Warning: Artsy-fartsy post.
Read this article on Francis Bacon, a unique artist. His painting of the head in a cube (that's Pope X) kept me disturbed for many days and nights. Later in life, Bacon hated having painted this, saying it was a mistake to engage with Velázquez's original. That could be true within the context of artistic skill. However, it is useless denying the fundamental need for a young artist to re-examine the past, particularly when it could be potentially shocking. Artists love to shock and parody other artists. Taking the head of an authority figure--who is more authoritative than the Pope--and placing it in a cube of intense personal fright is so subversive! Hysterical terror of this kind is only possible for the super-religious?
Did anyone see the deep sunken eyes of the current Pope and the sort of crazed look it had when he recently visited Nazareth? Striking, I thought (to be fair, I admit I rarely look at the Pope in good light).
I cannot look at the current pope without seeing the title character of my least favorite Edward Gorey book-- The Beastly Baby. The resemblance is uncanny.
... (that's Pope X) ...
How appropriate to omit the dude's stage name: none of those bastards is really "Innocent", after all...