In celebration for the month of October... NS del Rosario / Our Lady of the Rosary Before and After Restoration Early 19th century FILIPINO Ivory head and hands on the Virgin and the Christ child. Ivory masks on the cherubs at base. Dimensions: Provenance: Collection of Dr. Porfirio J. and Mrs. Socorro Rodriguez Callo Purchased from a gallery in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico I first saw her in an obscure art gallery website. She looked used, abused and abandoned. Her hair was gone. Her clothes in tatters. She was crowned with a gold-plated metallic object which turned out to be a 1960s lipstick holder. But she was wearing pearls! Despite her sorry condition, she stood proud on a large, wooden base or peana which has become indistinguishable over the years. There used to be some type of gesso layer and polychromy on the base. But all vestiges of those decoration have eroded over the years. One can barely discern the faces of small cherubs decorating the peana because they have become grimy and dingy over time. She holds a small image of the Christ child on her arms; but he too looks like he has been abused by time. She looked hopeless. She looked forlorn. She looked totally abandoned. I knew she was crying out for help. The dealer ascribed the image to the 18th century. And because of the age of the image, he put a correspondingly steep price tag on her. A fellow Flickr personality saw her, too. But he thought the price was a tad too high and backed out. I negotiated with the dealer and we ended up settling for what I though was a reasonable sum. I took her home. As you can see, she was really in bad shape. There was nothing to be done except to fully restore her to her former glory. But how to do it? She sat on my shelf for the longest time. Until last year.... My friend, Vincent (Jojo) Canlas came to visit. I showed him the dilapidated image of the del Rosario. He became excited and he agreed to help me with the restoration, He was in the process of opening his new business venture, El Nuevo Siglo (The New Century) making vestments for santo images and other liturgical occasions. This image of the Virgin was going to be the first restoration job commissioned from El Nuevo Siglo. While cruising through the antique shops in and around San Diego, we came across a dealer in Spanish colonial art. He was in the process of closing shop and moving to Peru. While there, I spotted an antique set of vestments which I thought would be perfect for the del Rosario. I bought it on the spot. And Vincent agreed to restore and re-fit the antique vestment for my del Rosario. To conserve as much of the original as possible, Vincent and I decided not to give the Virgin and the Christ child a new encarna. Their faces remain as found. However, a new set of glass eyes were replaced for the originals which have gone missing. The base was then re-gilded. The cloud part of the peana would be gilded in silver. The rest of the peana would be gilded in gold. Real silver and 24K gold leaf was used for the re-gilding. A new wig for the Virgin was commissioned from Bella Francisco. A 19th century crown was offered by a dealer and we snapped it up A very special thank you to Mr. Vincent (Jojo) Canlas of atelier El Nuevo Siglo for the painstaking restoration of this amazing Virgin of the Rosary. A very special thank you also to all the persons who worked on this image to make it the sensational piece that it turned out to be.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 21:17:47 +0000
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