Today I joined the master’s program “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” (Art and Image Culture), an Art History program, on an excursion to Schäftlarn in Bavaria, Germany. I have an interview with the grad program this coming Tuesday and will know in August if I got in, and if so I will start classes in October. As a prospective student, they invited me to the excursion to celebrate the end of the summer semester.
I knew that we were going to go see a church, and I thought that would be pretty cool, given I’d be going with a group of art history experts, but they didn’t tell me that the church is under restoration! We stood outside and talked about the facade for quite some time, and then we entered and I was quite surprised to find 8 stories of scaffolding inside the entire church! We climbed all the way to the top and looked at the frescoes up close and personal!
I have been interested in art restoration before, be never had I had the opportunity to see it hands on! We first went into one of the domes that hasn’t been touched yet, to see how much restoration is needed. You could see the dirt particles on the frescoes. All the way up there, because the scaffolding created a whole floor to the dome, so to speak, for the very first time I was able to see a church as a very big cave. I felt like I was in the caves of Lascaux in France!
I learned a lot about the process too! They use paper mulch stuff to clean the frescoes. They sort of plaster it on with a paint knife and wait for it to dry, and then just flake it off. Areas that will need to be redone are marked with little blue or red arrow stickers. They also are dealing with an anti-restoration, so to speak. After the war in Germany, many restorations were done, but done very cheaply. When the church was originally built in about 1730, parts of the molding had gold flake on them, but this was removed during the post-war “restoration.” So they are now adding that on. It’s interesting to see how much work goes into the choice of the tone of the gold flake…they clean the frescoes first and determine which tone fits best. The goal is to make the church look as much like it did in the 18th century as possible!
Like I said, the church was built around 1730 and was designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Antonio Viscardi. The frescos in the domes were supervised and partially done by John Baptist Zimmermann, who is most famous for doing the frescoes in the UNESCO protected Wieskirche. However, it can be seen based on the type of brush stroke and style that many different artists and workers worked on different parts of the frescoes.
I felt like the modern day Rafael up on those scaffolds! I just wish I could have started the job on cite! In any case, I think that I’m headed in the right direction. The master’s program works more with theory than practical restoration, but I may try to get an internship to get more practical experience. A girl I met on the excursion is doing an internship at the Denkmalpflege (landmark repair) office for the state of Bavaria, so that might be a good place for me to start too!
I’ll try to blog here more and keep you updated about my interview next week and whether or not I get in the program!
Toodles for now!
The outer fascade of St. George's Church in Schäftlarn.
These frescoes were primarily done by John Baptist Zimmermann, who did many in this time period.
The detail of the frescoes reveal many secrets...
There are different qualities of work and brush strokes show that different people worked on the frescoes!
And finer lines show that the fresco was done, and then the details were added afterwards, called seccoes.
A fresco on metal and then hung from the ceiling! Very cool!
Me up by the frescoes!
A fresco 8 stories high, but just a few feet away from me!
A clock, on the ceiling of the church, near the choir.
This is one of the frescoes after it had been cleaned.
The area where the plaster is thicker and shows "seams" shows where a worker started and where they finished!
My new dream job!
An art restorationist at work!
There were 8 floors of scaffolding in the church!
The area between the dome and the roof!
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!