Sculpture and Interpretation Jesus of Nazereth

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella                    Sculpture copyright  Greg Furmanczyk

Over the past several weeks, I've been moulding two versions of the Crucified Christ. The two sculptors, Peter Joyce and Greg Furmanczyk are almost at polar opposites in their interpretation of this very well known subject. What I mean is that not only the execution(pardon the pun) is different but the intent as well.

Photo Credit  Art  Di Lella            Sculpture copyright  Peter Joyce

To begin with, back in the spring, I was commissioned by the artist Peter Joyce to construct a mould over his Crucified Christ clay model. I was struck by it's almost complete departure from traditional iconography.

Photo  credit  Art  Di Lella                      Sculpture copyright  Peter  Joyce

 The Christ figure has no hair,no beard,no crown of thorns,no loin cloth, his eyes are open and He is alive. Plus His musculature and proportions are consistent with a male bodybuilder. This is a radical departure from the tradtional imagery but as the artist explained it to me it was a work of personal devotion that's to emphasize the living and powerful Christ.
The sculpture is half natural size and will be cast in bronze by the Crucible Foundry.

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella                             Sculpture copyright  Greg  Furmanczyk    

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella                       Sculpture copyright   Greg  Furmanczyk

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella                               Sculpture copyright  Greg  Furmanczyk

The second work shown is by the artist Greg Furmanczyk.
 I also started moulding this sculpture in the spring as well. This is a commissioned work for a Catholic Church in western Canada. This version of Christ although it appears as a traditional corpus, it too has deviated from some of the conventions as well.  First of all you'll notice the face has a serene expression and not one of a suffering Christ or a dead one. Secondly, like Peter's version this Christ also lacks a crown of thorns. Finally, the treatment of the body is classical in inspiration but it's modeled in a more contemporary manner with the musculature and proportions that are more natural and not idealized.
The sculpture shown is cast in reinforced gypsum cement and is natural in size.

In sum,both these projects are a little unusual for me because it's extremely rare to find any contemporary artist let alone two,sculpting sacred images and casting them at the same time. I found it fascinating how different their conceptions were of the same subject and wondered how many serious artists attempt this type of religious imagery nowadays?

Anyway, I will be back later in the week. Take care.