Update: Hear From the 80-Year-Old Grandma Who Ruined a Rare Jesus Painting by ‘Restoring’ It
- Posted on August 23, 2012 at 9:54pm by
Jason Howerton
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On Tuesday, TheBlaze was one of the first news outlets to bring you the story of the 80-year-old Spanish grandmother who, even if good-intentioned, ruined a fresco painting of Jesus after attempting to “restore” it. The painting belongs to the Centro de Estudios Borjanos church in Borja, Spain.
Here‘s the photo that shows the painting’s gradual destruction:
(Source: Gawker)
The leftmost image is what the painting looked like two years ago; the middle image is how it looked in July when it was photographed for a religious art catalog; and the rightmost image is how it looks now after the attempted restoration. In a painful stroke of irony, the church had reportedly just received a donation to have the fresco repaired professionally.
Now, Cecilia Jimenez, the elderly woman behind the botched touch-up, is speaking out and claiming she was asked to fix the painting, according to Al Jazeera. She is actually, believe it or not, a painter — or at least refers to herself as such.
“We saw that everything was falling down and we fixed it,” she told Spain state television TVE.
After being asked if she was instructed to fix the painting, she said: “Of course, the priest knew it. The priest knew it, he did. How could we do something like that without his permission?”
“You did it secretly, didn’t you?” a reporter asked.
“No, of course not. Everyone who came into the church could see me as I was painting.”
While the painting wasn’t necessarily valuable before it was ruined, it certainly was rare and considered to be one of two known original works of art by 19th century painter Elias Garcia Martinez.
All that being said, the old woman says she is upset with what she did and the way the painting turned out. The church isn‘t too happy with it either and is reportedly looking into whether they can restore Martinez’s “restoration.
Watch the interview via Al Jazeera below:
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Comments (51)
sldjulius
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:18amAm I the only person whose first thought was, “MR. BEAN STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Report Post »VanceUppercut
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:56pm@sldjulius
LOL, I thought of Mr. bean, too. Life imitates art.
Report Post »zantimisfit
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 1:15pmLooks like she took it to the Foto Hut, the one that was in Seinfeld, the one that George Costanza had the guy paint in Krugers face…
Report Post »NOT A CRAZY
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 6:27pmSLD…nope your are not. Someone else posted that on here 13 hours before you did.
Report Post »Shiroi Raion
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:03amGreat point, Glenn! She “fundamentally transformed” the painting into something we can’t even recognize.
Report Post »GodHatesFigs
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 10:19amI kind of like it better the way she made it.
Report Post »b00giep0p
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 10:12amDoes anybody else think the painting now looks like the elderly lady?
Report Post »vanman4446
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 3:59pmIs this woman all there, I think she has alzheimer’s
Report Post »izukiddin
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 9:08amSenora Jimenez should stay with her etch-a-sketch and her paint by the numbers sets.
Report Post »dabbob
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 8:54amWhat a effing idiot.
Report Post »Breezy
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 8:48amMy favorite story that really goes with this picture, there was a class of art students and the teacher ask them to paint a picture of Jesus and one of the students finished and was so impressed with his picture he took it up to the teacher and said that this was his best picture of Jesus; and the teacher looked at him and said ” If you loved him more, you would have painted a better picture”
Report Post »mersey
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 7:35amIt kinda looks like something kids used to do with Wooly Willy and the magnetic hair game or maybe a religious Chia Pet.
Report Post »reformed_2
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 8:43amEveryone acts as though this was a painting of a sitting of Christ. As far as we know He never “sat” for such a painting. There are no photos, paintings, nor physical descriptions of Him anywhere – especially in Scripture. Any such depictions demean His deity.
Report Post »Melika
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 10:03amI don‘t give a rat’s rear about Jesus’s divinity. It wouldn‘t matter if this was a painting of the artist’s neighbor. This is a big deal because she destroyed a rare work of art.
As for her excuses, she is a lying liar. No way would anyone give permission for a two-bit “artist” who is 80 years old to even touch this fresco with a dry brush. Even if she was the best stinking artist in the country, that wouldn’t make her qualified to restore a rare fresco. There are experts with years of experience and modern techniques and equipment who do this work.
