Restoration of the mural paintings of the vault of the parish church of Santa Bárbara
The church of Santa Bárbara has one of the most sumptuous interiors of Madrid's baroque
Wall paintings of the vault located at the foot of the parish church of Santa Bárbara
The wall decoration was made between 1755 and 1757 by the González Velázquez brothers under the direction and supervision of the Italian painter Corrado Giaquinto. Serious humidity problems had caused the paintings to show severe alterations. The intervention in the painting of the vault located at the foot of the church has made it possible to stop the processes of degeneration. Thanks to the specific reintegrations, it has been possible to recover the overall vision of the work.
The painting object of intervention is located in the vault that covers the last section of the nave, at the foot of the church, and on the high choir, and represents the Preaching of San Francisco de Sales.
The scene shows the Saint in the center of the composition preaching to numerous faithfuls that are organized in groups. The characters present forced foreshortenings, so that a movement is generated that contrasts with the serene vertical position of the Saint. The painting shows a precise execution where colors of exquisite tonalities have been applied, luminous, with a great compositional variety, showing the exuberance typical of the Rococo style, combined with success the Italian grace with the firm stroke drawing.
The work is made with a mural technique in tempera on a plaster factory.
The painter started from a previous drawing made with incisions on the wet preparation, and then began to paint with dry mortar mixing the pigments with pure lime so that they were fixed to the surface.
This technique is carried out quickly and allows to execute large surfaces, but it creates a very thin layer and weak carbonation on the surface, making the paint very vulnerable to the passage of time and to any atmospheric agent, such as moisture by filtration.
The church of Santa Bárbara was part of the monastery of the Visitation of Our Lady, founded at the behest of Queen Barbara of Braganza, linked to the Order of the Visitation of Saint Mary, created by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Juana Francisca Frémyot de Chantal and known as the 'Royal Salesas'.
The works began with the laying of the first stone the 26 of June of 1750 and it was inaugurated in 1758. The church, which was located in the southwest corner of the huge convent building, is large. It has a cross plan, formed by a nave with two bays with lateral niches, a transept covered with a dome on pendentives, formed by a high drum with windows, hemispherical cap and lantern; the ship, head and transept are covered with half-barrel vaults with lunettes, all decorated with mural painting.
The interior of the temple is one of the most sumptuous of the Madrid Baroque, where the ornamentation goes beyond the limits of architecture. The pictorial mural decoration of the church is centered on the dome and the vaults of the nave, head and arms of the transept, as well as the reserved chapel, formerly the nuns' lower choir. It was made between 1755 and 1757 by the González Velázquez brothers under the direction and supervision of the Italian painter Corrado Giaquinto, as he himself indicates in the documentation kept in the Royal Palace archive.
According to the experts, the paintings on the dome's cap were made by Antonio González Velázquez with the collaboration of his brothers. As for the pendentives, some authors think that they were executed by Antonio, while others opted for Luis González Velázquez. There seems to be no doubt in attributing to this painter the compositions of the vaults: The Coronation of the Virgin in the section of the head, The preaching of San Francisco de Sales y The Mass of San Francisco de Sales in the two sections of the ship, and the representations of San Fernando before the Virgin y Santa Barbara before the Redeemer, in the arms of the transept.
Luis, Alejandro and Antonio González Velázquez, members of a wide family of painters, were children of the sculptor Pablo González Velázquez, with whom they began their training. They collaborated together on numerous occasions, especially as mural painters.
Image gallery
Preaching of San Francisco de Sales
The characters present forced foreshortenings, so that a movement is generated that contrasts with the serene vertical position of the Saint
The scene shows the Saint in the center of the composition preaching to many faithful who are organized in groups
The painting shows a precise execution
Great compositional variety, showing the exuberance of the Rococo style
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Prior to the intervention, the state of the vault's paintings, like that of the rest of the mural decoration, presented a very serious state of conservation due mainly to the action of humidity.
They presented a significant layer of dirt on the pictorial surface, as well as exfoliations of the pictorial layer in the form of large flakes and showed loss of binder. Areas with accumulation of soluble salts were also found in which there had been a loss of pictorial layer in large areas. Likewise, there had been cavities and lack of cohesion of the support mortars.
First of all, we proceeded to fix and consolidate the most damaged areas, in which the paint was exfoliating and turning into dust. Once the paint was fixed, the cleaning treatment was carried out with mechanical and chemical procedures from the accumulated dust deposits on the paint and salts and repaints were removed.
Subsequently, the consolidation of mortars, cavities and strata was carried out, by means of injection with the most suitable material according to the nature thereof, returning the adhesion of the mortar layers to each other and to the wall itself. The sealing of cracks and fissures by injection was also carried out.
Then the volumetric and leveled reintegration of the mortar faults with material and technique analogous to the original was proceeded.
Finally, the chromatic reintegration was carried out, based on an idea of unity around the original part of the work, reestablishing the tonal continuity of the surface, as well as the shape. In the lagoons located within the original, a chromatic reintegration was only discernible at a short distance, using watercolors with colored glazes, while in the areas lost by moisture, the reintegration was carried out with watercolors, matching the shape and color of the original using the technique of tratteggio. The gold trim was cleaned and protected with Incral 44.