On their return this Friday on the walls of the Saint-Maximin church in Thionville, these canvases of seven meters by three seem almost small. Made in the second half of the 18th centurye century, these oils on canvas, classified as historical monuments in 1983, represent the Resurrection of Christ and the Virgin surrounded by an assembly of saints.
Three years earlier, in 2017, during the second phase of the renovation work on the Thionville building, the canvases had been entrusted to the Alsatian restoration workshop Jeannette, located in Boersch. “The workshop then already had work in progress, but it was much easier to send the canvases upstream for storage until they can take care of them”, details Jonathan Henrion, building and worship manager for the Agglo Portes de France-Thionville.
Project manager for the restoration, the agglomeration community shares the bill of € 110,156 (excluding VAT) with the Drac (50%) and the Grand Est region (25%). “We have a real desire to work on places of worship,” comments Pierre Grunewald, elected from the agglomeration in charge of religious buildings.
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An important restoration work
“The paintings had aged rather badly. They were very dirty with heating soot and had relaxed on their support. They were very deformed, and had already undergone restorations. It was therefore necessary to treat the coatings, varnishes and previous repainting… ”, lists Noëlle Jeannette, the restorer.
Meticulous work that required thousands of hours of work and research. “Our goal is, in modern restoration, that what we have done can be reversible without damaging the original canvas”.
Installed on new wooden and aluminum supports, the paintings are revealed at the same time as their history. “On the canvas of the Virgin, we can distinguish revolutionary motifs by transparency. While that of Christ unveils the colors of the French flag on the standard, ”points out Julien Champlon, restaurateur alongside Noëlle Jeannette.
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