A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
246: Prophet Jonas
The historic city of Congonhas is famous for the soapstone statues of twelve prophets, sculpted by Aleijadinho two centuries ago. These statues are located in front of Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos. Obviously the first letters of the prophets form the name of Aleijadinho. And one of them is Jonas, who was ordered by God to go to Ninivé, but he refused. He then got swallowed by a whale, but he survived. He eventually fulfilled God’s will and went to that Assyrian-dominated city. The moral of this story was forgiveness. He is looking upward, into the sky, as if he was communicating with God. When observing the weather-worn statues, I was wondering how the statues would have looked at the time of their creation, two centuries ago.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2017
Adriano Antoine 