Elderly woman botches Jesus Christ painting in restoration attempt

Provided with the best intentions, Cecilia Giménez decided to restore a Jesus Christ fresco in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.
 Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), painted by Elias Garcia Martinez over 100 years ago, was in a state of deterioration due to moisture and according to the woman, the saltpetre rot was going to cause even more damaged unless she did something.

 According to her granddaughter Teresa García, she had already made some retouches on the tunic before.
The problem is that this time the unskillful 'restorer' decide to go for the head and the result was disastrous.
One could say that if an austronaut had gone on a voyage through the galaxy and comeback, and the first thing he saw had been the restored painting, he would have thought that he had landed on the Planet of the Apes.

 After realizing what she had done, the woman soon contacted Juan Maria Ojeda, the city councillor in charge of cultural affairs, who recognized that she had good intentions. However he also said that it's a situation that be dealt with impunity.

 The Ayuntamiento de Borja (Zaragoza) and the descents are discussing eventual legal actions. But the Government of Aragon has already reported that there's no foreseable legal action to take place on thneir initiative, since  Martinez' Ecce Homo is not an officially classified work of art, therefore not of their competence.



 Experts will meet with Cecilia Giménez to try to understand what kind of materials she used, in the hope that the fresco may be restored; due to its already previous state of deterioration, this will prove to be a difficult task. Although the  itself is not very valuable, it holds a high sentimental value for local people.
The author of the clumsy act is a woman in her 80s with a disabled 60 year-old son at her expenses.

Guided Tours in the Capela de São João Baptista (Igreja de São Roque)

                         

Celebrating the conservation and restoration of the St. John Baptist Chapel (Capela de São João Baptista) located in the Saint Roch Church (Igreja de São Roque) in Lisbon, which occurred between November 2010 and March 2012, the Museu de São Roque (Saint Roch Museum) is hosting a series of activities from 19 April to 26 May 2012.

"O restauro da Capela de São João Baptista - redescobrir o seu esplendor"  the programme will be presented as follow.

Guided Tours and Art Workshops:

The St. John Baptist Chapel (Capela de São João Baptista) and its collections: features and singularity; thematic guided tours catered for adults. Free individual participation with previous registration during the following days:

April: 21 (10h) and 28 (15h)

May: 5 (10h), 12 (15h), 19 (10h) and 26 (15h)

Registration for organized groups can be taken from Tuesday to Friday (10h00-12h30 and 14h00-17h30).

Maximum of 30 participants per visit.


Guided Tours to the St. John Baptist Chapel and its Goldsmithery and Church-vestments:

22 of April, 10h and 15h – Italian

29 of April, 10h and 15h – English

6 of May, 10h and 15h – French

20 of May, 10h and 15h – Spanish

Free individual participation with previous registration. Maximum of 30 participants per visit.


Lets Know  the St. John Baptist Chapel:
A cycle of visits with games and art workshops dedicated to children from 6 to 12 years of age.
The event will allow children to explore and get acquainted with the materials and techniques used in the construction of the chapel and at the same time stimulate their attention to the importance of conservation and restoration.

Free individual participation with previous registration during the following days:

April: 21 (15h) and 28 (10h)

May: 5 (15h), 12 (10h), 19 (15h) and 26 (10h)


Lectures:


Spring in Saint Roch (Primavera em São Roque)
- Cycle of thematic lectures about the St. John Baptist Chapel

19 April - 18h30
Art and Politics: The St. John Baptist Chapel in Saint Roch.
(Arte e Política: a Capela de São João Baptista em São Roque)
Lectured by António Filipe Pimentel Phd.

