'Hot Jesus' rage as Catholic festival poster of Christ with hipster hair and revealing loincloth dismissed as 'too erotic'
A Catholic poster of Jesus Christ has been lambasted by conservative Spaniards for being overly sexualized and erotic.
The poster suggests it Christ after his resurrection, highlighted against a bright red background, standing almost completely naked – if not for a modest loincloth draped over his genitals.
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The poster was unveiled earlier this week to symbolize “the bright side of Holy Week”. Seville's Council of Fraternities and Guilds.
But it immediately faced a backlash from the Sevillian people Catholics.
A study showed that 87 percent of Spaniards in the region find the Holy Week poster too 'sexualized' to be part of their festivities.
The conservative Catholic group Instituto de Política Social (IPSE) started working on it Xformerly known as Twitter, to condemn the artwork.
They said: “This poster is an aberration, it breaks the true meaning of #SemanaSanta and the artist did it on purpose.
“Our answer is very clear: the #SSantaSevilla24 poster is a real shame.”
The group went on to call the poster “sexualized,” “effeminate” and “camp.” They have demanded the immediate removal of the poster and a public apology.
Members of the conservative Vox party have also joined the chorus of criticism of the poster.
In a statement on X, Vox member Javier Navarro claimed the poster was deliberately created to provoke.
He said: “It's not a matter of artistic taste, it's a matter of which poster fulfills the purpose for which it is intended.
“It is clear that this poster intended to provoke and the Council allowed this.”
About 13,000 Sevillians have since signed an online petition calling for its removal.
Artist Salustiano Garcia, who created the poster, told Spanish newspaper ABC that his artwork was “kind, gentle and beautiful.”
He emphasized: “There is nothing in my painting that is not already represented in works of art from many centuries ago.
“I think the people who have spoken badly about my work, or who have seen sexuality in it, need a little bit of artistic culture.
“To see sexuality in my view of Christ, you have to be crazy.”
Garcia went on to say that the art was created with nothing but respect and was modeled after the body of his own son, Horacio.
Garcia said he found in his son a sense of serenity and spirituality that was necessary for the painting, describing him as “a classic Christ full of serenity and sweetness.”
He added that his Christ was meant to be “young, as a metaphor for purity, and beautiful, because beauty and goodness are the same. Plato said.”
Juan Espadas, from Spain's Socialist Workers' Party, has also spoken out in defense of the artwork.
The politician denounced the “expressions of homophobia and hatred” aimed at the poster – suggesting instead that it combined the “tradition and modernity” of Seville.
The Holy Week festivities are of paramount importance throughout Spain, and especially in Seville, which has a predominantly Catholic population.
The celebrations commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ and have been a deeply revered event in the country since the 14th century.
This isn't the first time images of Jesus Christ have caused outrage.
In 2019, a sculpture called McJesus – a crucified Ronald McDonald – led to hundreds of people demonstrating outside a museum in northern Israel.
Some protesters threw stones at police and others tried to firebomb the building.
In the same year, a Netflix comedy starring a gay Jesus collected more than two million complaints.
The First Temptation of Christ immediately caused an uproar among viewers, with a large number of people demanding that the film be removed from the streaming site.
At the time, creators Porta dos Fundos released a statement saying, “We value artistic freedom and humor through satire on the most diverse cultural themes of our society and believe that freedom of expression is an essential construct for a democratic country.”
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