Before & After Gallery
The Altarpiece of the Cathedral Saint-Germain, Rimouski
In December of 1992, an altarpiece from the Cathedral Saint-Germain at Rimouski, Quebec, was brought to CCI for conservation treatment under the auspices of the National Gallery of Canada. This impressive example of early nineteenth-century Quebec ecclesiastical sculpture is to be included in a major exhibition, Early Quebec Sculpture, scheduled to open in the autumn of 1995 at the National Gallery. This altar is by far the largest and most monumental gilded object yet treated in CCI's Fine Arts Section.
The altar was commissioned for the Cathedral Saint-Germain in 1832-331 from François-Thomas Baillargé (1791-1859), the most important and influential member of the renowned family of architects/ sculptors/ painters from Quebec City. This altarpiece, which originally rested on an altar table and "tombeau", served as the high altar at Saint-Germain until the changes to the liturgy wrought by Vatican II in the mid1960s relegated it to an annex of the church.
Description
The basic structure of this monumental work is common to many Roman Catholic altarpieces made before the 1960s. The lower storey has a two-tiered predella front containing neo-classical panel motifs and a channel course in the upper register. The tabernacle is situated in the centre of the predella. Above the predella is a large, central frontispiece that houses the monstrance. To the right and left are sections containing niches2 and panels with hanging trophy reliefs of ecclesiastical motifs. A colonnade of eight detached corinthian columns runs across the front.
Joinery and Assemblage
The wood used in the construction of this altar appears to be primarily first and second grade white pine. The altar is assembled in numerous pieces that were nailed and doweled together. Most of the joinery, as examined from the verso, appears to be composed of simple butt joints secured by hand forged nails, dove tails, or tongue and groove. The dome is assembled from five carved pieces butt-joined and possibly glued. The wood was cut so that the grain direction minimized warping. The excellent condition of the altarpiece is a testament to the skill of Baillargé and his workshop. The joints are all tight and sturdy, and the only checking (splitting) in the wood occurs in the dome and in the right lateral niche where knots were left.
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Examination
The original wooden dowels had been cut and metal pegs had been inserted in the finials around the central balustrade, several of which were now split and misaligned. New wooden pieces had been added to repair damage to the original cornice, and missing finials had been replaced with reproductions of less-than-ideal proportions. Accidents or carelessness had caused other minor damages to the structure. The original finishes on the large horizontal surfaces, a base coat of whiting and a finishing coat in an ochre colour, had been sanded down to the wood with a power sander at some time in the past. The original whiting, bole, and gilding were flaking at several sites. Finally, all of the gilded surfaces had been, at some point, spray-coated with bronze paint. Frequently, religious sculpture and furnishings of a similar age are coated with multiple layers of paint, varnish, and oil gilding; however, Baillargé's tabernacle had only a single, thin coat of bronze overpaint, which made its removal much simpler.
Gilding
Perhaps of equal importance to the design and wood carving of this altarpiece is its gilding. The altarpiece was originally gilded by the nuns of St. Augustine of the Hôpital-Général in Quebec City. These Sisters were expert gilders who ran a professional gilding workshop for almost 200 years, one of three major convent workshops active during this period. The gilding of this altarpiece follows a traditional technique called "watergilding".
The surface of the altar was probably prepared with a size layer. Except for the back, virtually the entire surface of the altar was coated with a traditional whiting. Above the whiting, which was usually applied in several layers on the surfaces to be gilded, there appears to have been a deep plum coloured bole used in gilded areas.
All of the horizontal surfaces of the altar were coated with whiting followed by a yellow ochre colour, which created beautiful honey-coloured reflections in the gilding. In a similar fashion, the vermilion colour in all of the crevices of the architectural carving gave glowing red highlights to the adjacent gilding. Matting the flat surfaces, traditionally with an animal glue coating, emphasized by contrast the plain gilded surfaces and the shiny, highly burnished architectural details, and made them appear to advance toward the viewer.
Most of the surfaces were covered in regular gold leaf, which has a rich, warm, honey colour. Certain carved details were gilded with "lemon" gold, which has a greenish/yellow colour because of a difference in the gold alloy. All of these polychromatic techniques—two colours of gold leaf, selective burnishing, and the warm reflective surfaces—must have produced a breathtaking display of colour as the light in the church changed throughout the day.
Conservation Treatment
The conservation treatment proceeded in several often simultaneous phases: first, structural consolidation of the preparation layers; second, removal of the bronze paint; third, regluing of joints and splits; fourth, removal of soiled glue coatings; and, finally, retouching and recoating where necessary.
