A Letter From The Publisher: Sep. 24, 1965

TIME’s cover artists have used every conceivable medium for their portraits, from oil and water colors to Thermo-Fax reproduction. Apart from paintings, drawings or photographs, we have also on occasion used renderings of collages, tapestry, stained glass and figurines of various materials. For the first time, in this issue, however, TIME’S cover is based on a work of sculpture. The editors commissioned the bust of Pope Paul and used a color photograph of it as the cover portrait.

The sculpture is the work of Boston-born Robert Berks, 43, whose specialty is portraiture of the great of our day—John F. Kennedy, Brandeis, Einstein. When possible, he sculpts from life, but he often works from pictures. After he accepted our commission, his first move was to sift through hundreds of photographs of the Pope in our picture collection. He chose 150, showing Paul at various stages of his life, including early youth, and from a wide variety of angles. Then Berks took his selection of pictures back to his Manhattan studio, covered a whole wall with them, disconnected the telephone and went to work.

After five hours of studying the photographs, Berks felt he knew what he wanted—the expression of the face, the position of the head, the thrust of the shoulders. “I had my gesture,” he says. As he scrutinized the photos he came to the conclusion that the Pontiff is “a troubled man, a man of great inner conflicts. The photos show what the weight of office has done to him.”

For his medium, Berks chose a plasteline-like clay which he devised himself; its distinctive feature is a metallic sheen that suggests cast bronze. Working against our deadline, Berks completed the bust in two days and nights. “An artist has to be of his age,” he says. “Our skills have to be sharpened. Athletes perform faster, artists have to be faster too.” After finishing the sculpture, Berks turned to the job of photographing it, which he rates as important as doing the bust itself. He devoted twelve hours to it, shooting his work from 13 different angles. From his rolls of film, the editors chose the pensive study that appears on the cover.

THIS is Pope Paul’s second appearance on TIME’S cover. The first was just after his election (June 28, 1963), when there was still much speculation as to how closely he would follow the policy of renewal established by John XXIII. Religion Writer John Elson, who did the earlier story on Paul as well as two covers on John, finds the present Pontiff more difficult to write about. Pope Paul’s personality is more withdrawn and mysterious; the journalist can find none of the warm stories or humorous anecdotes surrounding Paul that made John something of a legend. Yet Paul is developing a style of his own and taking major steps to free the papacy from its confines, notably his forthcoming visit to the United Nations in New York. Writer Elson’s story, backed by reporting from TIME’S Rome bureau and edited by Jesse Birnbaum, is an assessment in midway, looking at the Pope’s reign so far and anticipating what will follow as the contending currents of renewal and conservatism swirl through the Vatican Council.