4 Mural painting

4

Mural painting

Material/Technique

Fresco

Title/Topic

fragments of painted mural decoration (Maiestas Domini and tetramorph)

Date/Period

Late 12th century - early 13th century

Location

Church of Santa Maria (la Romànica), Barberà del Vallès (Vallès Occidental county)

CRBMC Register NO

2850

Coordination Pere Rovira

Director of restoration

Javier Chillida (Chillida Conservación Restauración Art, SL)

The chevet of the church of Santa Maria de Barberà (la Romànica) is formed of a central apse and two side apses decorated with Romanesque mural paintings.

The apses were painted with lime in the last quarter of the 12th century and this work is attributed to an artist in the circle of the ‘Master of Cardona’ (the name given to the artist who painted murals in several churches), while the central apse was painted al fresco shortly afterwards by the ‘Master of Barberà del Vallès’. The only area in the church that still preserves the painted decoration on its original support is on the three registers of the main apse, as the rest of the paintings were detached by Ramon Gudiol in 1949. The detached paintings were transferred to canvas and mounted on wooden frames, apart from four fragments that were adhered directly to the central absidal basin.

State of conservation

The fact that the paintings were directly in contact with the wall compromised the conservation of these fragments, due to water leaks from the roofs and open, structural cracks throughout the thickness of the wall. The main damage included lifting of the paint film, losses of the pictorial layer, and detachment from the canvases. Therefore, they needed to be removed so that an intervention layer could be placed between the canvases and the wall: an insulating material that would protect them from future damage.

Damage to the pierced fabrics

Intervention

The detached fragments were transferred to the CRBMC workshops, where tests were carried out to decide which material to use for the intervention layer, the best adhesive for fixing the layer to the basin wall, and which adhesive to use for fixing the transfer canvases to the surface of the intervention layer.

The material chosen for the intervention layer was expanded polystyrene (Porexpan®), 4 mm thick. This a hydrophobic material that is resistant to biological degradation and which has been used for some years as an intervention layer for detached mural paintings. In this case, it was valued among other materials for its optimal adaptation to the irregular form of the plaster support, its light weight, and because it would allow the canvases to be mechanically dismounted in the future, without the need for solvents. To adhere the Porexpan® sheets to the wall, it was decided to use Plextol® B 500, since it allowed the sheets to be quickly glued together and to be able to adjust their arrangement.

To adhere the transferred mural to the Porexpan®, the adhesive had to function as a contact adhesive and to also prevent excessive impregnation of the transfer canvases. Different adhesives were tested and, finally, it was decided to use Lascaux® Acrylic Adhesive 498-20X, due to the good adhesion of the resin and minimal impregnation of the canvases owing to its density. If future dismounting is required, the adhesive on the back of the canvases can be removed with acetone.

— Javier Chillida

Layout of the intervention layer

Year of restoration

2014

Completed restoration

Restoration of the mural paintings of the church of Sant Quirze de Pedret located in the Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona

Object

Mural paintings detached from the front of the apse and side walls of the nave

Material/Technique

Fresco, transferred to canvas

Title/Topic

Decorative paintings of the church of Sant Quirze de Pedret

Date/Period 11th century

Dimensions

Various

Location

Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona, Solsona (Solsonès county)

CRBMC Register NO

3001 to 3007

Restoration

Restauracions Policromia, SL: Cristina Martí, Pau Ramírez and Gemma Rodríguez

Year of restoration

2018

The decorative mural paintings, the object of the study and restoration carried out, are part of the detachment campaign launched in 1919 by the Junta de Museus (Board of Museums), led by Joaquim Folch i Torres, for their preservation. The campaign was called “Salvament del patrimoni artístic de Catalunya” (Saving the artistic heritage of Catalonia), with Emili Gandia the archaeologist entrusted to supervise the work.

In 1937, the first detachments of 11th-century paintings took place in the church of Sant Quirze de Pedret. During the process, 10th century paintings were discovered on the lower level.