3 May - 18h30
The mosaics in the St. John Baptist Chapel: techniques and conservation issues.
(I mosaici della cappella di San Giovanni Battista: tecnica esecutiva e i problemi di conservazione)
Lectured by Solange Muralha

3 May -19h00
Scyentific analisys of the St. John Baptist Chapel's mosaics
(Análise cientifica dos mosaicos da Capela de São João Baptista )
Lectured by Solange Muralha

10 May - 18h30
The St. John Baptist Chapel: concealed details.
(A Capela de São João Baptista: pormenores ocultos)
Lectured by Belmira Maduro

10 May  - 19h00
The pedestal flooring of the St. John Baptist Chapel: characteristics, conservation and restoration.
(O supedâneo da Capela de São João Baptista: caracterização, conservação e restauro do estrado de altar)
Lectured by Tiago Dias

17 May - 18h30
Gold, gold, gold...
(Oro, oro, oro…)
The liturgic vestments ordered to Rome for the St. John Baptist Chapel and for the Holy Ghost Chapel in the Saint Roch Church of Lisbon.
(I paramenti liturgici ricamati a Roma per la Cappella di San Giovanni Battista e dello Spirito Santo nella Chiesa di San Rocco di Lisbona)
Lectured by Professor Marialuisa Rizzini
The lectures in Italian will be translated simultaneously.
Free individual participation with previous registration. Maximum of 40 participants per lecture.


For information and registration, please contact:

Tel. (351) 213 235 421
       (351) 213 235 824
       (351) 213 235 065

Email: info@museu.saoroque.com

More information about the São Roque Church in Lisbon and how to get there, as well as further places to visit in the city, can be found here.

Inventory of stolen sacred art in Portugal

The Secretariado Nacional para os Bens Culturais da Igreja (National Secretariate for the Cultural Assets of the Church) has developed an online inventory to register the sacred art objects stolen in Portugal.
Still on an early stage, the database online permits the searching of objects through keywords.

The SNBCI requests the collaboration of those who possess images of stolen items, previously taken in religious ceremonies or processions, to make them available for the inventory, since many of the stolen items are missing an image in the database.

Portugal has a rich patrimony of sacred art and its churches, with particular focus on samll villages, have been victims of theft. In the last 5 years, near 500 sacred art objects have been stolen in Portugal.

With this new tool, it is expected a more interactive collaboration between the Church, the authorities and the population, in order to solve a serious problem.

While there is a considerable legal market for the transaction of paintings and other art objects, namely through auction houses, the market of sacred art objects is reduced and thus the appearance of this items for sale should always be looked with suspicion.

Sacred Art Museum of Grândola inaugurates permanent exhibition

Located in the Alentejo region, South of Portugal, Grândola (once named Bendada) was an important reference for the pilgrims going to Santiago de Compustela.
Its most famous location starts at São Vicente cape and reaches Odemira, Santiago do Cacém and Alcácer do Sal.

There, a small 15th century hospital ran by the Misericórdia (a charitable institution founded in 1498), would lodge the pilgrims after their difficult path through the ridge of mountains.

When the hermitage (small church)of São Sebastião was built in 1578, in the outskirts of Grândola, near the royal road, with the purpose of protecting the population from the plague, imediately became a visiting point for the pilgrims.

Once an old pilgramage passing spot, in the recent years this small church was being used to hold wakes.

In 2010, with the initiative of the local parish, in colaboration with the diocese of Beja and the city council, the church of São Sebastião was selected to become the Sacred Art Museum of Grândola (Museu de Arte Sacra de Grândola), and in Feburary 2011 it opened its doors to the public.

On August 23, 2011, the museum inaugurated its permanent exhibition.
Comprised of 100 pieces, mostly includes paintings and decorative art between 15th and 20th centuries.
Visiting the exhibition, it's possible to have an idea of some of the most important aspects of the religious quotidian of those times, including some aspects of the liturgic cult, devotions and the organization of parishes.



The retable of "São Jorge e o Ladrão", painted in 1961 by José Escada for the church of Lousal's mine, is one of the items representing the contemporary.

The exhibition is divided in three areas and shows items coming from the churches of Azinheira dos Barros, Santa Margarida da Serra, and from the Irmandade da Santa Casa da Misericórdia.