The Last Temptation of Christ

[Christopher Genovese]

Hey everyone,

Good to be back on here since posting the W.I.P. breakdown of my Barack Obama bust. (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=183604) Glad to be done with that sculpture, though I'm still making and painting castings of it and only sold 1 in the last 6 months. Guess nobody likes the guy anymore.

Been really stressed out and depressed lately, so I guess it's as good a time as any to unveil my sculpture of a tortured and crucified Jesus Christ, as depicted by Willem Dafoe in Martin Scorsese's unmatched film "The Last Temptation of Christ". This is one of my favorite films of all time. I'm not religious, but I was extremely moved by the Scorsese and Dafoe's depiction of Jesus as a man tormented by inner-conflict and constantly in doubt about his identity and purpose in the world, ultimately right up until the very moment of his death.

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It's my pleasure to take any criticisms or answer any questions. I'll try to post some more detail pictures and get into exactly how I made this if anyone's interested.

~Christopher

[hauke3000]

Wow that looks great. I love the presentation too!

[Mah ' Crub]

Hey this is great, you really captured his likness,{ the actor.} Sorry you didn't sell any busts of the pres, Its really hard to sell art right now. Don't be depressed, we are all struggling out here. I lost my house with a swimming pool and a Japanese garden all around it, as well as my two businesses, and a girl friend, and to top it all off, my sweet heart of a dog died.
I now live in a warehouse and bunk in a 10x10 office and sleep on a couch, and what really sucks is I am about to turn 60. You would think I would have my shit together by now. I am too ashamed to go to my highschool reunion this month.
But actually its not so bad, I will just start over, you can too! Money is just a bullshit tool, thats all, nothing more.
Remember, it could be worse... somehow... I am pretty sure... yep, I am sure.
Hang on dude, it will all change soon. Keep working, it helps.
Good luck.
Mah ' Crub

[Christopher Genovese]

@Mah' Crub
You're right, things can always be worse, I'm trying to keep my head up. I'm sorry to hear about your troubles as well I hope things work out, my dad's an artist too and went from making a quarter million dollars a year to filing for bankruptcy, so I've seen how quickly things change. I'm a tough bastard though, I'll pull through.

[The Dark Power]

Wow that's a fantastically well realised piece. Great likeness too, well done.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Positively Willem DeFovian!

That's a pretty neat movie (even if I did have to have Christian friends explain some of it to me). Amazing soundtrack, neat characterizations. I can see why it would inspire.

[the ANGRY filipino]

you got the likeness of Dafoe spendidly!
very nice work man!
must have been tough doing all those thorns!

[Christopher Genovese]

you got the likeness of Dafoe spendidly!
very nice work man!
must have been tough doing all those thorns!

That's dude, yea, the crown was hands down the hardest part of it. I tried building them from scratch out of metal chicken wire and other wire-based techniques. But in the end I actually got lucky looking around the woods of a local park and found a plant species that had the right size thorny twigs at a near-perfect scale. I ended up soldering a wire scaffold and literally crafting a real the crown of thorns around it.

Some pictures of the copper scaffold:
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After adding thorns and painting:
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It was a grueling process working with the thorns. Stuck my fingers so many times. Calls into question the whole purpose of the thorny crown: the person wearing it would've suffered less from it than the person who made it.

[MikeMakesModels]

Reminds me of the Spanish Polychromes that were in London last year (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK5B8Z0BBH8)

Excellent work! :)

[Waipunga]

Very good piece Man. Great on every level. I remember years ago making an entire set of the stations of the cross for a church all in bronze. I too am not a religious person but wept as I drove the nails into the Christ figures hands/wrists and feet.

The trick with making money in this game is lots of different pieces to bracket a whole market segment. Hey, I am regarded as very successful in my field and the only reason I am is that I listen very carefully to what people want and I have shit loads of my own proven designs. Go and find a sponsor as well. Could be some old guy who just really likes sculpture or a church or some bunch of real hard nosed businessman. You need 'em and you have to sell a little of your soul to get what you want. Just do it, that crap that the best artist is a starving one living in a one room shack wearing a dumb arse hat (I prefer a leather Bowler myself :-) ) is utter fucking piss off rubbish! You have a skill and it is bloody good. Get out there and market yourself hard. Talk to anyone who will listen and yeah if it's talking to the mums at the local kindergarden about what you do then just do it...............

[Waipunga]

weird......... double post! Sorted.

[Christopher Genovese]

@ DuneFishUk

Wow, that's a hell of a compliment. Those polychromes are incredible. I was surprised to find that over the course of undertaking this project I became interested in doing more crucifix sculptures. I wonder if any church would be interested in buying an original sculpture of Jesus from a soulless fire-breathing atheist.

@ Waipunga

Crucifix sculptures always frightened me as a child. As I grew up they didn't scare me any more, but when going to church in strange places I always liked seeing variations in the style of the crucifix sculptures. Come to think of it, looking at the religious art, especially the crucifix atop the alter was the only interesting thing I remember about going to church.

Strangely, I hadn't immediately considered depicting the crucifixion scene from this movie. Originally I wanted to do Jesus meditating in the desert, dirty and starving. I ultimately chose this instead for its visual impact, emotional content, opportunity to develop my human anatomy knowledge, and the smirking irony of having an enormous crucifix on my wall, me being soulless and all.

[Pavel Sokov]

That is a fantastic piece! You got really lucky with the thorn crown, it is PERFECT!
The only complaint I have is a lack of armpit hair, but I see you sculpted pubes and facial hair. So that is a little strange.

