Intervention in Mannerists wooden paintings representing Saint Sebastian and Saint Lucy, by Belchior de Matos, constituents of a diptych of the chapel of Geraldes, in Peniche

Abstract

The panels of Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Saint Lucy, executed after 1610 by the Portuguese mannerist painter Belchior de Matos for the main altarpiece of the chapel of Saint Sebastian and Saint Lucy of Geraldes, Peniche, were subject to an intervention of conservation and restoration which aimed, in the first place, to restore the dignity indispensable to their adoption by the community and to their return to a place of worship. The works had several damages, but the most serious were the structural problems that jeopardized their stability and compromised the aesthetic value of the paintings. Therefore, it was necessary to reassemble the boards using a synthetic adhesive (PVA) with sawdust and phenolic resin microspheres. The frames, with significant lack of wood, were reconstituted with wood in the joints and with a filler paste (Araldite SV427) over a bamboo dowels structure in the grooves where the supports are inserted.