No genius is truly respected in their time.
The sculptor behind the truly, truly borked Cristiano Ronaldo statue that went deservedly viral yesterday has taken the only noble path and vociferously defended his masterwork, pointing out that not even Jesus pleased everybody. This is true, but Jesus – to my understanding – never built a terrible bronze bust of a beloved footballer.
Speaking to Globo Esporte, Madeira resident Emanuel Santos defended his unholy creation:
It’s impossible to please the Greeks and the Trojans. Not even Jesus pleased everyone. This is a matter of taste, it’s not as simple as it seems. I have seen the work of great artists that follow this parameter. What matters is the impact this work generated.
He also said that Ronaldo approved the statue, and only asked for some wrinkles to be removed. “He only asked for some wrinkles that give him a certain expression in his face when he’s about to laugh to be changed.”
As for why the statue doesn’t look anything like Ronaldo and in fact looks far more like Eric Trump, Santos was unrepentant. That said, he did confirm that he sculpted it based on a bunch of photos of Ronaldo he found online. So that was never going to go well.
There is always the possibility of producing something that looks different, I was already prepared for all of that. I used some photos of Cristiano Ronaldo that I found on the internet as a base, not one photo specifically. I put the photos by my side and started working on the bust.
Once more, for the people in the back:
Ahh. That’s the stuff.
Source: NY Mag.
Photo: Getty Images.
