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'Horrendous', 'kitsch', 'old-fashioned': critics smash new statue in tribute to Lady Di

2021-07-03T16:28:32.172Z


The monument, in Kensington Palace in London, was unveiled on Thursday, when the princess would have turned 60.


Maria Laura Avignolo

07/03/2021 8:06 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • World

Updated 07/03/2021 8:06 AM

The intention to unveil the only monument in

Britain

to honor the memory of Diana, the Princess of Wales, when she would turn 60, was good.

Princes William and Harry, their sons, chose sculptor Ian Rank Broadley, bronze as their material, Lady Di's humanity as their theme.

If the monument took 25 years to arrive, it was because the royal family was

afraid that it would become a sanctuary,

a pilgrimage center, as in a third world country.

Only his children dared to fight at that idea.

Nobody could stop them, except their personal differences, which postponed the inauguration since 2017.

But the day after its inauguration, critics called the statue of the princess "hideous."

The work shows Diana Spencer hugging a girl and a boy, in a typical gesture of humanity

and dressed as in the last days of her life.

"A monument to 80s fashion designer Laura Ashley", "minus Madonna, plus a fighting warrior in a kitsch statue, with a Soviet twist."

Princes William and Harry, sons of Lady Di, on Thursday at the inauguration of the statue in honor of their mother.

Photo: AFP

Look also

In photos: Lady Di, Princess of Wales, would have turned 60 on July 1, 2021

Unanimous artistic disapproval

for the sculptor who immortalized Queen Elizabeth on all British postage stamps.

A kind of brutal socialist realism.

The conservative newspaper

The Daily Telegraph

did not spare the

sarcasm

.

Alastair Sooke, his critic, smashed, one by one, the characteristics that Kensington Palace emphasized for the statue: "The warmth, elegance and energy."

"Warm?" He wondered.

Instead, he saw “a broad-shouldered Diana, defiantly unbuttoned shirt, a combative and confrontational Diana, not motherly.

Far from being naive.

She was portrayed as a saint offering protection to three boys (one pushed back) but she is not a sweet Madonna. "

The critic added that "there is something distinctively masculine in this instance,

a woman of bad character, an empowered warrior

with a belt so big that it seems He Man, capable of making the House of Windsor cower."

Then he took pity on the sculptor.

“I have a certain sympathy for him given the impossible nature of the request.

Each creative option was going to produce criticism ”, he acknowledged.

Several critics opined that the image of Lady Di in this statue is very "masculine".

Photo: REUTERS

Sooke imagined a mythological Diana and found three boys at her feet, in a purely kitsch image.

“There is a slight Soviet atmosphere in the group.

Mothers of the world, unite, ”he wrote.

“A great number of his beloved fans simply wanted a statue of his good old-fashioned heroine.

And that is exactly what they had ”, he concluded.

"Lifeless sanctuary"

Jonathan Jones, the critic for the Social Democratic daily

The Guardian

, described the statue "as a lifeless sanctuary."

"Ian Rank-Broadley's statue of Diana, commissioned by his sons, was kept secret until its unveiling, as if it could be tremendously provocative," he wrote.

The monument to Princess Diana was inaugurated on Thursday, and from Friday it can be openly visited.

Photo: REUTERS

Installed in the Sunken Garden, which was her favorite place in the palace, the garden was redone for the occasion with the princess's favorite flowers.

Instead, he has let everything play out in a different way.

The sentiment spills through the flower beds, like an uncontrolled lament of artistically absurd pathos, "noted the

Guardian

critic

.

"A larger-than-life Diana, who stands in an awkward,

rigid and lifeless

pose

and has a face that is more manly

than I remember, apparently modeled with gloved hands and without a photo to refer to, protects two children in his arms while a third lurks behind. This sculpture invites us to see Diana as a modern Mary, and they say they don't want it to be a sanctuary? "asks Jones acidly.

According to him, “it is a

religious image

that shamelessly plays up to the most maudlin aspects of the cult of Diana.

She deserves to be remembered.

But does she need to become a colossal divine protector of all children? "

"If that's how Harry and William think of her, that's up to them. But this seems like the art of a new religion. Because the maternal crest blatantly echoes one of the greatest images of the Virgin Mary in Christian art. , by Piero della Francesca, of the holy mother protecting an entire community under her mantle ", he adds.

Inhabitants of London with posters in tribute to Diana Spencer, in front of the monument in her tribute.

Photo: AP

"Even without that specific allusion, the image of the mother and child has been a Catholic mainstay for more than a millennium and earlier than it appeared in Egyptian religious art. So this sculpture invites us to see Diana as a Mary. modern, or even Isis with her son Horus. And they say they don't want it to be a sanctuary? "

Rachel Campbell-Johnston, the critic of

The Times

, recalled that there are no formal uniforms, elaborate hats or rearing horses.

“The new statue of Diana has a devotional aura.

Perhaps this is precisely what a wider public who adored the princess would want, which in turn may be precisely why this statue is, aesthetically speaking, so horrible, ”he wrote.

“A woman who, in her life, did much to change the way the world thought deserves something much more amazing.

The chosen sculptor certainly should have been a woman ”, he concluded.

"Princess Diana deserved something much greater," he suggested, noting the background of the princess in the flowery garden.

A line in the garden of Kensignton Palace, this Friday, to see the statue in honor of Princess Diana.

Photo: AP

The sculptor's version

The life-size bronze statue is based on the final period of the princess's life, when she "gained confidence" in her humanitarian role.

The dress style is inspired by her later years and

aims to convey her character and compassion

.

The figure is surrounded by three children who represent "the universality and generational impact" of his work.

"I think we felt that if the princess stood alone in a lonely way, it might seem isolated," said Ian Rank-Broadley, her sculptor.

While the Gloucestershire-based artist insisted that the statue was not based on any specific photograph, the princess's outfit is remarkably similar to the belted skirt and blouse she wore in an image on her Christmas card from 1993.

It was the first card she released after parting ways with the Prince of Wales, and in it she was photographed with her young children.

The way the princess is depicted, with her arms wrapped protectively around the children, is reminiscent of many images.

One of them looks like a 13-year-old girl named Sandra Tigica, whom the princess met in Angola in January 1997, just a few months before she died.

Another child could have been inspired by a boy she posed with in Bosnia, after highlighting the devastation caused by landmines.

It was penalties three weeks before the death of the princess, on August 31 of that year, in Paris.

Beneath the statue is a pedestal engraved with Diana's name, the date, and the names of her children.

The five lines, amended to reflect the princess's gender, were also chosen to appear on her funeral program.

The poem was originally wrongly attributed to Albert Schweitzer, the Alsatian-German philosopher, by Kensington Palace yesterday.

But the author is more commonly considered anonymous.

When a Republican politician recited it in the House of Representatives in 1944, he called it the work of "a poet whose name has been lost in anonymity although his words have achieved immortality."

Paris, correspondent

CB

Look also

Roberto Devorik: "Lady Di would not have liked a statue in her tribute"

The BBC's "interview of the century" with Diana was a "hoax": behind the scenes of a scandal

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-07-03

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