Restoration of the altarpieces of San Jerónimo and Santa Paula of the church of the convent of Jerónimas of Corpus Christi
The altarpieces of Saint Jerome and Saint Paula are part of the set of six altarpieces housed in the church of the Jerónimas del Corpus Christi convent in Madrid
Restoration of the altarpieces of San Jerónimo and Santa Paula of the church of the convent of Jerónimas of Corpus Christi
Today specialists have not reached an agreement on its authorship, although the names of Antón de Morales as author of the structure and Vicente Carducho as painter of the central canvases are raised. Its restoration has allowed, through the cleaning and elimination of oxidized repaints and varnishes, to return the altarpieces to their original splendor, applying also preventive techniques to preserve their integrity in the future.
The altarpieces of San Jeronimo y Santa Paula are part of the set of six altarpieces that houses the church of the convent of Jerónimas del Corpus Christi of Madrid, also known as Las Carboneras. They are placed respectively on the left and right side wall of the entrance arch to the main chapel and form a couple.
They present a structure still with scurialenses memories, decorated with the technique of gilding, stew and polychrome in columns, retropilastras, capitals, friezes. Both have approximate dimensions of 330 x 155 x 35 cm, forming a single street. This street consists of a lower bench for three paintings, followed by a main body with a large central canvas, inserted in a semicircular hollow framed between Corinthian columns that rest on two large corbels with acanthus decoration.
Finally, the attic, which gives way to an entablature decorated with vegetal scrolls, is formed by a central temple with fins, which acts as a frame of a painting, topped with triangular pediment culminated by three spheres on pedestals. The temple is flanked by two shields of the hierarchical order on cubic pedestals and topped by pyramids.
As for the paintings, in the bench of the altarpiece of San Jeronimo it represents San Juan Bautista, The Assumption and San Sebastian, in the central body to Saint Jerome penitent and in the attic The Annunciation. The paintings of the bench and the attic are of an archaic tone and are made using models taken from engravings by Cornelis Cort.
In the bench of the altarpiece of Santa Paula, the paintings represent a Santa with palm and book, The Resurrection of Christ and Saint Agnes, in the central body is represented The adoration of Santa Paula to the Child Jesus in the manger, and in the attic The Immaculate Conception.
The convent of Corpus Christi of religious Jeronimos was founded at the beginning of the XVII century by Doña Beatriz Ramírez de Mendoza, widow of Don Fernando Arias de Saavedra, IV count of Castellar in 1605. The intervention of the master builder Miguel de Soria, whose works had to be concluded towards 1622, is documented.
Of the aforementioned set of altarpieces, the main altarpiece made by the architect, assembler and sculptor Antón de Morales, who carried out the traces and sculptures, stands out, being the canvas of the main body work of Vicente Carducho. Some authors date their completion between 1622 and 1625, while others believe that it would be concluded in 1622.
Although the authorship of the altarpieces of San Jeronimo y Santa Paula it is not documented, its stylistic correspondence with the main altarpiece and the similarity of treatment of the carving of capitals and friezes, allows, in the opinion of some authors, to consider them works of Antón de Morales or of his workshop, being the central canvases also work by Vicente Carducho. Other authors, however, believe that this claim can not be made.
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Before the intervention, the structure of the altarpieces presented a good general condition, although with a great accumulation of dust and dirt that had formed a crust, as well as moisture stains and plaster remains. The varnish was very rusty and there were numerous repaints of golden glitter. Also, the decoration of stew and polychrome underwent abundant losses and sweep, in such a way that the decorative reasons had been blurred. The columns had considerable vertical cracks. The repaint applications hid the original finishes.
As for the paintings, both on board and on canvas, they showed an accumulation of superficial dirt and considerable darkening, as a consequence of an advanced oxidation process, with the presence of abundant stains and wax splashes, especially in the tables of the benches. The pictorial surface was cracked and cracked with risk of detachment of the support. Likewise, small losses of polychromy spread over the surface.
First, we proceeded to reinforce those parts of the structure that showed weakness, then carry out mechanical cleaning to eliminate the accumulation of dust and dirt. For the cleaning of polychromy, golds and stews a mixed procedure was applied (chemical and mechanical) so that accumulated dirt and varnishes were eliminated without jeopardizing the integrity of the pictorial film, with a brush, vacuum cleaner and scalpel according to the needs .
Afterwards, the removal of glitter repaints and paint imitating marbles was continued, to continue with the reintegration of gold and polychrome, in order to safeguard the original aesthetic values of the work. In the areas with large repaints, water-browning was carried out with 21 and 22 karat fine gold leaf, while in areas with small losses, pictorial reintegrations were made with iriodin. The deteriorations in the form of wear and tear were left unbroken.
In the paintings on board the dust and accumulated dirt was eliminated. The color was then seated with natural collagen, and then it was cleaned with solvents and removal of repaints. Finally, the reintegration of the preparation layer with synthetic stucco and chromatic reintegration was carried out applying the rigattino procedure as a criterion of differentiability.
In the central canvas, once the reverse was cleaned, the protection of the pictorial layer and sitting of the color with the same technique as the painting on a board was carried out. Then the reverse treatment was carried out, with a sanding of the support to remove dirt and stains and the placement of a rigid support made of glass fiber and cell structure that was adhered to the canvas to stabilize it and avoid slackening. Subsequently, the cleaning of the paint layer with solvents and reintegration of the preparation and chromatic layer with pigments to the varnish was applied using the rigattino procedure. Finally, a protection with several coats of varnish was applied.
In 2017 the General Directorate also intervened in the monastery church, in order to proceed with the restoration of two turning bells, located in the bell tower, both cast by the same family. The smallest in 1898 by Constancio Linares and the largest, in 1907, by the children of Eduardo Linares.
The latter is the one that showed a greater degree of deterioration, with a crack in the point of percussion of the clapper in vertical direction of a visible length of approximately 100 mm.
The intervention has focused on the cleaning and restoration of bronzes at the acoustic level, including the welding of breakages, as well as the auxiliary facilities so that they allow the movement of the bells with total safety and good conservation can be guaranteed. in the future. On the other hand, the rupture of the bell has been restored using the welding procedure, which respects the antiquity and the historical and artistic value of it. The intervention sought, in addition to returning both elements to their original state, recover the old touches, which disappeared and can now sound again, both manually and automatically. In this way, a small part of the campanile material heritage of Madrid is recovered, at the same time as the intangible heritage of its bells is restored.