The face of an angel has gone around Italy, and the entire world in recent days. No, we’re not talking about the cherubs in Raphael’s Sistine Madonna.
We’re talking about the one that appeared after a recent restoration and bore the face of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
The stir and controversy began when the new version of the angel appeared in one of the chapels of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in the dead center of Rome.
It became another attraction for tourists. Until this week, when its own painter, the church’s sacristan, Bruno Valentinetti, painted over it with a white brushstroke, claiming it was on Vatican instructions, per his interview with the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica.
Since it first appeared, the artist had insisted that any resemblance to Meloni’s face was purely coincidental, and that he never intended for his work to resemble the Roman politician.
Valentinetti also denied being a Meloni voter to the same outlet and has now been tasked to repaint the angel with the face it had before the restoration.
Social media has been flooded with jokes referencing the angel. Even Prime Minister Meloni eventually reacted to the artwork.
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No, I definitely don’t look like an angel.
Well, I find it interesting, but I’m not sure I’m thrilled, because I don’t think anyone should be placed at that level of veneration, you know? Nor should someone place themselves in a kind of angelic state. So it’s a bit… well, slightly presumptuous, though interesting
I think it’s a bit strange. I also think the Church should be separate from politics. Yes, it’s strange to enter a church—which is also a cultural space—and then see the face of a politician.
And just like these two tourists who disagree with this representation of Giorgia Meloni, the Church itself also does not agree. We recall that the ultimate authority in matters of this kind is the Bishop of Rome—that is, Pope Leo XIV—which is why the Vicar of Rome, spoke out, expressing his “bitterness over what had happened.”
Days later, the Diocese of Rome requested that
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“the original features of the face be restored, in the exclusive interest of safeguarding the place of worship and its spiritual function.”
And so, it's settled. The next time someone visits the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, in the center of the Eternal City, they won't find the face of Giorgia Meloni on any of its walls.
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