An exhibit in Salamanca recreates the corpse of Jesus of Nazareth for the first time based on a detailed study of the Holy Shroud
My goodness, I have a lump in my throat and another in my stomach! Says it on the verge of tears Bonifacio, a priest from Oña (Burgos) who has traveled to the new cathedral of Salamanca to be one of the first visitors to see the recreation of the naked body, and to be amazed to the point of emotion, of Jesus of Nazareth, as it was buried in the Holy Sepulchre and stripped of any artistic interpretation.
The figure, a reclining Jesus with a height of 1.78 meters and a weight of 75 kilos, is the jewel of the exhibition The Mystery Man, which delves into the mysteries of the corpse of Jesus after being taken from the cross, and provides clues and data as to what the body of Christ was based on a detailed study of the Holy Shroud, incorporating the latest technologies.
Inaugurated this Thursday in the retro choir of the Cathedral of Salamanca, where it will remain until December, the exhibition reveals the secrets of the death of what, for scholars of his figure, is the most important man in the history of mankind. Based on the data provided by scientific and medical analysis of the image of the man on the Holy Shroud, The Mystery Man presents the body of Jesus as never seen before in the world. It puts visitors in front of a hyper-realistic body “possibly the same as that of Jesus as it was left after the Passion”, says the curator of the exhibition, Álvaro Blanco, who already directed a successful exhibition on the Holy Shroud in 2012, one of the great remnants of the Christian faith that are said to have encased the body of Christ after his death.
The figure, made with a mixture of latex and silicone and with natural hair, depicts a completely naked Jesus (also with his genitals as never shown before) with his whole body bloodied from the 250 strokes produced by the 150 eyelashes he got with a ‘flagellum’ with leather straps and iron balls. The postmortem spear he received on the cross can also be seen, just between the fifth and sixth ribs on the right, from which blood and water flowed due to pulmonary edema. And the wounds on the feet and wrists, but not on the hands, as is often depicted, because otherwise they would have been torn, causing the crucified to fall abruptly.
Craftsmen, engineers, historians, forensic scientists, computer scientists have participated in the elaboration of the figure, all with the aim of creating a body with hyper-realistic techniques beyond any current or artistic movement, and based solely on the data provided by the forensic and scientific studies of the image of the Holy Shroud, also known as the Shroud.
The artists who worked on the sculpture record everything that happens on the Holy Shroud and to obtain the dimensions of the body, 1.78 meters high, they are based on the bleeding points of the feet, legs, etc. or knees. «The body of Jesus has been anthropologically reconstructed, carrying out tests with three-dimensional volumes», Blanco illustrates, convinced that the image of the Christian relic is that of Jesus of Nazareth”, although he admits that there are other experts who doubt it. “There will be controversy,” he predicts.
The figure, of a realism that does not leave indifferent, reflects a heavier torture than what we see in the paintings. It shows a man with a dislocated shoulder, a contracted leg from a torn tendon, a deviated nose from blows to the face, his head, with tousled hair dirty with blood and sweat, slightly bent, in a position of rigor mortis, and also clearly shows the 250 wounds distributed over the body in the form of a fan. That’s why Bonifacio, the priest of Oña, was so impressed. “This image moves believers and non-believers in. It hit me,” he confesses.
Much of the exhibition’s 600 square meters is devoted to deciphering the history of the Holy Shroud from its discovery by the Templar Geoffroy De Charny in 1353 to its current location in Turin, through the scientific studies that have tried to reveal the mysterious image and story of the Italian Secundo Pía, the first to photograph it and whose negative revealed the image that has passed around the world, that of the crossed-handed figure on which The Mystery Man is based.
Visitors can pass through several rooms before reaching the room that houses the body of Jesus. On the route you can see showcases with Roman coins (original denarius) from the time of Jesus, as well as the document of his death sentence carved in wood (the title of the cross), a facsimile of the sacred savanna, the reproduction of the tomb Joseph of Arimathea “borrowed” to bury Jesus, and exact copies of the spears used by the Romans, including one similar to the spears that pierced his right side after he died on the cross.
Another space recreates a forensics room and another, more immersive, shows in 360 degrees the two thousand years of pictorial history of Jesus, with more than 500 images spanning all artistic styles, from Paleo-Christian to modern art.
The exhibition, with admission for 10 euros, is being promoted by the Granada-based company ArtiSplendore in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Salamanca. Its claim is that it is itinerant “and travels through the five continents.” Your next stop could be Lisbon on the occasion of World Youth Day (WYD) in 2023.
During the massive press conference in Salamanca Cathedral, they took the floor alongside the curator of the exhibition, the Mayor of Salamanca Carlos García; Archbishop Jose Luis Retana; the dean of the cathedral, Antonio Matilla, and the CEO of ArtiSplendore, Francisco Moya, who invited everyone “regardless of whether they have religious beliefs or not” to visit the exhibition.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