After the mural paintings were detached, they were transferred to Barcelona, and later to the Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona, where they were to be exhibited. Their first location in the Episcopal Palace building did not allow them to be exhibited in their actual size, and in the 1990s it was decided to move them to one of the rooms on the first floor, where they can still be seen today.

State of conservation

The intervened murals were those located at the front of the church’s apse and on the side walls of the nave.

Prior to the intervention, complete photographic documentation was carried out using infrared imaging, raking light, ultraviolet light, and diffuse light. The result showed what was already starting to become visible to the naked eye: widespread lifting on the polychrome surface. Therefore, the first step was to determine the cause of this problem that endangered the conservation of the paintings. Several issues were found which, together, could have caused or accelerated the deterioration of the pictorial layer. The support, or structure, of the apse is located in a room in the Episcopal Palace that is not accessible to the public and which has old doors and a temperature and humidity level different to that of the room in which the pictorial surface of the ensemble is on exhibition. In addition, in the exhibition room, there was evidently an air current created as a result of its location along the route.

In our opinion, these variations in temperature and dryness of the environment led to the lifting of the adhesive residue during the detachments.

Therefore, as much as possible of this residue had to be removed, and the environmental conditions balanced.

Intervention

Thus, the restoration intervention focused on removing as much of the adhesive residue as possible, while also fixing the lifted areas of the polychrome surface. Controlling the humidity control at high temperatures facilitated the cleaning process, and the residue was gradually removed. At the same time, the pictorial surface was fixed with the same traditional adhesive, taking care to avoid its excessive use.

In this intervention, the old putty could not be removed until the entire work had been be assessed, which remains to be determined in the next phase of action.

— Cristina Martí

 Remains of colletta at the time of the detachment

Museum room where the paintings are located  Process of reattaching the peeled pictorial layer

Material/Technique

Tempera

Title/Topic

Religious figurative painting of Our Lady of Sorrows

Author

Antoni Viladomat i Manalt (16781755)

Date/Period 18th century

CRBMC Register NO

3780

Restoration

Restauracions Policromia, SL: Cristina Martí (team manager), Marta Corberó, Ainara Díaz, Laia Duran, Valèria Mamszynsky, Natàlia Nogueras, Sandra Piris, Núria Prat, Pau Ramírez and Cecília Sabadell

The church of Santa Maria de Mataró is documented in a deed dated 1053, located in the archives of the Cathedral of Barcelona. In 1694, the Venerable Congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows was authorised by the Town Council to buy the land adjacent to the church to build its chapel. In 1698, the land was blessed and the first was stone was laid.

The Chapel of Sorrows of the Basilica of Santa Maria consists of an anteroom that gives access to the chapel. At the end of the chapel is the sacristy, which leads to the crypt by means of a stairs on the right and to the meeting room from stairs on the left.

It is one of the most magnificent and well-preserved complexes in Catalonia and is considered by many historians to be a heritage gem of the Catalan Baroque period.

State of conservation

Documentation relating to the chapel and the Congregation itself is missing between 1739 and 1779, as no record books have been found. It is difficult, therefore, to know about the extensions and alterations that took place during these years. The invoices kept in the archive, as well as inscriptions and writings on the jambs of the two upper windows and on the lunettes in the ceiling, provide evidence of the transformations that took place in the 1990s.

Throughout its history, the mural paintings of the chapel underwent a series of interventions, including the wall protective at the main entrance in 1938, when the church served as a marketplace during the war.

