The Veining of Christ

The Veining of Christ: Ut poesis sculpture and the Phenomenology of Coincidences and Intentionality in the Art of Pablo Damian Cristi

by Iw. Roumiana Assenina Popova

In this phase of creation the design already emerges vigorously from the material: the work of art finds its essence.

I had the wonderful chance to visit Maestro Pablo Damian Cristi's open studio in Moneglia on a regular basis. I have observed his sculpture as a process over time, season after season.

I remember the initial phase of the sculpture, last September: the rough surface of the white Carrara marble was spotted with small sketches, traces and lines; they conceptually marked Christ's face, his elbow and his foot. The sculptor's swift chisel marks combined with the charcoal marks left on the white stone.

They trigger the poetic gaze of the beholder, who meditates on their delicate and suggestive beauty, confronted with the Sublime.

Those lucky enough to see the artist at work, perceived the mind and hand of the sculptor, slowly and prudently, eloquently giving shape to the natural volumes, transforming them into a confluent whole.

The Third Giustiniani Christ was created five centuries after the first sculpture, twice begun and twice left unfinished by Michelangelo.

When Michelangelo's first Christ was conceived in the sixteenth century, a black vein appeared by chance on the white surface of the marble, crossing the face of God.

This unwanted phenomenon was the reason why the Renaissance sculptor left his sculpture unfinished.

According to Michelangelo this natural part of the material was aesthetically unflattering for his stylistic concept.

Therefore the Master began to sculpt a second version of Christ which he left to his pupil. It was located in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.

Dissatisfied with the execution of both versions of Christ, the Master intended to sculpt a third one, however he never started it.

The first imperfect version of Christ remained unfinished in the client's garden until the following century, when it was rediscovered and appreciated by seventeenth-century art collectors. The sculpture, aposteriori destined to be part of the Giustiniani collection, was eventually finished by Bernini and exhibited in the family chapel in Bassano Romano.

The project of a third Christ joining the first two sculptures was conceived as a Trinity by Prince Girolamo Luca Muniglia de' Giustiniani in his artistic encounter with the sculptor Pablo Damian Cristi. This Third Christ represents the Holy Spirit who proceeds from Michelangelo’s Father and Son.

If once Michelangelo abandoned his sculpture, due to the "unflattering" black vein, today, Pablo Damian Cristi shows us a superb poetic play with the marble veining in his Christ.

Contrary to Michelangelo, he deliberately seeks in the dark lineaments of the marble a source of aesthetic pleasure and a versatile language, which transcends the different levels of graphic and semiotic meanings.

The sculptor masterfully incorporates this natural coincidence to strengthen the stylistic and expressive qualities of his masterpiece.

The black veins unwanted by Michelangelo, here, become a stylistic idiom in itself, enchanting the eye of the beholder; they reinforce and accentuate the plasticity of the sculptural volumes and the concept of his philosophical theology.

Ut poetry sculpture. Paraphrasing the famous saying ut pictura poesis, attributed by Plutarch to Simonides of Ceos (6th - 5th century BC), sculpture is a silent poem, and poetry a speaking form. In this context, in the artistic play of the dark veins, we can see, touch and hear with our imagination an Orphic musicality, which emerges on the surface from the depths of the stone, like a gentle spirit, dissolving the weight in a dynamic flow of movements, shapes and rhythms, skillfully designed and sculpted by the Poet-sculptor.

The volumes of the stone become metaphysical, immaterial, weightless, like reflections of light in the mirror of a calm and clear sea... as the sea of ​​Moneglia is today...

By Iw. Roumiana Assenina Popova