the papacy, telling Crux that his work is designed to celebrate someone he describes as “the greatest theologian alive”.
The sculpture of the Pope Emeritus, which can be seen at the Museo Carlo Bilotti in the Borghese Gardens, bears a striking resemblance to the real person, and is a new version of the one Jago designed in 2009. The first one had Benedict XVI dressed in the papal garments but, following Benedict’s resignation on 11 February 2013, the artist decided to strip them away.
“That day I decided to intervene and modify it, but not in a derisive way,” he explained to Crux.
He said that he kept the ring and the zucchetto because he believes Benedict cannot say: “I can no longer be Pope, I’ll go back to being a cardinal.” What was started, Jago says, cannot be cancelled.
Following his resignation, the Pope Emeritus moved to a former monastery in the grounds of the Vatican and continues to wear a white cassock. Some had speculated he would have chosen the titled “Bishop Emeritus of Rome” and worn the garb of a retired bishop and cardinal. But while he continues to wear the papal white, he does so without the mozzetta, a short cape which is a symbol of a bishop - and in this case Pope’s - authority.
PICTURE: 'From Benedict XVI to Ratzinger' by 'Jago' in the exhibition 'Habemus Hominem' at the Museo Carlo Bilotti (image by Christopher Lamb).
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