 State of conservation of the polychrome of the vault before the intervention

Appearance of the chapel after the restoration

Despite the same technique being used, the state of conservation of the tempera painting on the vault and that on the facings was different because, in the case of the latter, a layer of polyvinyl acetate was applied in the 1960s as a ‘protective’ layer. This altered its characteristics and left a shine on the pictorial surface that is atypical of this technique. The vault suffered a different problem, since the alterations were caused by humidity and water leaking through the roof. This resulted in a loss of polychrome in the pendentive areas, which were repaired at various times throughout the history of the chapel and much of it was left without the original polychromy. The rest of the wall decoration was in a powdery condition due to binder loss. Prior to the intervention, a study

Close-up of one of the walls with an already clean area, seen with ultraviolet light. The bluish area corresponds to the part that still maintains the aged varnish Process of removing the layer of polyvinyl acetate from the surface of the walls

of the murals was carried out with laboratory tests, mainly to determine the film applied over the tempera painting on the facings, using a digital microscope to obtain enlarged images of details and photographic documentation using ultraviolet light and diffuse light.

Intervention

As the problem was different with the tempera painting on the facings and that on the vaults, the intervention procedures carried out were those appropriate for each case.

Facings Various tests were performed on the facings to remove the polyvinyl acetate layer, including mechanical procedures, application of heat, mixtures with various solvents or emulsions, and gels applied to soften the film they wished to remove.

Finally, a pure polar solvent was applied with a brush, which had a drying effect on the varnish layer, allowing it to be easily removed. This, when it contracted, lost its adhesion to the pictorial layer and could be easily separated from it. The reaction was different in the repainted areas, which accounted for a significant percentage of the surface, in which the acetate layer was removed along with the repainted parts.

Vault Dry cleaning was not carried out on the tempera painting on the vault due to the wear caused to the surface of the paintings. After empirical and bibliographic research, the tests led us to consider the use of a rigid gel made from agaragar algae as the most optimal cleaning procedure. With the application of sheets with the necessary controlled conditions, wet cleaning was carried out on the polychrome. The finishing of the large areas was done in neutral tones to highlight the importance of the paintings of Antoni Viladomat.

— Cristina Martí

The same area with diffused light

Cleaning the polychrome of the vault

Appearance of polychrome after cleaning

Material/Technique

Distemper

Title/Topic

Religious mural painting, figurative painting, decorative geometric and plant borders

Date/Period

16th-17th century

Dimensions

60 m2 approximately

Coordination Pere Rovira

Restoration

Conservació de Patrimoni 4Restaura, SL: Imma Brull and Nuri de Toro; with the collaboration of Nicola de la Aldea, Cristina Macho and Ares Pérez

The church of Sants Just i Pastor in the town of Son consists of a single nave with a semicircular apse, a bell tower, and Lombard decoration on the outer walls, following the model of the Romanesque mountain churches built between the 11th and 12th centuries. It belonged to a walled enclosure, of which the defence tower from the same period is preserved and, together with the clock tower of the ‘comunidor’ (a small, open-sided shelter separate to the church), the cemetery and a porch, forms part of the same complex that is listed as a Cultural Asset of National Interest (BCIN).

Transformations of the interior with rib vaults, side chapels, the pictorial discourse and the polychromed wooden altarpiece of Pere Espallargues presiding over the apse took place in the 15th century.

An intervention was carried out on the roof in the1990s, the altarpiece was restored in 1991, and between 1992 and 1994 the mural paintings on of the triumphal arches were restored.

Twenty years later, due to leaks from the roof, the state of conservation of the paintings was critical. In 2014, as part of a comprehensive intervention that included maintenance work on the interior and exterior of the building, a conservation-restoration intervention was also scheduled to stabilise the paintings on the triumphal arches and to carry out tests on the other facings.

State of conservation

The alterations were mainly surface dirt, layer decohesion, gypsum reintegrations, surface salts, chromatic reinterpretations, PVA coating layers and obsolete and oxidised metallic elements that aggravated the stability of the wall decoration.

Intervention

For these paintings, the new intervention proposal prioritised the establishment of criteria for preventive conservation, cleaning processes, and consolidation.

