There have been many days of absence since April 5, when he was removed from the cult, but they are now over. The parish of San Francisco witnessed the reunion of the faithful with Our Father Jesus prayer in the gardenafter conservation and restoration work which restored it to its original incarnation.
It appears that the face, neck and hands appear with a lighter tone and, above all, blood sweat, never seen before.
An afternoon veneration and a thanksgiving mass marked, Friday, September 27, the joyful celebration of the return to normalcy at the temple.
The Huerto brotherhood explains in detail in a text that the work undertaken in the workshop of Ana Infante de la Torre followed the criteria established by international charters (respect for the materiality of the work, reversibility, associated materials and techniques and differentiation criteria). And also those of the General Plan of Cultural Properties of Andalusia.
The Lord of the Garden, during Friday worship
Firstly, the technical team of Infante de la Torre was consolidated the structure of the image, strengthening the base and submitting the Lord to it. This task was very important so that it would support the movements and vibrations of internal and external worship.
As for the body of the image, they removed the repainting and the application of a tempera. Paternity of the Lord of the Prayer in the Garden still arouses divisions of opinion, among which we consider the attributions made by Teodoro Ramírez de Arellano in the work “Walks through Cordoba” and the relationship currently established with the School of sculpture of Granada, one of the main artistic centers of Andalusian Baroque.
The professor at the University of Cordoba, Moreno Cuadro, associates him with the circle of artists Pierre de Mena.
Previous interventions
This restoration made it possible to confirm “the numerous interventions to which it was subjected over time, even if we only find those of Pedro Martos in 1941, that of Camacho in 1975 and, more recently, that carried out by the imager from Cordoba. Miguel Arjona.
Despite this, these modifications did not eliminate the original polychromy of the image, and “it was recovered thanks to a detailed cleaning on the head, hands and legs.
All this “dthe incarnation evolves “as its author conceived it and perfectly reconciles the image with the moment of the Passion of Christ which is represented.”
The state of the polychromy of the 17th century is such that the reintegration of gaps is minimal (it is estimated at less than 5%) and was carried out using watercolor, application of varnish and nuanced with pigments agglutinated in varnish.
Restoration involves added value for the Huerto brotherhood, as the declaration underlines, for its devotional value and the challenge to faith that simple contemplation entails, within a temple of great artistic and historical wealth classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest.