Hey, the only Scrosesse film I am aware of watching is Shutter Island and it is one of my fav films of the past year. Can you tell me more about the Last Temptation of Christ?

[VulgarDragon]

Excellent work! I think you did your research very well...this is pretty accurate picture of crucifixion. I noticed you put the nails through the wrists instead of through palms, like on the Shroud of Turin. The T-shaped cross with a "seat" you have here is closer to the real thing than the traditional cross. Also, people were crucified naked to publicilly humiliate them. They didn't wear tidy little diapers..so this is very historically accurate. My only complaint is that the "ropes" look too thick and new. Maybe try a smaller string...perhaps something made from hemp. Great job!

[Waipunga]

Don't stress about the Churches buying from Atheists........... they will make their minds up based on the piece and if you are a nice guy. Find all the Churches in your area who are currently renovating/building and approach them. Trick is to ask them what they would be prepared to pay. Far far more important to get your piece up in front of a lot of people at this stage of your career. Go for it Mate!

[Christopher Genovese]

That is a fantastic piece! You got really lucky with the thorn crown, it is PERFECT!
The only complaint I have is a lack of armpit hair, but I see you sculpted pubes and facial hair. So that is a little strange.

Hey, the only Scrosesse film I am aware of watching is Shutter Island and it is one of my fav films of the past year. Can you tell me more about the Last Temptation of Christ?

You found it! The missing armpit hair. That was a mistake.

Shutter Island is Scorsese's most recent film, I still haven't seen it but he's also directed some of the greatest films of all time like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, & Casino. As for The Last Temptation of Christ, it's based on a book I never read of the same title and it's essentially a depiction of Jesus where he's not sure if he's the Messiah or nuts. Another thing I like about the film is that it has a sympathetic depiction of Judas, who's played by Mr. White himself, Harvey Keitel. The most insane part of the movie is actually the crucifixion scene for reasons I'm not gonna get into since people here haven't seen it.

Here's a great review of it, Roger Ebert can explain the movie a whole lot better than I can: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/REVIEWS08/810309993/1023

[Christopher Genovese]

Excellent work! I think you did your research very well...this is pretty accurate picture of crucifixion. I noticed you put the nails through the wrists instead of through palms, like on the Shroud of Turin. The T-shaped cross with a "seat" you have here is closer to the real thing than the traditional cross. Also, people were crucified naked to publicilly humiliate them. They didn't wear tidy little diapers..so this is very historically accurate. My only complaint is that the "ropes" look too thick and new. Maybe try a smaller string...perhaps something made from hemp. Great job!

I was just following what the production designer of the film did. I wish I could say it was my design. It's great to know it's historically accurate. I'm interested in sculpting an original design sometime and I'd like it to be as historically accurate as possible.

I was always confused as a kid by the way some Jesus statues would have the nails through the wrists and some through the hands. You'd think they'd have their story straight.

[Nopsis]

Damn! This is awesome.
He looks so real, so alive. Great work!

Nail through wrist is the only place that makes sense.
The bones and skin of the hands wouldn´t withstand the weight of a man. Even as starved as Jesus was.

A priest told me once that most pictures and sculptings show the nails through the hands, because "it looks better"...

...and since Christians are told that God created humans 10,000 years ago, the nailed hands are one of the smaller issues they have to get straight

[Pavel Sokov]

You found it! The missing armpit hair. That was a mistake.

Shutter Island is Scorsese's most recent film, I still haven't seen it but he's also directed some of the greatest films of all time like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, & Casino. As for The Last Temptation of Christ, it's based on a book I never read of the same title and it's essentially a depiction of Jesus where he's not sure if he's the Messiah or nuts. Another thing I like about the film is that it has a sympathetic depiction of Judas, who's played by Mr. White himself, Harvey Keitel. The most insane part of the movie is actually the crucifixion scene for reasons I'm not gonna get into since people here haven't seen it.

Here's a great review of it, Roger Ebert can explain the movie a whole lot better than I can: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/REVIEWS08/810309993/1023

Oh man, I love GoodFellas and Casino! That means 3 of my top 10 fav movies are by Scorsese! That is great.

I am going to have to watch the last temptation.

By the way I keep on coming back to your thread to enjoy an extra look of your Jesus piece, it is always a pleasure to look at. Love the pose, the blood, the fantastic camera angles and picture quality.

Hey, I like it so much I would love for some wallpaper sized images.
Any chance you could private message me some 1600 x 1200 photos to use as a desktop?

[Christopher Genovese]

Any chance you could private message me some 1600 x 1200 photos to use as a desktop?

No problem my friend, it's an honor! I'll look for some good ones, and post more angles up here when I get the chance. I hope you see the film too, it's like no biblical film you'll ever seen. A word of advice: Just please don't watch it on an iPod or anything, stop everything and view it on the biggest screen you can and don't let anyone interrupt you. Rock on.

[agentouchie]

my only question is where on earth are you going to put it

[ToddQuevedo]

That's dude, yea, the crown was hands down the hardest part of it. I tried building them from scratch out of metal chicken wire and other wire-based techniques. But in the end I actually got lucky looking around the woods of a local park and found a plant species that had the right size thorny twigs at a near-perfect scale. I ended up soldering a wire scaffold and literally crafting a real the crown of thorns around it.

Some pictures of the copper scaffold:
996968

996970

996969

After adding thorns and painting:
996971

It was a grueling process working with the thorns. Stuck my fingers so many times. Calls into question the whole purpose of the thorny crown: the person wearing it would've suffered less from it than the person who made it.
This is great talent,woo...espcially what you are using to make it with,thats creative.keep up and all the best