Ecce Homo, then Saint George, and now saint carvings from the 15th and 16th centuries are being slammed as botched restoration jobs.
ADVERTISEMENTReligious sculptures in a third Spanish village have fallen prey to the hands of an amateur restorer. This time the crime was committed on three wooden figurines from the 15th and 16th centuries.
A woman living in Rañadoiro — a village in Asturias in northern Spain — believed the figurines needed a makeover, according to a local news website.
Specialists in art restoration of this kind of wood carvings told El Comercio that the result was “an absolute disaster.”
One of the sculptures represents Saint Anne — Virgin Mary’s mother — with Mary and child. The other one shows Saint Peter — one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ — and the third is of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus.
If this kind of incident rings a bell that’s because the same incident happened in 2012 with a restoration of a 19th-century fresco in a Spanish church that also went wayward and again this year with a 16th-century wood sculpture of Saint George.
According to El Comercio, the villager had obtained permission from the priest in charge of the chapel.
Pictures of the figures' post-makeover show the once wooded effigies painted in fuchsia, pistachio green, and Bordeaux red.
After Saint George was left with rosy cheeks and red-and-grey armour, the Spanish Association of Curators and Restorers (ACRE) denounced "the poor restoration standards that permanently damaged a jewel of the Navarro's heritage".