Elias Garcia Martinez's Ecce Homo (left) and the "restoration"
Posted on 08/22/2012 1:49:28 PM PDT by NYer
Elias Garcia Martinez's Ecce Homo (left) and the "restoration"
An elderly parishioner has stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorised attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco.
Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Elias Garcia Martinez has held pride of place in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza for more than 100 years.
The woman took her brush to it after years of deterioration due to moisture.
Cultural officials said she had the best intentions and hoped it could be properly restored.Donation
The woman, in her 80s, was reportedly upset at the way the fresco had deteriorated and took it on herself to "restore" the image.
BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.
The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic, he says.
The woman appears to have realised she was out of her depth and contacted Juan Maria Ojeda, the city councillor in charge of cultural affairs.
Art historians are expected to meet at the church soon to discuss how to proceed.
Mr Ojeda said: "I think she had good intentions. Next week she will meet with a repairer and explain what kind of materials she used.
"If we can't fix it, we will probably cover the wall with a photo of the painting."
The fresco is not thought to be very valuable, but has a high sentimental value for local people.
Our correspondent says that to make matters worse, the local centre that works to preserve artworks had just received a donation from the painter's granddaughter which they had planned to use to restore the original fresco.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
You’d think she would have noodled that out after her first brush stroke...
She must’ve worked fast. I’d think someone would have noticed her working on it.
Must have started out as a tattoo artist.
Possibly a little late.
Yeah if you look at the picture she covered every square inch. At what point did she say "Oh, Sh*t". She must have had one of those fully automatic brushes with an oversized paint magazine.
I bow to the master. Have done furniture but would be terrified to try to restore a painting. All of those go out to professionals.
Heck, I have an ink stamp of some lips I think that would be better.
Wait - which one was Before and which one was After, again?
She plagiarized the image of Christ that was on my toast this morning! (Unfortunately I ate it.)
I’ve seen better frescos from three year olds.
Old reproduction before the effects of time seen on newer photos.
People!
As a general proposition: do not restore old objects without professional advice. Do not "clean up" paintings with chemically active solutions. Do not take a wire brush to an old gun. Do not stain or varnish old wood. If you feel tempted, try a small patch where it won't be a huge loss losing. Do not overpaint no matter what level of fidelity to original you think you can render. An old object made to look like new loses all its value. Consult with a museum before any restoration project, on anything older than 50 years.
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Thanks NYer. |
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I never had seen such a resemblance of Barbara Streisand before.
My heart goes out to the woman who meant well. It so easily can seem to curse her till the day she dies and will obviously present a tribulation to her which she has to overcome through faith in Christ.
The ‘restoration’ is so different than the original.
Consider the eyes.
Was this the painting beneath the original or do think this is painted on top of the original.
It doesn’t seem consistent with simply blotting out faded paint, but really looks closer to a rendering of a face being seen by the artist.
She may have added a little extra work for a good restorer, but I don't think it's anything that can't be brought back to pretty much it's original appearance.
Looks like a Howler Monkey in a Nightgown. :-(
But seriously, who in a position of authority believed it was a good idea to let an 80-something (and probably senile) little old lady try to restore an historic work of art ?
I don’t even try to change my own oil, for crying out loud!
YOU WIN the funniest post on this thread award.
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