The young Italian sculptor Jago is best known to Catholics for his marble bust of Pope Benedict XVI, which the Pope himself awarded with a pontifical medal. Upon Benedict’s resignation, Jago radically reworked the piece into its current form, Habemus Hominem. In this episode Jago discusses the meaning of marble, how he had to teach himself because his art professors opposed studying the great masters of the past, and his innovative use of social media as a new, decentralized form of patronage.

Links

Jago on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jago.artist

Video of Jago transforming his bust of Pope Benedict https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqVwRookYJ0

Article on Habemus Hominem https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2018/02/21/shirtless-statue-pope-benedict-causes-art-sensation-rome/