She is such a stupid putz.
Does anyone know how the fresco became so damaged in two years?
Report Post »Truth4me
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 6:57amI heard she restores birth certificates also.
Report Post »VanceUppercut
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:57pm@Truth4me
I’ll let someone else take the time to tell you why your post is not only ignorant, but makes no sense.
Report Post »adr705
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 8:38pmI think maybe we’ve already seen some of her birth certificate work…and she should probably just stick to being a grandmother.
Report Post »grungewehr39
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 5:49amIt kinda looks like Cartman. I’d fully expect this to end up on South Park soon.
Report Post »R2
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 5:09amNow notice with Catholics we just want to see if the painting can be fixed imagine if that was alla the rag heads would be going nuts and putting a price on granny’s head.
Report Post »VanceUppercut
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:59pmI love the smell of bigotry in the morning. Jeebus is love!
Report Post »princessnutsack
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:54amlove that she added the scroll at the bottom.
Report Post »midnightvelvet
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 9:15amShe messed it up. It’s supposed to roll forward on the top and backward out of sight on the bottom. I hate to say this about her, but she’s not very smart.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:52amBless her hart, lol , it’s sad & fun @ the same time.
Report Post »Meat Puppet
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:42amIt kind of reminds me of The Scream by Edvard Munch.
Report Post »Sirfoldallot
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:50amLooks like she lost her reading glass.
Report Post »RossPoldark
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 1:23amNo. It looks like Sasquatch.
Report Post »BloodSweatandTears
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 11:48pmNot to mention she’s color blind. I wonder when she or someone noticed it was going so poorly? Sorry, but she shows no training formal or otherwise. Look at the angle of the mouth, the loss of three dimensionality. The lack of natural skin tone….the lack of reflective light giving the original depth and contour. etc….
Or is it a long lost Picasso?
I needed a hearty laugh… Priceless!
Report Post »powedj
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 11:25pmShe transformed an image of Christ into a monkey.
Report Post »davecorkery
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 12:18pmIt‘s a depiction of the artist’s imagined idea of what jesus looked like. It’s imaginary, like god.
Report Post »Caballosinnombre
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:50pmThink I saw a Mr. Bean movie that was similar.
Report Post »NOT A CRAZY
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 11:17pmLOL! It is hard to believe that something like this happened for real.
Report Post »MARCH4HIM
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 4:19amI thought the same thing.
Report Post »ThankBabyJesus
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:46pmlol, I like it :)
Report Post »redbanshee157
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:40pmBless her heart! She was trying to restore the painting outside her abilities.
Report Post »redbanshee157
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:38pmBless her heart, she was trying to restore it. I feel so bad for her because I know how I would feel if I made an antique picture of Christ look like a character from South Park!!!!
Report Post »Leadthemtothelight
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:30pmThats really to bad. It was a beautiful depiction of Christ.
Report Post »Romans828
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:05amThe question should be hey lady why are you granting an interview (apparently the only one granted?) to Al Jazeera. Don’t you know what their opinion of Christ and Christians is?
Report Post »JBaer
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 6:07pmRomans, that was my thought too! Al Jezeera of all places!
Report Post »(I would have expected the BBC.) :-)
rsanchez1
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:28pmHey Blaze, why in the blazes are you making us watch a video via Al Jazeera?
Report Post »SkyeOne
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:27pmThe finished picture is hilarious.
Report Post »Verceofreason
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:48pmI loved the LAst Supper parody at the end.
Report Post »Maybe she get have a go at the Mona LIsa?
jespasinthru
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:12pmThat woman is no professional artist (duh)! Judging from the finished product, she doesn’t even know the fundamentals of human facial anatomy, light and shadow, and perspective. Why did she even mess with it? My guess is that she is a wealthy donor to the church, and thought she had the right.
Report Post »NurseHatchetRN
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 7:52amThat sounds about right…
Report Post »oldasdirt
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:01pmIf you stand 30 feet away,and look through the bottom of a coke bottle,it doesn’t look too bad.
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