Aurelio Porfiri
It is very significant to note that in times of great social distress there are still people who think that we need beauty. The beauty that is not only found in magnificent Cathedrals in the center of our cities, but also in those peripheries, also in a geographical sense, that are at the center of many speeches in recent years.
This is what the painter Rodolfo Papa has done, completing a new work of art called “Forgiveness Chapel” in the church of SS. Sacramento, in an area of Rome called Tor de’ Schiavi, very far from the city center. It is very significant that the pastor of this church, Father Maurizio Mirilli, has thought that in a time of great distress like this, when everyone is panicking because of the pandemic that now is affecting Italy with another wave, there is still the need to invest in beauty, beauty help us to nourish our soul and body in difficult times like these.
In an article on Rometoday.it we read: “Father Maurizio commissioned [this work] by Rodolfo Papa just before the lockdown of March; Papa thought of it and drew the cartoons in the solitude of his studio during March and April and began to paint it as soon as it was possible, moving in the daily life of a parish, now made up of disinfectant and spacings, but above all among the contemporary fears and hopes.”
Rodolfo Papa is one of the most important Italian painters, and this fact is also significant, because beauty has to be in the hands of capable people. Let us also remember the other important work that Rodolfo Papa has done many years ago in the Basilica of San Crisogono, this time in a much more central location.
In an interview with Giusy Bottari (pickline.it) Rodolfo Papa has this to answer when asked about the situation of art today: “We are certainly experiencing a general period of crisis of beauty, itself involved in the distortions of relativism. It is no longer possible to recognize the artist who freely expresses with his canon a point of view from the one who has become a ‘slave’ of the market by chasing fashions and conventions. There is no longer either beauty or art, but a new profession made functional to the market. The profession of the artist, if it can still be considered as such, has lost its dignity.”
And what he has said for painting can certainly be considered true also for music and other arts serving their most noble function, the one of bringing people to God. Sacred art and music are in a deep crisis, because the concept of beauty is itself in crisis. We hope for better times.
The chapel was inaugurated on Sunday, October 25 2020 after the midday Mass. (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)
Follow
