Restoring religious wonders

Apart from its much talked about beaches and its lively music, Goa is also famed for its many beautiful grand churches that are indeed architectural delights. And stepping inside these churches, many of which were constructed during the 16th and 17th century will stun you even more. From the framed paintings depicting Christ’s sorrowful last journey to his crucifixion, to the gold gilded religious idols looking down on you and the altars in all their splendour, one is left quite in awe of the grandeur of it all. And it is important that this unique charm does not fade away due to lack of attention. This is where the process of restoration comes to the fore and over the years there have been some restoration projects that have been undertaken in some of the churches, some by Goans and some by foreigners, all of them with a deep passion for preserving this priceless heritage.

Archbishop’s Palace, Altinho

If you visit the majestic but serene Archbishop’s Palace, you cannot miss the line of portraits of the bishops of Goa through the ages, hanging majestically in one of the halls upstairs. However, upon closer examination, many of these pictures which date back to the 16th century are in need of restoration. And Caterina Goodhart, Principal of renowned London School of Picture and Frame Restoration,has taken up the challenge of restoring a few of these during her five-week stay here in Goa.

“What I liked about the art in Goa is the fact that it is very much European in its influence, but you have the Indian input too. So although you see Portuguese models, you see the colours are different and the expressions are different and this fascinated me,” she says. “But as we (my husband and I) were walking around the churches in Old Goa last year, we saw how poor the condition of the works of arts were in and I thought well it’s perfectly crazy idea but I am going to see whether I can do something about it.” Goodhart then met the priest at the Basilica who directed her to Joaquim Loiola Pereira, secretary to the Archbishop of Goa, who suggested that she look at the portrait collection first.

“Most of them, you can see have been restored in the past. When you look at an art piece and you say ‘ah this piece has been restored’ then it has been badly restored. Thus it will require more time to restore because they have probably used the wrong material and it will take a long time to remove what has been applied,” she says, adding that there have been some interesting restorations too. “ I have a few of my students both past and present who will be joining me in this project and after we remove the dirt and dust, we will take samples of the portrait too which will then be sent to be analysed in London to see what pigment has been used and what it has been mixed with.”

Goodhart also notes that some of the robes in the painting which were supposed to be red have faded to a pale pink. “The pigment used on the robes of some of the archbishops which are supposed to be red, are either laquer, are from animal secretion or from plants and with exposure to light they have faded,” she says.

Apart from restoring some of these paintings, Goodhart is also going to teach aspiring restorers the introductory course of the City and Guilds course on restorations and paintings. In fact, she adds that this is the first City and Guilds restoration to be done in India. “What is in favour of these candidates is that they have been brought up with this artwork so they already have a feel for it,” she says. “But when we teach them we will explain to them how the painting was really made from the canvas to the ground to the layers so that they will then be able to date the paintings just by looking at the colours and the canvas,” she says, adding that there is an enormous amount of interest in this field today. “What is good about this field is that they don’t have to start when they are young only. In fact my best candidates are those that are not very young. Those who are 30 plus, start looking at objects in a more profound way so it is easier to teach them,” she says. However, she states that this field still needs to grow in India. “During a conversation with a person in the committee of a top museum in India, she mentioned that there are only ten recognised restorers in the country which took me by surprise,” she says. “It is important to restore art because it is heritage and you need to preserve heritage.”

St Michael’s Church, Taleigao

One of the recent projects that is currently underway has Rita Gordo, a Portuguese restorer and conservationist piloting the restoration of the church idols at St Michaels Church together with an enthusiastic lot of local students.

Gordo who did some voluntary restoration work for the Museum of Christian Art in Old Goa a couple of years ago was invited by Fundacao Oriente and St Michael’s Church to undertake this project and help spread awareness about the need for restoration. “History is what it is and it is important that we conserve this and keep it or future generations to learn from it,” says Gordo, who has done her degree from the London Metropolitan University and her masters from the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar. “Also when working with these objects I can imagine how people through the ages have stood before these, have prayed and asked for things. To know that these are special for someone and will go back and be viewed by many more is a nice feeling,” she says, adding that another factor that attracted her to this line was its combination of science and art. “You must know about the products and its effects, the chemical reactions, how weather conditions will affect it etc,” she says and then goes on to explain the processes involved in restoration. “ First, one has to clean and consolidate the object, then there is infilling, where you repair those areas which need attention. This is followed by inpainting, where you paint only the required parts of the object and lastly you protect the object depending on where the object is going to be placed,” she states. “You have to take photographs so that you have a record of your actions as sometimes during the cleaning process, a new colour of the object emerges.” Another important point which she highlights is to use materials that can be reversed. “What you do, you should be able to reverse,” she says. “Earlier in the name of restoring, they used to just repaint it using oil colours. I am facing this problem with the objects I am currently working with and it is quite difficult to remove this material.” Gordo also stresses that it is important to keep your artistic eye to the side while working on restoration. “Sometimes you may not find the object pleasing to the eye, but it is not your job to make it prettier but to restore it the way it is,” she says. “You are not an artist; you are a way to keep things for the future.”

BOX QUOTE

With this Goa assignment, we have launched a new project ‘Restorers sans Frontieres’ i.e. Restorers without borders. Through this project, we want to get restorers from all over the world together so that we can exchange ideas, give advice and also accomplish more restoration work together – Caterina Goodhart

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Goa's own restoration expert

Agnelo Fernandes, fondly known as Bico, has been instrumental in restoring quite a few churches in Goa together with his sons Glen and Nickson Fernandes. “Our last project was in the Our Lady Of Remedios Church in Betalbatim. We are also working on restoring the altars of Santa Monica Church in Old Goa for the last two years and will shortly begin work in Our Lady of Penha de Franca Church in Britona,” informs Glen who believes that it is important that we preserve our heritage. “ However, in Goa there is still a lack of awareness about this process. People do not understand that a restoration work takes time sometimes even one or two years. Also with the products and chemicals that are used, the cost is bound to be high.”