Paris, France, Apr 28, 2019 / 15:34 pm
As fire ravaged the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this month, one artist from Ecuador used her skills to express the grief that she and so many people throughout the world felt as the beautiful building burned.
In a pencil sketch posted to Instagram that quickly went viral, artist Cristina Correa Freile depicted Disney's version of Quasimodo, the famous fictional "Hunchback of Notre Dame", crying and hugging the beloved church where he was the bellringer.
Quasimodo was the hero of a novel by Victor Hugo, written at another time when Notre Dame needed saving, from years of destruction and disrepair. Given the emotional reaction to the sketch from thousands who saw it, the beloved character may be at least part of the reason that people once more rally behind the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris.
Because the name "Quasimodo" is most frequently associated with an ugly but lovable character from a fictional story, some may be surprised to learn that the hunchback's name is actually liturgical.