Changing Colours

Restoring a statue of Saint Joan of Arc.

Restoring Statue of Saint Joan Visionary & Martyr

We are much accustomed to seeing St. Joan dressed in armour ready for battle, yet this lovely statue by Rafl of Paris depicts St. Joan in a more subdued mood during one of her visions. In this attitude, she reminds us that being attentive to God's voice, prepares us for life's battles. Once restored the statue's new home will be a Girl's school in France.

Surface damage

I am uncertain why the statue had been " repaired" with a mixture of yellow ochre paint and gritty caulk. The repairs lacked the subtlety of the original modelling; indeed there had been little attempt to make them 'invisible'

Some of the bad repairs I find on otherwise lovely statuary cannot be fathomed by reason alone. Rather than dally in thoughts of "Why, oh why would someone treat a holy statue that way - ?" having seen too many unsuitable fixings, I make a mental note of " attempted repairs" knowing I shall never find the answer!

Otherwise I have distracting thoughts; For example the unsightly repair on this delicately modelled foot, implies that Saint Joan was so wrapped up in her vision that she accidentally stepped in a puddle of Dijon mustard...

Back to restoring St. Joan

Restoration began by first to removing all of the hardened yellow repair works and surface grime. A quantity of old discoloured varnish was removed from the surfaces, thereby revealing a pinkish tone to the flesh areas. One has to take care when removing Paint from statuary, as artists like to use washes of different colours to build up flesh tones, its a practice I use myself.

I remodelled the broken nose and fingers directly in plaster. The statue was repainted following the original colours and finishes.

I found that the hair which had appeared mid brown because of the covering of yellow, was actually a rather dark brown.

The skirt of denim blue, had red ochre in the shadow tones; this use of opposing colours is sometimes used by artists to add vitality to folds and shadow areas.

As for the pedestal, the little shield and foliage had become a model of aged shabby chic, it sprang back to life once they were repaired and the colours restored. On a personal note, I had always been told that there was no 'saint Jeanette' and that I had no patron saint to call my own. As a grown up I figured it out - Jeanette is French for little Joan. I was so glad to find that I did have a patron saint after all, a truly admirable one.

see more on our saints restored page.