Our Lady of Victories was instituted in 1571 by Pope Pius V as thanksgiving for saving Europe’s Christianity from the Muslims. She is believed to defeat all heresies and to triumph in military battles in the defense of Christianity.
In the previous weeks she underwent a full and victorious restoration treatment by Linda at IPARC.
She looked very grey because of soot and dust on the surface, there was sulphate efflorescence present on old plaster fills around restored fragments and all five fingers of Mary’s left hand were missing.
To remove sulphates from the old restored areas the small fragments were desalinated in a bath. On the sculpture itself the desalination was executed with clay based compresses.
As you can see the sculpture was cleaned, the fragments reinstalled with glass fibre dowels, the missing fingers were carved in alabaster and lightly coloured to match the marble. And lastly the joints between fragments were filled with a fine colour matching mortar.
Soon you can admire her up close in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, where we installed her for a long term stay. The museum is opening on the 24th of September.