Zoë Dahse
THE restoration of an iconic statue of the Virgin Mary has provoked a backlash amongst Catholics in Sevilla.
Venerated in the Basilica de Santa Maria de la Esperanza Macarena in Sevilla, Spain, worshippers were reduced to tears after the statue was unveiled with restoration work having been applied, albeit too extensively for many.
One of Spain’s most famed Catholic effigies, the Virgin Mary, underwent the restoration by the Hermandad (Brotherhood) of the Macarena. Once unveiled, the restoration came as a surprise to many.
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Unveiled on Saturday 21st June after five days of restoration works, the effigy was subsequently retouched twice in less than 24 hours in an attempt to reverse the damage following the backlash.
Her face was given a glossier finish and her eyelashes were made longer. The eyelashes have been accused of being excessively long and completely modifying the look of her face. Critics protested that she had been disfigured.
Although it is arguably hard to spot the difference when putting both before and after pictures of the virgin next to each other, the Brotherhood has apologised for the “moral and emotional damage” of the changes.
The Brotherhood has also launched a process to reverse the supposedly failed restoration.
Spanish social media lit up over the controversy, with many people paying the virgin´s makeover more attention than the events of Pedro Sanchez´s government scandal over the same weekend.
The Virgin Mary is an important figure to many as it is a 17th-century statue and is one of the most renowned images in Sevilla´s famous Semana Santa processions. Having survived centuries of history, including the Spanish Civil War, it seems it was unable to survive this “botched” surgery.
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