Remains of the paintings discovered, located below the choir, with the representation of Genesis, after the restoration. We can see Adam and Eve in paradise and the Trinity, as well as the inscription

in principio·creavit caelum·et terram

 After restoration, the remains discovered in the choir, borders and various characters

 General view of the paintings of the presbytery

During the cleaning process, for reasons of conservation, the reintegrations of altered gypsum were replaced by new reintegrations of lime mortar, prioritising the consolidation.

Exploratory tests revealed previously undiscovered paintings in the side chapel, the upper choir and the lower choir, with complementary themes that indicate that the entire interior of the church had been painted with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

With regard to the mural painting uncovered with a scalpel, after consolidating the layers with a gradual injection of lime mortar, bevelling the edges and filling the voids to provide a unified reading of all areas, the intervention consisted of dry surface cleaning and undertone chromatic retouching with watercolours.

Finally, we also wanted to highlight the set of five granite and marble fonts —the baptismal font, two oil fonts, a Romanesque baptismal font and two holy water fonts—, prioritising the cleaning processes to improve interpretation.

— Imma Brull and Nuri de Toro

Remains discovered in the nave; angel with slanted torso and an angel with bow and arrows. Behind the south wall of the chapel, the Virgin Nursing the Child sitting with the child in her arms. After the restoration Presbytery: the Cardinal Virtues after the restoration

The Romanesque mural paintings of the church of Sant Pere de Sorpe were detached in 1929 and 1964 by Josep Gudiol and deposited in the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and the Diocesan Museum of La Seu d’Urgell. In their place, as a result of detachment using the strappo technique, the Intonaco mortars were left with quite significant polychrome remains.

The paintings were located in the area closest to the former presbytery of the Romanesque church. However, we can consider that they were originally intended to decorate almost the entire three-naved building, in a complete iconographic cycle of which only a part remains, largely due to the profound architectural and decorative transformations that the Lombardstyle building has undergone throughout history.

Following the collapse of the apse and the south apsidiole due to the earthquakes in the 15th century, the direction of the nave was reversed, resulting in the preserved Romanesque paintings being located in the entrance area of the church. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, other reforms gave the interior space of the church a morphology more typical of the Baroque period; noteworthy are the new flat chevet presided over by a Renaissance altarpiece, the addition of groin vaults, the division of the side naves into chapels, the installation of altars and a wooden choir, repeated whitewashing of the walls, and the addition of mural paintings from later periods (16th-19th centuries).

Material/Technique

Fresco painting with whitewash finish

Description

religious figurative painting. Scenes from the Old and New Testament (central nave); allegorical scenes (Gospel passages), figures of saints, the Holy Spirit and the Cross with emblems of the Passion (triumphal arches); figures of saints and archangels with zodiac symbols (side arches). The rich man’s feast (bell tower). Scene with Saint Sadurní? (southeast chapel)

Dimensions

120 m2 approximately

Location

Church of Sant Pere, Sorpe (Pallars Sobirà county)

CRBMC Register NO 10014 and 10015

Coordination Pere Rovira

Restoration

Artec. Conservació i Restauració, SL: Isabel Balaguer, Maria Cardenal, Neus Casal, Ana Guillén, José Latorre, Caridad de la Peña and Carles Ribó

Year of restoration

2012

This transfiguration of the original Romanesque space made it difficult to understand the paintings as a whole. The restoration was aimed primarily at recovering the Romanesque vestiges remaining on the walls after the paintings had been detached, but it was also necessary to delimit and distinguish the wall decorations from other periods so as to create order in the presentation of the walls.

