Today at 8:30am Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, Bishop David L. Ricken blessed a newly created statue of our Blessed Mother. To see the statue, you may visit the Shrine, or see a photo of it posted on the official Shrine Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/125fLUg.Diocese of Green Bay
Our Lady of Good Help, pray for us.
15 comments:
Wow, that is a supremely ugly statue!
It's shockingly cheap looking. It looks like it was modeled after a nordic barbie.
I'm in training all week, but I have thoughts on this as well.
Here is the image of the existing statue which they keep in the stairwell and not even in the main church.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aNuk_VjGKMU/T6FioupPwYI/AAAAAAAAFSE/UV61TBwYpUY/s1600/IMG_4262.JPG
The image that you linked to is far better than the new one... but, it's not a great piece of art. Very typical of mass-produced, late-19th Century statuary.
Seriously, the Church claims that it's such a great patron of the arts, but what we manage to produce is mediocre at best.
I think the statue looks nice. I like it. Why criticize this art? An effort was made to represent Our Lady of Good Help with a newer statue and I appreciate their effort. It may not be perfect in everyone's eyes but you should keep your negative comments to yourself. This is an Image of the Blessed Mother. No Image will ever look exactly like her but it does represent Her.
Our Lady of Good Help Pray for us. Amen
Oh dear. Catholic art and images are supposed to invoke in us inspiration and meditation of a higher nature. When one's eye is dramatically drawn down instead of upward, literally and figuratively, then one has to honestly admit there is a problem with the artwork itself.
Personally, and all are entitled to express the effect a particular piece of art work has on them, my eye first settled on the statue's face, moved down to the almost explosive effect of the overly-defined breasts that once nursed the Infant Christ Child, and then down to the legs and knees which jut out at a rather irregular angle. The image and its effect are most unseemly. I felt as though some reparation to the Blessed Virgin is due over this kind of modern artistic license.
Hopefully, the beautiful statute in the crypt at the Shrine will be kept in place. That statute has a mysterious and ethereal quality to it -- one is completely mesmerized by the Virgin's contemplation and one's gaze is pulled away with great difficulty.
Why criticize this art? Because it's bad art! Really bad.
Now, the quality of a piece of artwork does not depend on its realism or as you say, the fact that "No Image [sic] will ever look exactly like her." Kitschy or saccharine religious "art" (this statue happens to be both) does severe damage to the divine realities that it's supposed to represent. It distorts our image of the divine and turns Mary into a sweet, palatable image that we can accept. Look at that statue! This is not the Mary who was a pregnant, unwed mother. This is not the Mary who frantically searched for her lost Son. This is not the Mary who stood at the foot of Calvary. Heck, this isn't even the Mary who was taken body and soul into heaven! Rather, this statue says nothing. It's a bland images that represent what we white, middle class Americans find to be acceptable.
The arts have a responsibility. And if the Church is the patron of these arts, the responsibility is even greater. Unfortunately, that opportunity to create something truly beautiful and theologically deep was not carried out in this situation.
The problem with the statute is first impressions: it's immodest and not holy. I am not an art critic and admit not having seen every depiction of Our Lady, but I do not ever remember seeing any image of Our Lady that accentuates the waist and hips and has inappropriate draping. If you tell me I'm wrong, tell me why I'm wrong.
I will pray for this statue to be removed from the Shrine.
The new stature does not depict a holy image of our Blessed Mother.
A pure and innocent young woman.
Why make her breasts and knees so obvious. Why yellow /blond hair and glossy clothes.
It looks like something that belongs in Hollywood.
they should have just had an icon painted
I have a great temptation to paint her toenails!
Our Lady of God Help Us All!
The statue looks like the tawdry 'art' you would find in souvenir stores at many pilgrimage sites. It is Barbie-esque - like something out of Hollywood or an airbrushed model in a fashion magazine. It is not conducive to contemplation of the perfection of the Blessed Virgin.
A definite FAIL.
Sr. Adele saw golden hair. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with the sheer and utter hideousness of the statue.
I very like this statue of Virgin Mary. I find it very beautiful. Mary is very beautiful.
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