ANNOUNCEMENT!
December 2005

I am seeking a Model for the new Sacred Heart of Jesus painting!

CONTACT: Pete@Bagnoloart.com

Artist, theologian, Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo has an announcement to make.

Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo is about to embark on a new interpretation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a painting. He is therefore seeking a model for such work. He will make a nationwide search for the model he feels best represents the image he envisions. People may begin to make inquiries to the professor about someone they believe fits the requirements he has developed for said painting as defined below.

Professor Bagnolo has done tireless research to assist him in his desire to create the new Sacred Heart image. When he has collected all of the sources into a sketch, which he believes will give him the most accurate reconstruction of the face and form of Jesus, he will begin the painting; it is at that point that he will need a model to connect the research to the form of an active, flesh and blood, being.

Professor Bagnolo’s sources include:
The descriptions of mystics who claimed to have seen the Jesus visions leading to the concept of the Sacred Heart. The image of the Shroud of Turin, and late first century and early second century art, ancient drawings, paintings and mosaics of Jesus. Those pieces of art although certainly not created from first hand observation, may have been influenced by descriptions handed down from the Apostles and other observers. Professor Bagnolo has focused on the First and Second Century art because he believes it to be the most likely source for an the approximate image, understanding that the primitive nature of the existing art of the period is not anatomically accurate, but that it may offer insights into the real face and form of the living figure of Jesus.

From all of these sources Professor Bagnolo has pieced together a general description from which he would like to create a detailed portrait using a new model to flesh out the figure of Jesus. Therefore, if you or a friend of yours is a likely candidate as the model for the painting, write us and tell us about yourself and include height, weight, age, eye and hair and skin color and tone, as well as length of hair and beard, but do not send an attachment photo or any other attachment, because unsolicited attachments will be deleted. Instead send your name, home phone number, address and email address along with a brief description of the person which picture you would like us to consider, as detailed above, and request permission to send a photo, and if we are interested further we will email directions on how to submit the picture to us. If you have a website, please post the photo on it and send us the URL. Please do not write asking about the status of the decision, when we have chosen the winning candidate he will be informed and we will announce if on the website.

If we actually use the picture you submitted as the model for the Sacred Heart Painting of Jesus, we will send you a release form and when the painting is completed, award you, as complete compensation, an unframed print of the painting, on canvas at no charge. Please remember not to send any photos either by mail or by attachment or any unsolicited snail mail photos. If we choose your photo you will be sent a Disclosure/Release form for your contribution as the model for the overall form and template, incorporated with all the other sources mentioned above for the painting. Later if we do request a photo, it will not be returned so do not send your only copy. The painting will not be a portrait of the winning entry, but the painting will be a conglomerate of all of the research and sources cited above and the living model will be just one more piece of the mosaic of The Sacred Heart of Jesus Painting.

Physical description gleaned from the Shroud of Turin and other sources:

5’11”-6’1” tall, weight, 175-190 pounds, wavy or curly hair, of medium brown to dark brown color with red highlights. Build, large-boned, lean, athletic, and broad shouldered, more like a baseball player than a football player in stature. Sinewy, lanky, rugged, strong hands, prominent brow, somewhat mildly hawk-nosed, strong, somewhat high, cheek-boned, high forehead, prominent chin and jaw line. Longer neck, eye color, hazel, to dark brown. Prominent, but not shaggy eyebrows. Beard, mustache, shorter, curly, somewhat trimmed, not heavy or extremely full. Skin pigmentation, medium to somewhat tanned. If you need other information, let us know.

To save you some time and effort, please note, that if your model does not fit the description given above, we are not interested in seeing a picture.

Thank you and good luck

Send your detailed information to:

Pete@Bagnoloart.com

Research Information concerning the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

St. Lutgarde (d.1246) the Cistercian mystic of Aywieres, Belgium made claim to the first known visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Of St. Clare (d.1253) we read that she greeted many times a day the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. St. Bonaventure (d.1274), the Franciscan and a great theologian, wrote: "Since we have reached the most sweet Heart of Jesus, and it is good for us to abide in It, let us not readily turn away from It. How good, how sweet it is to dwell in Thy Heart, O good Jesus! Who is there who would not desire this pearl? I would rather give all else, all my thoughts and all the affections of my soul in exchange for It, casting my whole mind into the Heart of my good Jesus." St. Bonaventure also wrote: "Who is there who would not love this wounded Heart? Who would not love, in return, Him Who loves so much?"

St. Gertrude the Great (b-January 6, 1256, d.1301 or 1302) a Benedictine Nun and her good friend, St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (d.1298). also claimed the visions

Franciscan Jacopone da Todi (d.1306), refers to Christ writing the names of devout souls upon His Heart.

A group known as the "Rhineland Mystics" in Germany boasted two mystics who referred to Jesus’ Heart. The Dominican Johannes Tauler (d.1361) and Blessed Henry Suso (d.1366), had visions of the sacred heart.

The Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony (d.1378), wrote: "Our Lord's Heart was wounded with the wound of love for our sake, so that, loving Him in return, we might enter through that open wound into His Heart and there live inflamed with His love, just as iron cast into the fire becomes incandescent."

The great Dominican mystic, St. Catherine of Siena (d.1380), the first to display the Stgmata-the wounds of Christ had similar visions

Julian of Norwich (d.1416), the English anchoress and mystic,

A Carthusian, Dominic of Treves (d.1461), wrote: of the heart of Jesus

The Italian Poor Clare Nun Blessed Baptista Varani (d.1527) also had such visions

The Carthusian, called Lansperguis (d.1539), recommended that people have a picture of the Sacred Heart to foster their devotion.

St. Teresa of Avila (d.1582), the great Spanish Carmelite mystic and "Doctor of Prayer," explained that we should make the Sacred Wound our place of refuge, as also did the Spanish Dominican, Venerable Louis of Grenada (d.1588).

An English martyr, Sir Thomas Percy, who founded an abbey for English Benedictine Nuns at Brussels in 1596. Lady Mary Percy had the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus placed over the door of the abbey.

St. Francis de Sales (d.1622), who with St. Jane de Chantel (d.1641) founded the Visitation Nuns, said, "May God give us the grace to live and die in the Sacred Heart."

Even Protestants: Mathias Hejnal, Gospor Drusbichi, in the 17 th century and Puritan Protestant, Thomas Goodwin, published a book about the Sacred Heart which was later, in 1819, reprinted by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists.

St. John Eudes (d.1680) was a great apostle of devotion to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus.