Focus on Ecce Homo (García Martínez and Giménez) and analyze the Failed restoration attempt and internet phenomenon.
The authorities in Borja said they had suspected vandalism at first, but then determined that the alterations had been made by an elderly parishioner, Cecilia Giménez, who was 81 years old at the time. She said on Spanish national television that she started to restore the fresco because she was upset that parts of it had flaked off due to moisture on the church's walls. "Giménez defended herself, saying she could not understand the uproar because she had worked in broad daylight and had tried to salvage the fresco with the approval of the local clergyman. 'The priest knew it,' she told Spanish television. 'I've never tried to do anything hidden.'"Giménez said that the attempted restoration was actually an uncompleted work in progress. "I left it to dry and went on holiday for two weeks, thinking I would finish the restoration when I returned", she said. "When I came back, everybody in the world had heard about Ecce Homo. The way people reacted still hurts me, because I wasn’t finished with the restoration. I still think about how if I hadn’t gone on holiday, none of this would have ever happened."News of the painting spread around the globe in August 2012 (the silly season) on mainstream and social media, which promptly rose to the status of an internet phenomenon. BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser said that the result resembled a "crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic". The restored version has been jokingly dubbed Ecce Mono ('Behold the Monkey'; ecce is Latin for 'behold', whereas mono is Spanish for 'monkey', while in Latin, it would be simius) in an "online rush of global hilarity", and the incident was compared to the plot of the 1997 film Bean. Because of the negative attention, the priest of the church, Father Florencio Garces, thought the painting should be covered up.Giménez said in 2015 that "everyone here sees what I did in a different light. The restoration has put Borja on the world map, meaning I’ve done something for my village that nobody else was able to do. So many people have come here – and to our beautiful church – to see the painting ... they tell me more than 130,000 people."
Borja Ecce Homo Bean Christian Fraser Latin restore silly season fresco internet phenomenon