The balusters at the right reliquary were realigned as much as possible without causing further damage, and the joints were reglued. The split in the socle was glued with viscous solution of liquid fish glue injected with a syringe. Fish glue, which is a water-based proteinaceous adhesive, was chosen for gluing wooden members because of its superior tack. The jamb of the door to the monstrance had split when new hinges had been installed, and the base under the columns flanking the right niche had probably split when this section of the altar had been tipped forward. These and other splits were glued with liquid fish glue and were damped using wood damps, Nalgene pads, and silicone release paper until set.
Preliminary consolidation of the flaking preparation was carried out using AYAA (PVA) 15% in toluene, a viscous solution used to reattach large flakes, and AYAC 20% in toluene, a less viscous solution that penetrated interstices under blind cleavage better than did the AYAA. The solutions were bled from brushes into gaps and cleavages by capillary action. Residues were removed with xylenes.
After extensive solubility testing, we found that the most efficient and safest way to remove the bronze paint was with a commercial paint stripper that contained toluene, methylene chloride, and methanol in a non-aqueous gel. The stripper was painted over a section to be cleaned and was removed by rinsing with acetone. Very soft squirrel hair brushes were used to apply and remove the stripper in order to avoid abrading the gold leaf. Bronze paint residues were carefully removed with cotton swabs and dean acetone. This was followed by mineral spirits to remove the milky, paraffinic residues left by the stripper. The removal of the bronze paint was slowed when new areas of blind cleavage and hidden flaking were discovered. No area was cleaned until flaking gilding and whiting were consolidated using the PVAs in toluene.
Removing the bronze paint confirmed what had been suspected during preliminary testing. that much abrasion and loss of the gilding had occurred on the upper surfaces of the altarpiece, the dome, the lateral reliquaries, and the central lantern. Many of the vertical surfaces that face the congregation—the shafts of the columns, the vertical surfaces of the right side of the predella, and the large niche in the left wing—are also heavily abraded.
After the removal of the bronze paint was completed, the overall condition of the gilding was assessed. Even with roughly 20% of the surface showing loss, the remaining gilding created a most impressive effect. Under natural fighting, the altar's surfaces glowed, shimmered, and radiated the life that had been deadened by its coating of bronze paint. Several areas of gilding, protected under projecting decorative carvings, had survived in a pristine state and revealed highly burnished gilding of extraordinary beauty.
The CCI conservation team and the conservators and curators at the National Gallery of Canada met several times to co-ordinate our approach towards the restoration of the gilding on the altarpiece at CCI and on its two niche sculptures being restored at the National Gallery. Regilding was not a popular option because it is too easily confused with the original and is irreversible. We decided to reduce the effects of the exposed whiting where the abrasion of the gilding was most evident in order to better balance the damaged and undamaged sections of the altarpiece.
Careful retouching using pigments that match the original plum-coloured bole, in an acrylic binder, was done first to tone the damaged sections without adding a layer of gold. This acrylic is removable with aromatic solvents. Where this inpainting was insufficient, retouching in "shell gold" (a mixture of gold powders) of the same colour as the original, in a gum arabic binder, was done over the acrylic. Over larger losses, 23 carat gold leaf was applied to the acrylic retouches, while they were fresh to achieve colour and surface effects similar to those of the original.
Other surfaces that had previously been sanded down to the wood will be rebuilt using flexible epoxies where the wood has been removed. Although we have yet to reach this step, recoating and/or regilding these areas of total loss is a strong option.
Conclusion
When the conservation treatment at CCI is finished and the altarpiece of Saint-Germain is installed in the National Gallery, it will be displayed on a plinth that will raise it to the correct height so that the public may once again appreciate its classical poise, its monumental balance, and the beauty and subtlety of its gilding. We hope that people will discover not a rude work reflecting popular beliefs about Canada as a primitive colonial society during these years, but a work of the highest quality and sophistication.
Endnotes
- This was one of several commissions for altarpieces given
to Baillargé during this period. Archives de l'Hôtel-Dieu
de Québec, Actes Capitulaires (17 juillet 1700-25
décembre 1922): 78 (folio A) in John R. Porter, L'art
de la dorure au Québec du XVIIe siècle à nos
jours. Quebec: Editions Garneau, 1975, p. 37.
- Two sculptures by Thomas Baillargé, one of St. Augustine and the other of St. Ambrose, were originally placed in the lateral niches. The two sculptures are now part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the McCord Museum in Montreal, respectively. Both sculptures are being conserved in the Restoration/Conservation Laboratory of the National Gallery and will be returned to their original niches in the altarpiece for the 1995 exhibition.
