Portrait of Pope John Paul II

[Mike McCarty]

On page eight of the December issue of "The Portrait Signature" by ASOPA, there is a picture and article about Nelson Shanks' portrait of Pope John Paul II.

For those of us who aspire to do this sort of work, it would seem that this was the commission we were all looking for. Could it get any better than this? Swept away to Rome for weeks working out of your temporary studio near the Vatican, whew!

According to the article, Shanks was able to be in the Pope's presence for only about five hours, never with fewer than five of his familiars also in tow. The article goes on to say that he was able to complete a few oil sketches which were promptly sold to collectors. Shanks then quickly went about gathering the appropriate clothing to create a mannequin to replicate the Pope back in his studio. He also referenced some 570 photographs.

I am of course in awe of this painting. But what strikes me most about it is just how little flesh is actually involved. I would guess that a very small percent of his efforts went into what we call the portrait stuff (likeness, skin tones, hair and teeth).

What we do see in this portrait of a great man (I'm not Catholic) is a tremendous amount of planning of the composition. This is what Nelson Shanks was paid to do. My guess is that if he had handed this painting over, sans face and hands, to any number of artists that we all know and said finish it, it would have been done very satisfactorily. But the totality of the painting, well that's another story.