Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/10/behold-another-botched-restora.html
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All those white marble statues of ancient Greece were originally painted in vivid colors. Just sayin.
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Say what you will but this shipped-out-of-Hong-Kong-for-$1.99 look is very 21st century and Pope did say he wants to modernize the Church.
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The new look is eye-catching, I’ll give it that much.
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It looks like a Romero Britto’s painting…
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Who is to say if a work of art is botched? We all have opinions, sure. But I’d hold off saying something has objectively been botched.
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Botchicelli.
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She must have been guided by the hand of God.
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More comments here (Another) Garish Spain statue makeover (of Jesus and Mary) derided
The original had an antique gravitas; but the new version paints a lively picture of Paradise.
Indeed, saying if a work of art is botched or not is the preserve of the Art Experts. Oh, course, if this same paint job had been done by Jeff Koons, it would be hailed as a challenging exploration of the sacred and the profane; and would be given a price to match. 
That’s how you can tell is something is “great” art; it has a name attached you can recognise, and five or six zeroes at the end of the price tag. 
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The little detail of the archer holding a second arrow on that statue is so cool.
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Rañadoiro. No “El” to it, and a ñ.
This is … well, more or less around my area here. Not exactly, is in the mountains, but well, same very small part of Spain.
Expect to see a lot of this in the future from Spain, both for the reasons you suspect, plus the fact that we have a ton of antique stuff that is in the hand of the church, with absolutely no oversight at all and no consideration of it being cultural artifacts that need conservation, just stuff that is “of the Church” for the priest and congregation to do whatever they want
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I’m sure it’s terribly done on a technical level and didn’t take into account the proper colors and proper restoration techniques etc., but it’s not like they weren’t pretty garish already. Here’s all 3 that were repainted as they appeared originally and after. The main one shown evidently had its paint removed previously at some point so it makes for a stark “horrifying” comparison–but seeing the other two sculptures give a better idea of what they’d looked like before and may shed some light on why so many villagers seem not to have a big problem with the colorful look.
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As religious artifacts i don’t care as i’m not a believer. But as cultural and historical artifacts i am concerned that the new paints will irreparably damage the wood
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Looking at those colors, I’d say more like the hand of “Gawd.”
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she did great!
The sanctimony around touching up old pieces of art is as grating as any religious sanctimony. It’s just some old ugly sculptures, and they look better now (sorry if that offends your beliefs but they do, they look better).
I think it’s really endearing to see people engaging with their own religion like it isn’t a dead and bygone curiosity. And unless these were statues that you personally held as sacred, I don’t see what the fuss is about.
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… because they are part of the artistic heritage all of us in the country, believers or not, locals or not, have? Because at the bare minimum, giving those jobs to professionals will ensure they perdure more in time and we get to know about the actual techniques used by the actual artists?
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