ONE of the prime tourist attractions in Italy these days is a marble sculpture of the body of Jesus Christ lying wrapped in a fine shroud.
Reuters reported that busloads of blind and disabled people from all over Italy are coming to a studio in Bologna in northern Italy. The studio is owned by 41-year-old Felice Tagliaferri, a sculptor who has been blind since the age of 14.
Tagliaferri decided two years ago to work on the sculpture after he was prevented from touching ‘Cristo Velato’ (Veiled Christ), a famous statue in Italy. The decision to recreate the 1753 AD masterpiece in marble came to Tagliaferri after the incident.
And when Tagliaferri calls the life-sized Jesus Christ sculpture he has created ‘Cristo Rivelato’ (Christ Revealed), the joke is not lost on anyone.
The sculptor now looks forward to going again to Naples where he was denied permission to touch and feel Giuseppe Sanmartino’s statue. Tagliaferri’s rendition of Christ’s body begins a tour across Italy from Feb 26 to March 13. Pope Benedict XVI is also expected to see it in Ancona on Sept 11.
According to Reuters, ‘Christ Revealed’ started as a small clay model. Tagliaferri raised $21,910 and bought a 4,000 kg block of marble stone. He estimated the size of Christ’s body by asking a friend to lie on top of the marble stone and measuring his body.
People who have seen both Sanmartino’s sculpture and Tagliaferri’s marble statue say they look shockingly similar. However, Tagliaferri doesn’t mind people running their fingers over his creation.
“It’s forbidden not to touch,” he says.
