Guess the Artwork

Resurrezione - Resurrection by Pericle Fazzini in Paul VI Audience Hall, Rome. Fazzini's masterpiece is the backdrop for Pope Francis' weekly general audiences and depicts Jesus rising from the nuclear explosion of the olive grove of Gethsemane, the place where he prayed for the last time. Commissioned by Pope Paul VI in 1965, the twenty-meter-wide red bronze and yellow brass sculpture was made between 1970 and 1975. Fazzini was given access to the church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus which turned into his workshop for almost five years. The statue was inaugurated on the 28th of September 1977 by Pope Paul VI. With a width of 20 meters and weighing about 15 tons, it dominates the stage of the of the hall. At the centre we find the resurrected Christ emerging from an indefinite chaos which represents death. His long hair and beard are moved by a wind blowing from left to right, the arms are open and seem to be welcoming those who are in the hall. The rest of the sculpture is a collection of not well defined natural elements fused with each other like rocks, twigs and roots coming out of a violent vortex caused by a nuclear explosion. Fazzini was born in the town of Grottammare, Le Marche, and began his career as an exponent of the Roman school of the 1930s. His early pieces were made out of wood, while his later work was almost exclusively made out of metal, especially bronze. Paul VI Audience Hall is mostly in Italy and partially in the Vatican City, but the Italian part of the building is an extraterritorial area of the Holy See used by the Pope as an alternative to Saint Peter's Square for conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience. The building, with a seating capacity of 6,300, was designed in reinforced concrete by Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi and completed in 1971, this is why it is also known as 'Sala Nervi'.