Was this fresco redone to look like Meloni? Italy PM says she’s no angel
Reports have noted the painting’s resemblance to the prime minister after it was restored by an artist with alleged right-wing ties
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joked on Saturday that she does not look like an angel, after a row blew up in the media over a restored fresco in a Rome church.
Some of Italy’s press have been asking whether the premier served as inspiration for a cherub painted in a chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, located a few metres (yards) from the main building of the Italian government. The basilica is one of the oldest Christian churches in the city.
The newspaper La Repubblica noted that, following recent renovations, one of the painted angels bears a resemblance to the blonde, diminutive leader.
The winged figure is seen holding a parchment and standing next to a bust of Italy’s last king, Umberto II, who reigned for just a month before being deposed in 1946.
The article ran with before-and-after pictures of the painting. It said the angel had previously looked like a “generic cherub”.
“There is indeed a certain resemblance,” Daniele Micheletti, the priest of the basilica, told the ANSA news agency. “But you would have to ask the restorer why he did it that way. I don’t know.”