Papal Portrait

Whenever I see a shifty-looking portrait, I'm reminded of that political campaign against USA President Richard Nixon: Would you buy a used car from this man? German painter Michael Triegel's official portrait of Pope Benedict XVI (2010) makes the Pope look both shifty and pensive. Chubby too. It's one of the items on display in the recently opened exhibition Michael Triegel: Verwandlung der Götter (Metamorphosis of the Gods) which continues at the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, Germany, until 6 February 2011. Triegel paints a lot of peculiar religious stuff. Presumably that's the reason he got the job of painting the Pope.