The mural vestiges of the triumphal arches, currently located in the area of the choir; general view and close-up of the cross with the emblems of the Passion, after the intervention

Furthermore, during the course of the intervention, several fragments of Romanesque painting that had not been detached were also discovered. These had been concealed by the layers of whitewash and later additions, and represent the continuation of the known paintings conserved in the MNAC. On the south wall of the southeast chapel, hidden by the altar and a layer of whitewash, appeared a pictorial fragment with a double compositional register, depicting the figure of a saint (Sadurní?). In the lower part of the northeast pillar of the central nave appeared a fragment of the Crucifixion. On the walls of the central nave, above the Baroque groin vaults, the continuation of the scenes of the central nave and the triumphal arches was discovered (work carried out in this area was limited to preventive consolidation, awaiting a possible future intervention that would allow the restoration of the attic space).

State of conservation

The church fell into a progressive state of abandonment particularly after the paintings were detached, and the interior spaces began to seriously deteriorate due to the humidity caused by leaking roofs and the capillary action of the soil in the adjacent cemetery.

The wall coverings were unstable and posed a risk of detachment, due to the disintegration of the mortars, their lack of cohesion to the wall support, and the presence of a large number of holes, cracks, and fissures.

The pictorial layers presented a generalised powdery state, with occasional lifting. Other significant alterating factors included the materials added in previous interventions, such as the various whitewashes, the many repairs to the walls, and the presence of plasterwork and use of modern plastic paints.

Mapping of the alterations to the paintings discovered on the south wall of the south-east chapel Paints and mortars. In situ  Edge of the mortar

layer no. 1: romanesque pointing  Mortar 1. Romanesque pointing Alterations. In situ

fractures and deformations  Crack

separation and detachment surface alterations Incisions

layer no. 3: romanesque mural cycle  Mortar 3. Romanesque (2nd contractor)

Paint 5. Romanesque original (2nd contractor) Decohesion. Mortar Disintegration. Mortar Pulverulence. Paint

  Before the restoration. Close-up of the paintings discovered in the attic space, above the baroque ridge vaults; highlights include border in the shape of a greca, mythical beasts and a triple strip with inscriptions north wall, between the Annunciation and the Visitation and some bare feet which, in relation to the lower scene (Original Sin), could be part of the Expulsion from Paradise Close-up of the mural vestiges of the Annunciation scene, currently located on the first section of the north wall of the central nave. After the restoration

After the restoration. Close-up of the painting that appeared on the south wall of the south-east chapel, which presents two compositional sections; in the lower section we find a scene with the figure of a saint (Sadurní), an animal and an architectural structure. In the upper section, much more deteriorated, there is a leg stepping on a snake (the archangel Saint Michael killing the dragon?)

This all gave the building, the mural paintings, and other movable goods in the building an overall ruinous appearance. The restoration of the paintings was therefore accompanied by a comprehensive rehabilitation project to address the humidity problems and to reorder and arrange the spaces.

Intervention

Once the delimitation of the paintings of different periods was complete and the superposition of layers understood, the specific conservation-restoration work began on the vestiges and the Romanesque paintings.

Firstly, the dust and dirt deposits were removed mechanically, and cleaning was carried out on the coatings and added materials that surrounded and covered most of the surfaces to be restored. At the same time, it was necessary to ensure the stabilisation of the wall paintings as a whole. The loose areas were consolidated by injecting hydraulic mortars free of soluble salts, while the disintegrated mortars were consolidated using a silica-ester consolidant. The powdered pictorial layer was fixed with Japanese paper and methyl cellulose adhesive, and the lifted paint was fixed with precise injections of acrylic resin in low-concentration aqueous dispersion.

An archaeological criterion was followed for the finishing system, limiting the addition of material to that strictly necessary for facilitating the reading of the whole set. The Intonaco surfaces were closed using perimeter bevels and by sealing the holes, fissures, and cracks. In the voids and perimeter losses, non-reintegration was chosen, leaving the Romanesque stone walls visible, suitably grouted, and with the original chamfered edges intact. Only in the area of the intrados of the triumphal arches was a low-level, neutraltoned finishing mortar incorporated, to promote stability and to visually unify the fragments preserved in this area. All the restoration work was carried out using lime mortar (hydraulic and/or aerial) and various aggregates, in specific compositions to adapt the mortars to the different uses and to the aesthetic characteristics of each area.

