A ‘divine’ retouch Nilanjana Nandan

The 500-year-old portrait ‘Our Lady of Ransom’ at Vallarpadam Basilica gets a new lease of life. TNIE speaks to art conservator  Satyajit Ibn, who restored the painting
Our Lady of Ransom paining
Our Lady of Ransom paining

The painting ‘Our Lady of Ransom’ at Vallarpadam Basilica gets a new lease of life. The 500-year-old portrait was restored to its past glory by art conservator and architect Satyajit Ibn along with Sruti Halghokar who retouched the antique painting, removing the grime. It was reinstalled in the altar.
The restoration work was carried out as part of its 500th anniversary. The portrait was gifted to the church by a Portuguese missionary in 1524. The oil painting done on a wooden panel lost its sheen with time.

The paint was flaking off. According to Satyajitthe painting was given quite a lot of retouching in the past. “To keep the colour from fading and mask other defects, some paints were lightly brushed onto the painting. Th painting was originally done in organic colours. The painting also had external issues like moisture content, varnishing, and unnecessary use of chemicals which could have been added during the small restoration works done in the past,” says Ibn, who is currently pursuing PhD at the Department of Museology, MS University, Vadodara.

The whole process of conservation lasted ten days.The original artwork was done according to Portugal’s cold and dry climatic conditions. However, with time, the painting was adapted to the climatic condition of Kerala. As part of the restoration. Ibn and his team had to take samples of pigments from the painting to figure out its original colours.“It’s not possible to take samples from an age-old painting now and then, and as time passes, some essence of the painting gets lost. So we had to take samples using X-ray fluorescence and a spectroscopic device,” he says.

The painting also got damaged by dust and the paint work done on the walls of the altar when the church was refurbished. This doubled the work for the team. The conservators had to clean up all dust and paint particles from the painting.

“I had to do a lot of retouching and clean it with chemicals that are heat-activated and don’t change the chemical identity of the original painting. Also, I had to consolidate what was loose and make sure that the painting was sturdy.”  

They had also designed the painting’s frame which was not done properly earlier. The team’s main aim was to extend the life of the painting, though it’s a known fact that it would lose its grandeur in the future since it is made of organic colours. 

HOW NAIR LADY AND SON GOT ADDED TO PAINTING
The artwork initially had just the portrait of Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus. In 1752, an image of Meenakshy Amma, a Nair lady, and her son was added to the piece. “When Meenakshy Amma and her sonalmost drowned in an incident, she made an offering to Our Lady of Ransom to become her “slave” for the rest of her life if their lives were saved. Hence, their image was added to the original portrait, and it later became the symbol of collaboration of contemporary art,” said Fr Antony Valungal, vicar of Vallarpadam Basilica.

Why Our Lady of Ransom?
In Spain in 1218 AD, Virgin Mary appeared in St Peter Nolasco’s vision. She asked him to establish a religious order to liberate Christians, kidnapped by the Moors, who tortured the former to make them leave their faith in Christ. Members of the new Order of Mercedarians were to do this by raising money to pay for ransom, through prayer and taking a vow to offer themselves, if needed. The order spread fast and tens of thousands got “ransomed”.

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