THE TRUE MAN SHOW
Polyptych by Marco Toso Borella, December 2025
WORK ON DISPLAY FROM DECEMBER 23, 2025, TO JANUARY 11, 2026, AT THE SCUOLA GRANDE SAN GIOVANNI EVANGELISTA IN VENICE
ARTISTIC TECHNIQUE: Graffito on 24k gold leaf applied by fusion on a Murano Glass plate. A contemporary evolution of the millennial Byzantine artistic technique according to the centuries-old Muranese tradition of the Toso Borella family.
ANALYSIS OF THE WORK
The work, in its apparent sarcasm, is a complex and dramatic reworking of the Nativity, in which the sacred event of Christ’s birth is transformed into a media and commercial spectacle where the protagonists are the entire series of contemporary icons presented in the Upper Register and among the gathered public that takes on the role of the Predella.
The Title “The True Man Show” is a direct reference to the film The Truman Show, in which a man’s life is secretly broadcast as a reality show. This suggests that, according to the author, the life of Christ has become a spectacle and a mass entertainment product. The truth of the Gospel is obscured or manipulated by the staging and the pursuit of fame.
The analysis is structured through the deciphering of the central scene and its relationship with the part featuring the five smaller icons above (from the left: Saint Mark, the attributes of Saint John the Evangelist, the Pietà, Saint Lucy, Saint Theodore) which, like a frieze or an upper register, define the spiritual and critical context of the major work placed at the center of the composition.
THE HOLY FAMILY
The Inn of Bethlehem: the humble cave is replaced by a luxurious golden palace called “HOTEL BETHLEHEM” with the sign “LUXURY SUITS – FIVE STARS”. This criticizes the materialism and commodification of Christmas and spirituality itself. The rooms (suites) become luxury suits (clothing), mere appearance. The five stars are comets.
The Holy Family: Three characters play Joseph, Mary, and the Infant Jesus, seated on an elevated throne, dressed in luxurious and decorated clothes. Mary and Joseph look almost like a royal couple or a family of influencers posing for the perfect photo.
The supporting characters and the audience (the Predella)
The characters in the foreground, seen from behind, of the “Nativity” (“The True Man Show”) become modern archetypes whose true identity is represented by their selfies, consistent with the social criticism inherent in the work.
The characters are not worshippers, but living symbols of the evils and contradictions of contemporary society presenting themselves at the “spectacle” of Faith.
The characters from left to right, in relation to the identity projected by their selfie, are:
1) The Anonymous Consumer (a mobile phone held by a Selfie-stick). The Selfie shows a black silhouette. Meaning: the true identity is Mass Anonymity and Denied Identity. Despite the act of taking a selfie to be seen, their essence is banal and devoid of content. The search for attention produces emptiness.
2) The Priest-Financial Broker (a friar with a broker’s hat). The Selfie represents the Dollar Sign ($). The true identity of a part of the Church (or Institutional Religion) is Greed and Profit. Under the sacred (or quasi-sacred) disguise, the ultimate goal is the economic transaction. The sacred is a business.
3) The “Befana” (Female figure with a hat in which the name “Christ” is crossed out to leave room for the anonymous X). The Selfie represents the three Magi. The identity is False Tradition/Superstition. Christmas is reduced to folkloric legends or empty rituals (like the Befana), which have lost their original theological meaning (the Magi bringing gifts to the King of Kings).
4) Scrooge (a man in nineteenth-century clothes with the sign of his business hanging on his back). The selfie shows the face of an evil old man. The identity is Avarice and Selfishness (like the Dickens character). Scrooge is not redeemed, but presents himself at the show as a symbol of his own moral misery, rejecting the spirit of charity and birth.
5) The Rag Doll and Botox. The selfie shows a fake face, surgically transformed. The identity is Alienation and the botulinic Lack of Emotion. It represents the person who participates in the show without any real reaction or feeling, a passive mannequin of mass culture masking her soul with surgical operations.
