MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) St. Albans Cathedral in the UK county of Hertfordshire said on Tuesday it would temporarily replace its traditional altar setting with a modern reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's 15th century mural The Last Supper featuring a Black model as Jesus Christ.
"We are deeply grateful to the artist Lorna May Wadsworth who has given permission for us to use her striking painting of A Last Supper as part of a prayer installation in the North Transept. In the painting Jesus is a black man, and so calls us to 'look with fresh eyes at something you think you know'," the cathedral said in a press release.
Wadsworth's painting, as explained by the artist herself in the press release, is aimed at challenging the centuries-long "Western myth" that Christ looked European, while some experts believe he rather had middle Eastern features. Jamaican-born Tafari Hinds acted as a model for the painting.
"My portrayal of him is just as 'accurate' as the received idea that he looked like a Florentine," the artist was quoted as saying in the release.
The cathedral said the display would open on Saturday and last till the end of October.
The move came just days after the Archbishop of Canterbury called upon the Church of England to reconsider its representation of Jesus as white.
