Major restoration of church painting under way

Conservator Mary McGrath with Fr Martin Harte.

A month-long conservation project on the almost 120 years-old painting at the back of the altar in Kilcullen Parish Church should preserve it for many more years, writes Brian Byrne.

Rosetown-based conservator Mary McGrath is working on the painting for the second time, having carried out a major cleaning and restoration of the piece in the summer of 2007.

It is signed and dated by one E Buccini, 1900, and is typical of paintings by Italian artists found in churches built after the Catholic Emancipation in the latter half of the 19th century. It is believed to have been commissioned around 1890 after the dedication of the church in late 1883. The Joshua Clarke stained glass windows above the altar were installed in 1901.

This time the painting is being taken down for the work, because the original linen backing 'has just given up the ghost', according to Mary, whose family originally lived in Sunnyhill. Just now, half of the piece is on the floor of the back of the church where she's working on it. "Structurally it is so fragile, it's just incredible."

The first task is to repair the slits that appeared in the painting as the linen backing deteriorated. She is using special iron-on adhesive pieces for this. Various bits of filler which she used when cleaning the painting in situ back in 2007 also have to be carefully removed.

"Then I'll be putting on a new backing made of polyester sailcloth, which doesn't have a weave pattern and doesn't rot. After that, the front of the painting will be coated in an isolating layer of varnish, on which retouching of damaged parts will be done."

She notes that conservation work on such items must be carried out so it can be removed. "In a hundred years' time, somebody else may want to redo it. And the technology changes all the time."

The painting was mounted on a backing made of timber sections, which have left impressions on the piece, so when it is being remounted Mary is thinking of hanging it on a frame. "It was just held on with black tape, a pretty crude job."

The original painting is linseed-oil based, which is very strong and secure and is the reason the painting has survived under sometimes difficult conditions. "It's much better than modern acrylics, which are more difficult to work with."

A Canadian couple arrived in the church on Tuesday, and commented on how exciting it had looked when Mary and her helpers were removing the first piece last week, applying a protective facing first to keep it together.

"Yes, it was pretty tense, all right," she agreed. "But I don't remember seeing you in the church at the time."

They weren't, they told her. "We were at home in Canada, watching on the church's internet CCTV system."

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