Mercedes Fariña, an Argentine artist who painted Francisco, presents the first portrait of Pope Leo XIV

Mercedes Fariña, the Argentine artist who painted a collection of paintings of Pope Francis since he was chosen in 2013, has just launched the first portrait of Pope Leo XIV.

“Just four days after the conclave that Pope consecrated to Cardinal Robert Prevost, Fariña did it again: he recently presented the first painting that portrays a brand new pontiff,” says a press release about the painting.

“Mercedes, after nourishing more than thirty years of pictorial trade, is able to display its technique at such a speed, that only the tyranny of oil drying times can slow down its creative process,” he adds.

The picture was painted in oil on a large format cloth. It shows Pope Leo XIV at a real scale, with the clothes of his choice day with the cathedral of Santa María de Chiclayo (Peru), where he was bishop.

In the cathedral you can read the phrase “Peace is with you“(Peace be with you), alluding to the first words of the Pope.

“I see the new Pope in line with the doctrine that Francisco knew how to drive in his ministry and will surely print his seal of his own; although always from a synodal vision,” said Mercedes Fariña in statements to ACI Press this May 12.

“When they announced it, it invaded me a great emotion to know it so close to the reality of the Latin American Church, especially for its pastoral history, as a bishop, in such a suffered area of ​​Peru,” added the artist.

When asked about why he is now painting Leo XIV, Mercedes commented that “as I did with the series of works inspired by his predecessor, Francisco, I want to continue generating, through my art, a vehicle between faith and people.”

Mercedes Fariña, indicates the note sent to ACI Press, already made his latest work available to the Holy See, through the Apostolic Nunciature in Argentina, so that Leo XIV knows the painting and so that the artist can give it to him in the near future.