Defending a creation

Whatever the squawks about representational art, it is natural to believe a portrait should look like its model. When it doesn’t, or when it looks like some other person, the criticism is understandable.

Sparking a debate: Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue at the International Airport in Madeira. Though many didn’t like it, Emanuel Jorge da Silva Santos, the sculptor, said, “I liked the result and was really proud of it. And if I had to do it again, I would make everything exactly the same.” | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Emanuel Jorge da Silva Santos. It’s not a name easily recognised by sports fans. Santos is from Madeira, a small volcanic island near Africa. It is the birthplace of Cristiano Ronaldo, and now the penny ought to drop. Santos is the sculptor whose bust of Ronaldo has been called the most laughed-at sculpture in the world. It was unveiled at the Cristiano Ronaldo Airport in Madeira in 2017.

Social media went into overdrive. “It looks like his face was bended like Beckham!” said comedian Corden. This is what Ronaldo would look like if he had a stroke, said another comedian, adding, “This is the spitting image of Ronaldo. That’s why so many people have spit on it.”

Whatever the squawks about representational art, it is natural to believe a portrait should look like its model. When it doesn’t, or when it looks like some other person, the criticism is understandable.

Santos defended his creation with the words, “Even Jesus did not please everyone.” Later he said, “I liked the result and was really proud of it. And if I had to do it again, I would make everything exactly the same.”

Andy Murray in Shanghai, Diego Maradona in Kolkata, Mohamed Salah in Egypt, David Beckham in Los Angeles, Sourav Ganguly in Kolkata, and Sachin Tendulkar in Bihar have all been honoured — if that’s the word — in materials ranging from bronze and marble to fibreglass. All one can see about these statues is that even Jesus did not please everyone!

The latest to join the list of unsatisfactory statues is that of the NBA star Dwayne Wade.

“Man who the hell is this??? The Miami Heat did Dwyane Wade filthy with this statue,” said a social media post. Those willing to be more charitable said the statue looked like the actor Laurence Fishburne.

Wade himself said at the unveiling, “Who is that guy?” It might have been a way of saying how far he had come in life to merit a statue. Or it might have been an unsubtle way of telling the audience the statue was underwhelming.

There are, of course, more examples of outstanding sculptures than of the who-the-hell-is-this variety.

Michael Jordan’s leap (Chicago), Don Bradman’s cover drive (MCG Museum), George Headley’s hook shot (Jamaica) are some of the finest. Jordan’s (called ‘The Spirit’), created by the sculptor couple Julie and Omri Amrany in 1994, is possibly the most famous of them all.

The Santos (or have you already forgotten the name?) story has a footnote. A year later, he was commissioned by the sports website Bleacher Report to make a second bust of Ronaldo, and thus given a chance at redemption.

Sadly, as a writer pointed out, they are both bad sculptures, “The first one is ludicrous, the second one is bland.”

Santos might be the most famous sculptor in the world thanks to the modern phenomenon of social media censorship. If Ronaldo’s wide smile when he unveiled the original is any indication, however, he was happy with it then. And that matters.