— Isabel Balaguer, Neus Casal and Caridad de la Peña

Material/Technique

Fresco

Title/Topic

Christ in Majesty, tetramorph and apostolate

Date/Period

1123

Location

Church of Sant Climent, Taüll (Alta Ribagorça county)

CRBMC Register NO

10767

There are no known old documentary sources regarding the church of Sant Climent de Taüll, except for the painted cartouche on the first column of the central nave that documents the consecration of the church in 1123 by the Bishop of Roda. However, documentation exists (although with gaps) that records some of the events that have taken place in the church since the beginning of the 20th century.

Below is a summary of the most noteworthy events regarding the paintings preserved in the church:

— 1904 Lluís Domènech i Montaner made the first recognition of the importance of Romanesque wall paintings.

— 1920 The purchase, detachment, and transfer of several sets of mural paintings in the Pyrenean territory was initiated, accounting for some 400 m2 of pictorial surface. As part of this important operation, during the summer of 1920 restorer Franco Steffanoni carried out the detachment of the Romanesque decoration on the main apse of the church, which was later transferred. — 1922 The second detachment campaign was carried out, during which other scenes from the central apse and the decoration of the north apse were removed.

— 1960 Restorer Ramon Gudiol, together with Andreu Asturiol, began the detachment of the decoration from the lower part of the central apse and a small window.

— 1968 Alejandro Ferrant, of the Directorate-General for Fine Arts, commissioned the reproduction of the paintings in the apse to Ramon Millet. On completion of the detachment process, it was discovered that there were remains of paintings in the apse. Fortunately, the reproduction was not carried out directly on the walls. A false apse was built with a wooden structure covered with plasterboard on which the reproduction was made. A gap was left between the original wall and the false apse.

— 2000 The Architectural Heritage Restoration Service of the Generalitat de Catalunya commissioned the company

 Photographic montage. Appearance of the vertical wall of the apse after the restoration. Area of the apostolic college  Appearance of the vertical wall of the apse after the restoration. Lower area in which three windows with pictorial decoration of the primitive church were recovered

Restoration

Krom Restauració, SL: Mercè Marquès (team manager), Nicola de la Aldea, Marta Escoda, Raquel García, Noemí Jiménez and Anna Perich. Collaboration: Ares Pérez

Appearance of the church after the intervention

Arcor Restauració Pintura, S.L. to restore the wall paintings that had not been detached. The work was carried out in two phases during 2000 and 2001. Interventions were made on the frontispiece and the north apse: scenes of dogs, peacocks, figures of Saint Cornelius, Saint Clement, and Saint Peter.

It was discovered that parts of the original decoration were concealed below the whitewash layers, and several complete scenes were recovered from the decoration in the front of the central apse and the triumphal arches: an angel-soldier musician, several decorative borders, and Cain killing Abel, among other figures.

— 2012 and 2013 An intervention project was established for a new presentation of the pictorial ensemble of the main apse, directed collegially by the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the Centre for the Restoration of Artefacts of Catalonia (CRBMC), with funding from Obra Social “la Caixa” and with the collaboration of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC).

— March 2013 The reproduction of the mural paintings was removed. The previous year, an endoscopy was performed to determine the system used to fix the reproduction to the wall, and to check for the existence of preserved original paintings following the pictorial detachments. Curator/restorer Pere Rovira, manager of the CRBMC’s Mural Paintings and Sculpture on Stone department, coordinated these prior works and supervised the subsequent restoration work.

Intervention

Both the coatings and the mural painting were badly damaged after the detachment process and anchoring of the reproduction. The aim of the restoration was to recover, consolidate and safeguard the decorated areas discovered in the lower parts of the apse and on some of the walled windows, as well as to restore the deep layers still preserved on the walls of the main apse.

