Besides his soccer prowess, Cristiano Ronaldo is known for being exceptionally handsome, and at least somewhat vain.
So what must he have been thinking on Wednesday when he turned up at Madeira International Airport (now renamed Aeroporto Cristiano Ronaldo) for the unveiling of a bust that, well, was not exactly an uncanny likeness?
Most art connoisseurs out there were not impressed.
The bust, with a goofy smirk and uneven eyes, was quickly declared to look more like Sloth from the movie “The Goonies”:
The last time artwork of a sports figure was so vilified was the courtroom sketch of Tom Brady, which was likened to E.T. and the Hunchback of Notre Dame:
Others were reminded of the botched restoration of a 19th century fresco in Madrid:
Sculpture is not an easy art form, and bronze can be an unforgiving medium. When the works are in public, they can attract criticism. A statue of Lucille Ball in western New York was replaced last year after many found it actively scary.
A full-size statue of Ronaldo, unveiled in 2014 in Madeira, where he was born, raised eyebrows because of the prominent bulge in its soccer shorts. But criticism has not stopped artists all over the world from sculpting athletic heroes. Before Ronaldo, the most recent was Shaquille O’Neill, unveiled last week at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The original sports sculpture may have been “David,” known for his upset win over the heavily favored Goliath. It is rare to read criticism of the marble work by Michelangelo, widely seen as one of the iconic works of Western culture. (Donatello and Bernini tried their hands at David, too.)
We’ll never know how Michelangelo would have done with a Ronaldo sculpture. But it probably wouldn’t have looked like Sloth.
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