Berlusconi joins Biffo in the buff but he gets to save his modesty
Tuesday April 21 2009
Brian Cowen has just found an unlikely ally in his naked portrait tribulations -- Silvio Berlusconi.
The Italian leader has joined Cowen on a gallery wall after he was also the subject of an unauthorised nude painting.
Berlusconi turned up naked on the wall of a gallery in the company of his equality minister Mara Carfagna, who is equally bereft of clothing.
While the Taoiseach received a distinctly unflattering treatment at the hands of Irish artist Conor Casby, the Italian prime minister has been given a pair of wings and a piece of cloth to maintain his modesty. Berlusconi hit the headlines in the past by flirting on live television with Ms Carfagna when she was still a TV starlet. He told her -- and millions watching on TV -- that he would marry her if he wasn't married already.
His wife, Veronica Lario, demanded and received a public apology but last year Mr Berlusconi made Carfagna his minister of equal opportunities. The pair now find themselves together on a gallery wall near Savona in Italy. Berlusconi has a pair of giant wings extending around the naked Carfagna. Both have rather serious expressions. The prime minister is depicted whispering to Carfagna while she seems to be looking directly towards the prime minister's mini-loin cloth.
But the wife of the premier may have the last laugh as she appears in a canvas nearby with her own pair of wings and a pair of enormous breasts and a mysterious smile. The artist, Filippo Panseca, told his local newspaper that he wanted to "pay homage to the Prime Minister" through the paintings.
He said he copied the likeness of Mr Berlusconi from an image on the internet, while he took Ms Carfagna's body from a 19th century artist. He said if Mr Berlusconi bought the paintings he would donate the money to the earthquake victims of Abruzzo.
Mr Berlusconi has yet to comment. But he seems unlikely to buy the pictures: last year, he censored a bare nipple in a copy of a renaissance painting hung in the government press room.
aokeeffe@herald.ie
- Alan O'Keeffe
