Controversy has erupted in Spain and on social media over a poster of Jesus created to promote Easter week celebrations in the city of Seville – sparking mixed reactions with Spanish conservatives deeming the image “offensive”.aberration“and”sexualized and feminine“Jesus is also a social media user who defends the artist’s artistic vision or created memes have fun with the picture.
Months ago, the Council of Brotherhoods, which organizes the main events of Easter week in Seville, commissioned the famous artist Salustiano Garcia to create a painting promoting the holiday.
García presented the final product on Saturday an event In addition to the leadership of the Brotherhood Council in Seville, the mayor of the city, José Luis Sanz, also participated.
The artist told local media at the time that his version of the resurrected Jesus on a plain red background was modeled after his son Horacio. During the unveiling of the painting, Garcia’s work was met with high praise and applause.
In spoke to media representatives after the eventHoracio said he had heard of people saying his father’s portrayal of Jesus was “very attractive. … Thank you very much. That’s all I have to say.”
But after the incident, criticism began.
Javier Navarro from the far-right Vox party in Spain said X on the social media platform that poster”he was trying to provoke” and did not advance the mission of “encouraging faithful participation in the Holy Week of Seville”.
Pablo Hertfelder García-Conde, president of the religious freedom organization IPSE, known for his ultraconservative Catholic views, X said that “the poster is offensive” and an aberration and “does not correspond to what the Holy Week in Seville symbolizes”.
An organization of Christian lawyers has launched a petition demanding the removal of the poster and the resignation of the president of the Council of Brothers, Francisco Vélez.
The application by Thursday afternoon, it had collected more than 21,000 signatures.
The artist said this in response to criticism Spain’s ABC newspaper He said that his image of Jesus was “elegant, graceful and beautiful” and that it was created with “deep respect”.
“You’d have to be sick to see sexuality in my Christ,” he said, insisting there was “nothing” in his painting that “wasn’t already represented in artwork from hundreds of years ago.”
A user in X “Get ready for the homophobia the Seville Holy Week poster will unleash,” he responded to the backlash.
Renowned Spanish sociologist and political scientist Rafa Lopez he answered the critics by saying in a news program, “Those involved in the Holy Week poster scandal in Seville are doing so not because it is tradition, but because they are deeply racist and homophobic.”
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