T.J. Mueller
ART FROM ABOVE®
CHRIST THE REDEEMER IN RISING SUN
72"x54" oil paint on polyester canvas, 2016
Details
Experience
Harnessed into a Bell 206 helicopter lifting off from Jacarepaguá Airport before sunrise in early 2012, I rose into what first appeared to be a cloud-shrouded morning. As we swept past Sugarloaf Mountain, the clouds thinned, dissolving into gold beneath the rising sun. By the time we approached Corcovado, the awakening city of Rio de Janeiro unfurled beneath us. The skyscrapers, barely specks more than 2,000 feet below, created a thrilling, vertiginous sense of scale.
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Circling around the far side of the Christ the Redeemer statue, nearly the entire city came into view—an unfolding vision that felt as if the heavens themselves were opening. The statue stood in serene guardianship, watching over the millions below.
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In that moment, I knew this vision—this glimpse of heaven’s gate above Rio—would be captured in paint, in all its glory.
—T. J. Mueller
About Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was designed by French sculptor Paul Landowski and constructed by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, with the collaboration of French engineer Albert Caquot. The face was sculpted by Romanian artist Gheorghe Leonida. Built between 1922 and 1931, the statue stands 30 meters (98 ft) tall, not including its 8-meter (26 ft) pedestal. Its outstretched arms span 28 meters (92 ft).
Weighing 635 metric tons (625 long tons; 700 short tons), the monument is located at the summit of the 700-meter (2,300 ft) Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park, overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro. A global symbol of Christianity, it has become an enduring cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and is recognized as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The statue is constructed from reinforced concrete and covered in soapstone.
Source: Wikipedia – Christ the Redeemer (statue)