It would seem representations of Jesus are only blessed when they’re made out of marble, stone, wood or stained glass.Sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro has single-handedly managed to infuriate the Catholic League and thousands of Catholics with his sculpture of an unclothed Jesus, made purely of milk chocolate.
The eccentric sculpture, which has generated a riot, measures 1.8 m and weighs over 90 kilos.
A Manhattan gallery was planning to exhibit “My Sweet Lord,” as Cavallaro has titled his work, but the overwhelming number of complaints received from Catholics, including Cardinal Edward Egan, has deterred it.
People are indignant that the artist’s chocolate representation of Jesus Christ includes no loincloth, as religious portrayals usually do and that the gallery, found in the Roger Smith Hotel, intended to display the work during Holy Week.
“We have caused the cancellation of the exhibition and wish to affirm the dignity and responsibility of the hotel in all its affairs,” James Knowles, president of the Roger Smith Hotel said in a statement. “It's an all-out war on Christianity,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, adding it was “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.”
The sculpture would have been exhibited for two hours each day this week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
Matt Semler, artistic director of the Roger Smith Hotel said “They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions.” “For me, this is done a place of reverence and meditation - that's why I chose the piece. This is not intended to be disrespectful.”
Semler added: “In this situation, the hotel couldn't continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety.” The archbishop of New York called it “scandalous” and a “sickening display.” Bill Donohue called it a “direct in-your-face assault on Christians.”
Cavallaro himself has defended “My Sweet Lord,” stating: “I saw it as meditation on all those issues: The fact that it's chocolate, the fact that it's nude, that the chocolate is black.” He commented that the time of the display was a simple coincidence and it had nothing to do with the upcoming celebrations.
“The choice of Easter was that there was availability in the gallery now,” he said. Referring to the reactions he’s had from enraged Catholics, Cavallaro said: “They're not allowing themselves to open their hearts. If it makes them feel better, I'll ask for their forgiveness and do 10 Hail Mary’s, but they should just lighten up and be more accepting of people.”
Due to threats he has received, the artist said he is storing the sculpture for now in a refrigerated truck in an undisclosed location. My take on Cavallaro’s sculpture is that the chocolate means Jesus ‘nourishes’ us all spiritually; he is nude because he is natural and real – he never meant to appear as something he wasn’t, he never hid who he was.
And he looks so haggard and “sickening” because he had a horrible death, as we all know. This is solely my humble opinion on a delicate subject and I myself do not wish to offend anybody.
While the sculptor did want to provoke, to trigger reactions in his viewers, I don’t think he meant to insult anybody.
There is a fable about a court jester that decided to join a monastery and each night he would sneak to an icon of the Virgin Mary and juggle for Her. This was his greatest gift and the way that he could show his devotion and love.
Perhaps we all have our own modest, odd, somewhat incomprehensible ways of praising Divinity.
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