2001 Revaluation began on the deep layers of the mural paintings that were still attached to the walls after the detachment process, and the remains of the following scenes were restored: Clipeus with Agnus Dei and the supporting angels, the Hand of God, Lazarus at the Rich Man’s Door, Abel’s Offering, and the scene of the Seated Man. The intervention in 2013 furthered this objective and also brought other advantages. It allowed a study of the materials and of the technique and work methodology of the painters who were involved in it. It allowed us to discover the existence of three successive decorative stages in the main apse and, above all, to recover and restore the deep layers of the absidal basin depicting the figures of Christ in Majesty, the Evangelists, and Mary and the Apostles. Today, thanks to the restoration of the remains preserved in situ, it is possible to capture the impact through the image that is perceived from the pictorial ensemble in its original architectural context, in the Romanesque church of Taüll.

— Mercè Marquès

Stratigraphy of a fresco after a detachment using the strappo technique Close-up after the restoration. Recovery of the decoration of the ashlar joints and the painted oculus. This decoration is in a layer below the pictorial decoration of the apse

Photographic montage. Aspect of the apse after the restoration

Saint Luke the evangelist. Close-up, after restoration, of the surface seen with raking light, in which the preliminary drawing and the superposition of the coloured layers can be seen

Material/Technique

Fresco mural painting

Title/Topic

Geometric decoration – imitation ashlar with red ochre decorative cross inside

Author

Unknown

Date/Period

14th and 15th century

CRBMC Register NO

12482

Restoration

Meritxell Izquierdo (team leader) and Sara Sagastegui

Years of restoration

2015-2018

Sant Domènec Church was built between 1292 and 1310.

It is a large building, which shows the demographic significance of the area during this period and the wealth of its Dominican community.

The paintings could date from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and are part of the French tradition of linear Gothic art.

The paintings’ state of conservation was conditioned by a series of prior interventions and modifications. The church was damaged both by natural causes, like the earthquakes of the fifteenth century, and by human activity, during the War of the Pyrenees (1792–1795) and the Peninsular War (1808–1814), when it was turned into a military base. What’s more, from 1835 onwards, it was used as a prison and warehouse.

Discovery of Gothic wall paintings in the area of the choir

State of conservation

Due to these events, the state of conservation presented various alterations and deteriorations: layers of mortar applied on top of the painting; a thin layer of lime stuck directly to the mural painting; areas with hollows, cracks and holes, some filled in with cement, others with gypsum; disintegration of the preparatory base in several areas, some of which with warping; and finally, areas where the pictorial layer had fallen away or been worn.

Intervention

The conservation-restoration process ended up being quite arduous, due to the large dimensions of the painting and its state of conservation. First, the cracks were filled in with injections of a lime and sand mortar. Then, the various layers of mortar applied on top of the Gothic mural painting were removed with picks and rubber hammers.

The most delicate part of the work was the extraction of the last layer of lime with a scalpel, as it was stuck fast directly on the mural painting. To do this, we softened the lime area by area with warm, wet sponges, then removed the lime quickly with the scalpel and wooden sticks. Next, the most disintegrated areas and the warped parts of the preparatory layer were consolidated.

Following this, cement and gypsum from prior interventions that were not originally part of the mural painting were extracted and removed. The mechanical and chemical cleaning of the pictorial layer was carried out with a deionised water and neutral soap solution, depending on the level of dirt, as cold and/or tepid water and soft brushes were enough to clean most of the surface (the resistance of the pigment was checked first).

Once dry after cleaning, the pictorial layer was fixed with acrylic resin, then the material reintegration of the hollows and anchoring holes was carried out with lime mortar.

Finally, the chromatic reintegration of the hollows was carried out, following entirely archaeological criteria.

