Las pinturas murales de san Juan Bautista de Alarcón. De lo sagrado a lo profano, de lo profano a lo sagrado

Abstract

Art has always been an indispensable ally for the Catholic liturgy, as it has a unique potential: to transform the material into the spiritual. It is the miracle that artists can perform. But if a true artist is able to transform a table into an icon —the profane material into something spiritual and sacred—, could the same artist go the opposite way? Could profaning the sacred, and humanizing -or even downgrade to a category of animal- spirit? In our opinion, that is what has happened in the church of St. John the Baptist of Alarcón by the mysterious murals, made by an unknown and young painter, Jesus Mateo, between 1994 and 2002, and sponsored by UNESCO. Through the story of its genesis and development, this article seeks to illuminate this media phenomenon, providing a new perspective that is based on unpublished sources.