6) The Young Rebel (an apparently clean-cut boy, with a backpack oozing blood; on which Herod’s coat of arms stands out). The selfie shows the cruel face of an executioner. The identity is Violence and Oppression. The allusion to Herod (the slaughterer of the innocents) and the blood suggest that his essence is the threat and the corruption of the future. It is evil masked as youth.
7) Santa Claus. The selfie shows the chubby figure of a jolly, ruddy Santa Claus. The identity is the Commercialization of the Gift. He is not a spiritual giver, but the global symbol of consumerism, which has replaced the true meaning of the gift and Christian charity.
8) Sanctus Nicolaus. The Selfie shows the iconic face of the Bishop of Myra. The identity is the Crisis of Faith/Theological Uncertainty. The figure that should represent the spiritual guide (the Bishop) admits that his authority (the pastoral staff) has become an unsolvable doubt in the era of the spectacle.
If the selfies are their true identity, then the characters in the foreground are nothing more than avatars or empty projections of consumerism and narcissism. They do not worship Christ, but worship the possibility of being seen while they are close to the luxury Christ.
In “The True Man Show”, humanity has been reduced to a self-centered audience, where the birth of the Savior is just another opportunity to strengthen one’s ephemeral and digitized identity.
The Upper Register
SAINT MARK THE EVANGELIST
Saint Mark. Peace and Power.
It denounces that religious and civil authority (symbolized by Venice/Saint Mark) is hypocritical or contaminated by cynicism. The Hotel Bethlehem is not a sacred place, but a center of corrupt power. The use of non-traditional language and clothing takes the figure of Saint Mark out of the biblical context and places him in a dialogue with contemporary society.
SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST
Attributes of Saint John. The Banalization of Truth.
The eternal text (“IN PRINCIPIO”) contaminated by the barcode on the poison chalice. It emphasizes that even the eternal word and theological truth (the Gospel) have been reduced to a labeled and priced product. This explains why the Nativity has become a “five-star comet luxury” event.
SAINT LUCY MARTYR
Saint Lucy. The Commodification of Virtues and Sacrifice.
It symbolizes the transformation of suffering (Lucy’s martyrdom) into a consumer good or a fashion product, fueled from the outside. A tattoo crosses her arm, like the razor that cuts her throat: “I am not a Virgin, I am only a martyr”. Virginity represented as a conditio sine qua non to further value the sacrifice is a plus that is neither owed nor requested. This “sacredness of the hymen”, like the fake Nativity, is only a pretext for exhibition and external glorification.
SAINT THEODORE
Saint Theodore. Resistance, not resilient.
The Rejection of the System. It represents the spirit of resistance against oppression and the status quo. It suggests that “true faith” is rebellious, not domesticated, and opposes the commercial spectacle of the Hotel Bethlehem.
THE PIETÀ
The Pietà. Authentic Suffering
It represents true and non-spectacularized pain of life (death). Its proximity to the Nativity amplifies the irony: the crowd that ignores the true sacrifice (the Pietà) is the same one that photographs luxury and superficiality (the Nativity). The Silent Heroes: Mary and John are transformed into masked healthcare workers, the heroes who witnessed death with pity, courage, and protection. Their act of holding Christ’s body is the act of care and support in a hospital or intensive care unit. The inscription “APOCAL(YPSE) NO(W)” is the heart of the message: even in the midst of suffering that seems like the end of the world (the Passion of Christ), there is a negation of the Apocalypse, an affirmation of life or the resilience of civilization. In summary, the work unites the Passion of Christ with the passion of the pandemic, which seems forgotten, offering a powerful fusion of divine sacrifice and modern collective trauma.
In summary, the work is a weave of religious iconography, Venetian political symbolism, and abrasive social commentary. “Peace be with You, Mark, my Evangelist and (with) All of You”
The two caves with the Nativity and the Cross. In-depth analysis of Meaning and Signifier
Meaning: The two caves with the Nativity and the Cross.
Signifier: The two caves with the Nativity and the Cross.
Message: The two caves with the Nativity and the Cross.