CCI Newsletter, No. 29, June 2002

On Display: Exhibition of Religious Art

by Carol MacIvor, Senior Communications Advisor, Information Services and Marketing

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has recently reprised a special exhibition of religious art from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Judy Dietz (Curator and Manager of Collections at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia) explains that, due to popular demand, the exhibition "An Expression of Faith: Sacred Art of Centuries Past" has again been mounted at the gallery as a re-creation of a small Gothic chapel. The centrepieces of the exhibit are three 16th-century wooden polychrome pieces that were treated at CCI over a period of 15 years.

The sculptures were originally owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax and were located in the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five carved relief sculptures, two support columns, and altar bases were sent to CCI in July 1980 for examination and eventual treatment. The three largest sculptures represent stations of the cross: Christ Bearing the Cross, The Crucifixion, and The Lamentation of Christ. They are attributed to the Flemish school and first appeared in Halifax in the early 1840s in the Chapel Built in One Day.

Over time, the three stations of the cross had become badly damaged by insects — a condition that greatly threatened the integrity of the pieces. Because of their extreme historical significance, CCI agreed to carry out treatment on condition the pieces would be placed in a public museum or art gallery in Nova Scotia. It was also agreed that CCI would make cast replicas to replace the originals in the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The actual work began in 1984 with the fabrication of fibreglass replicas of all five figurative sculptures. These were completed in 1986, at which time they were returned to the Archdiocese of Halifax and installed in the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Most of the treatment took place from 1986 to 1995. It began with the painstaking removal of numerous layers of overpaint, after which the insect damage was consolidated. This was followed by filling in losses, re-attaching the head of one sculpture, inpainting the fills, and, finally, applying a thin protective wax coating.

This process was the longest treatment ever undertaken at the Institute, and involved dozens of people from a variety of disciplines. Senior Conservator Bob Arnold, who was closely involved with the work, says that it took more than 9000 hours to complete the project.

Following treatment, the sculptures were sent to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in January 1997. Their first exhibition ran from May 1998 to May 1999; the current one runs until the fall of 2002.