— Meritxell Izquierdo

Front view of the choir

Decoration of the central part of the mural after the restoration

Material/Technique

Tempera paint on gypsum plaster and lime and sand mortar

Title/Topic

Religious figurative painting and decorative paintings

Author

Unknown

Date/Period

1728

Location

Sant Serni de Meranges Parish Church, Meranges (Cerdanya county)

CRBMC Register NO

12617

Coordination Pere Rovira

Restoration

Neus Casal and Caridad de la Peña (team leaders), Maria Borja and Marina Prats

Year of restoration

2015

In the context of the architectural rehabilitation work on the Romanesque Sant Serni de Meranges Church (twelfth century), and through surveys carried out in October 2015, preserved Baroque mural paintings were detected on the building’s interior walls.

These paintings had been concealed by successive layers of whitening and other later paintings, most of which were relatively modern, which had been applied on top according to the tastes of the period and in relation to the various transformations the building underwent over the course of its history.

Once the existence of the mural decorations was confirmed, in order to guarantee their conservation and maximise the possibilities of recovering them in the future, in December of the same year, an exhaustive surveying and consolidation process was carried out on the Baroque coatings.

At the same time, the opportunity was taken to uncover some of the painted areas to examine the characteristics of the pictorial cycle and leave visible proof of it, in the hope that the paintings might be fully uncovered and restored in the future. The rest of the wall surfaces, where there were no preserved Baroque coatings, were scraped, plastered and repainted, in order to bring the building’s interior walls up to scratch.

It seems that all the paintings found are part of the same decorative programme, painted in 1728 and commissioned by the rector (according to the inscription uncovered on the frontispiece of the triumphal arch), and respond formally to the stylistic and decorative canons of the Baroque period.

The paintings are generally preserved on the upper part of the walls, above the impost line. In the sanctuary area (triumphal arches), we find God the Father with a globe, surrounded by a cloudscape with putti, and flanked by the figures of two bishops, who, in turn, are surrounded by a decorative border. Along the central nave (pointed barrel vault, transverse ribs and western wall), there are various plant-inspired motifs (volutes, leaves and fleurons in varying colours). In the south-east chapel (around the entrance arch), there are pieces of fabric, probably corresponding to a church official’s vestments or some curtains.

State of conservation

The wall coatings’ state of conservation was rather uncertain, due to their fragmented state (areas of loss) and the number of cracks and loose areas (separated from the wall), many of which posed an active risk of material falling away. Another noteworthy feature was the rather generalised powdery nature of the pictorial layer. All of this was mainly down to water leaks from the roof and the rising damp the building had suffered for years, which had mainly affected the north and west sides of the nave.

Intervention

Based on these detected alterations, the intervention consisted of all the processes needed to stabilise the piece successfully. The loose mortar was consolidated through the filling-in of the air bubbles and separations with an injection of a hydraulic mortar without soluble salts, after a hydroalcoholic solution was injected to encourage penetration of the mortar. In the uncovered areas, occasional parts of some of the perimeter areas of the gypsum plaster were attached through the injection of a 3% acrylic resin in deionised water.

Then, to make sure the building was sealed, any holes or open edges were filled in with a natural hydraulic white lime mortar and washed sand. The interior cracks and holes that would be left visible were filled, yet left recessed, with a hydraulic lime mortar and white marble dust.

Finally, the pictorial layers (both those that would be left uncovered and those that would later be repainted with hydrated lime to tidy up the walls) were fixed and protected with an acrylic resin applied through a spray.

The areas of painting left uncovered as visible, meaningful proof of the paintings that decorated the inside of the church in the Baroque period are located on the south wall, on the vault and on the frontispiece of the triumphal arch, on the west wall, which closes off the end of the nave, and the east wall of the south-east chapel.

— Neus Casal and Caridad de la Peña

Close-up of the inscription «Rector Escobayro, 1728» on the frontispiece of the triumphal arch, after the intervention

Close-up of the figure of a bishop surrounded by a decorative border (south wall of the paintings of the triumphal arch) after the intervention