286 portraits of the same female saint, Francis Alys, crafted by artists ranging from skilled hacks to ungifted amateurs, all showing their subject in the same pose, in the same clothes and in general as much alike as they could make her, make up the exhibit "Francis Alys: Fabiola," which will run through the spring at the Hispanic Society.
Fabiola is a Catholic saint who died in Rome in 399. Born into a wealthy family, she was the subject of a scandal in the early Christian church -- she dared divorce an abusive husband -- but later renounced all worldly goods and became a chum of Saint Jerome. Fabiola was mostly ignored until 1854, when a sentimental novel about her life became a bestseller. She got another boost in 1885, when a French artist named Jean-Jacques Henner painted what became her iconic image. Henner's painting hasn't survived. But over the past 120 years, thousands and thousands of copies of it have been made by professionals, part-timers and faith-filled outsider artists.
(Washington Post)
Image courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America and Dia Art Foundation, New York.
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