Meloni Fresco: San Lorenzo in Lucina Controversy

The face of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni instead of that of a cherub in a fresco in a chapel of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina. It may seem like a story invented for fun but it really happened and the case becomes not only political but touches the sphere of the sacred and spirituality, moreover in the holy city, the heart of Christianity. At least the art has been put aside: the fresco was recently created (2000) and needed a little touch up. However, the restoration has become a kind of tazebao or Facebook bulletin board: the resemblance between the frescoed face and that of the prime minister is too obvious for it to be all a coincidence, and what’s more, the vaguely government cherub is also holding a parchment depicting Italy. The interested party, the artist’s involuntary model, laughs it off but naturally gloats and on Facebook chooses this very theme (among the various ones that animated this last Saturday of January at least until the evening) to say: “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel”. But in the meantime the parish priest of the basilica speaks, the restorer speaks, the ministry and the vicariate of Rome are moving. The embarrassment lies with the institutions, less with the protagonists of the story.

Monsignor Daniele Michelettia priest who has managed San Lorenzo in Lucina since 2000, speaks freely: “For me it is not a problem to have an angel with the face of the prime minister. Between Meloni and Schlein who would I have preferred? Neither of them. If there is growth in the right-wing faithful, it’s not a problem: I’ll wait for them at Mass tomorrow” he tellsAdnKronos. “In fact there is a certain similarity – he admits speaking to theAnsa -, but you should ask the restorer why he did it like that, I don’t know. I had asked to restore the chapel exactly as it was now, I don’t know the features of a face if they are exactly those, the angel was there and he was there in that way”. Monsignor Micheletti explains among other things that the restoration was financed within the church itself “but we also had some sponsorassociations and two foundations about which I cannot say anything however privacy reasons“, he explained to LaPresse. For the restoration “I notified the Superintendency, but it was only a communication – he added – because it was a fresco from 2000 it is not part of the protection.” The restorer Bruno Valentinetti plays defense: “Who says it’s Prime Minister Meloni? You have to say it, the parish priest didn’t say it, he said she looks like her.” “For this face – he claims – I did a restoration and I restored what was there before 25 years ago, the same, I had to take the designs and colors from 25 years ago, it shouldn’t be changed”. “I reply to the controversies that they are all inventions. There are also those who say that the other angel is Conte” he concludes with a laugh.

The vicariate of Rome, governed by the cardinal, seems more altered Baldo Queen which to begin with expressed “surprise”, then announced the checks and finally put out a note in which (verbatim) “distances itself” from Monsignor Micheletti, expresses “its bitterness for what happened” and “will immediately initiate the necessary investigations to verify the possible responsibilities of the parties involved”. In renewing the commitment of the Diocese of Rome to the custody of the artistic and spiritual heritage – adds Cardinal Reina in the statement -, it is firmly reiterated that images of sacred art and Christian tradition cannot be the subject of improper use or exploitationbeing intended exclusively to support liturgical life and personal and community prayer”.

The opposition calls the Minister of Culture into question Alessandro Giuli that the little he can do is get the superintendency moving: the inspectors will arrive. “The hypothesis – states the leader of the Democratic Party in the Chamber’s culture commission in a note – Irene to the Business – that a restoration intervention on a protected property may have produced an image attributable to a contemporary face represents a potential and serious violation of the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code, which prohibits arbitrary alterations, personalizations and interventions not strictly based on scientific and historical-artistic criteria”.

Critics and art historians are taken aback, if not stunned. “In the past it was common to depict the powerful, but I don’t remember any cases in recent decades…” he says Achille Bonito Oliva. “It is best for art to distance itself from contingency, otherwise it becomes news…” he adds Flavio Caroli. Of course, in the Renaissance – remember theAdnKronos – often the powerful people of the time and the artists themselves ended up on canvases and paintings in churches. In the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, in the frescoes of Raphaelthe image of comes back several times Arfulioi iione of the best-known clients and patrons of the time. Sanzio repeatedly pays homage to him, retreating in turn among the Swiss guards who support the papal sedan chair in the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple. In the Scrovegni Chapelmoving to PadovaIn the Last Judgment Of Giottothe client Enrico Scrovegni he is portrayed offering the model of the chapel to the Madonna, a gesture thought of as atonement for his family’s sins of usury. “In those days art was a pyramid, with at the top Michelangelo and the great Florentine artisans at the base, now it is a large plain – comments Caroli – and there is an increasingly flatter chronicle…”. “I don’t want to judge – he concludes – because I love great history, I don’t like too close-up news…”.