Every day, the monks of St. Joseph Abbey dine beneath hand-painted murals that grace the vaulted ceiling and walls of the campus refectory.
But those historic paintings, created by Benedictine monk and artist Dom Gregory de Wit to depict salvation through the sacred meal, had seen better days. The art suffered damage from general exposure to moisture and mold throughout the years, and the problem was exacerbated by the March 2016 floods that swamped most of the abbey grounds and buildings, including the refectory.
A remediation effort, led by Crawford Conservation Inc., was recently completed and the refectory’s fantastic visuals have never looked better.
After finishing his initial commission to paint the refectory’s west wall with a scene of the Last Supper, the Dutch-born de Wit spent three years treating the refectory’s walls and ceilings as sort of giant canvas before painting the Abbey Church’s murals.
“This was quite a massive building for a refectory,» said Abbot Justin Brown OSB. «Of course, monastery refectories sort of mimic the church in a way, so it was building with lots of wall space and ceiling space.»
The room’s ceilings contain 72 richly colored ceiling panels depicting God as the Creator through the earth’s four elements: earth, water, air and fire. There are doves and pheasants flying among billowy clouds, fish swimming in swirling waves, and various mammals walking through thick forests. Above them the stars are represented by the zodiac, “which is often depicted at medieval monasteries,” Brown said.
Nine murals on side walls show scenes of eating and drinking from Old Testament passages. Opposite the mural of the Last Supper — said to be world’s largest painting of the event — a painting of a young Christ as the Prince of Peace spans the east wall.
A portrait of St. Benedict, the order’s founder, rises over the entry to the room. Included with the works are scriptures in Latin that speak to eating and drinking.
“Aside from including the world’s largest painting of the Last Supper, De Wit’s murals in the refectory are incredibly significant,” said David Warren, a local filmmaker who produced the 55-minute documentary entitled “Hand of the Master: The Art and Life of Dom Gregory de Wit.”
“Walking through the refectory feels like walking through an installation,” Warren added. “The stories of the Bible surround the viewer from every angle and leave the viewer feeling as if he or she is a part of the story. Other than seeing De Wit’s artwork in the refectory, I’ve never encountered artwork outside of a church or chapel that has such a meditative effect.”
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with the Abbey Church in recognition of the artistic value of de Wit’s paintings. Work was needed, however, to ensure the treasure remained for future generations.
Starting in June, a team of four fine art conservators began repairing the damage done by exposure to water and mold.
“Over the years, some ceiling panels became stained from various water leaks,” Brown said. But “I think the black mold following the flood is what really precipitated (the mural refurbishments.) They didn’t pump that water out for several days. The building went weeks without air conditioning. Even with the artificial air conditioning brought in afterward, there was not proper air circulation.»
Restoration of the mural however, couldn’t begin right away, as other flood repairs took precedence, Brown said. Fundraising for the project also was needed.
The money to hire Crawford Conservation, Inc., came from a 2018 Christmas appeal, an annual giving request sent to supporters who’ve shown an interest in the well-being of the Abbey over the years, said Scott Wallace, its development director.
The murals’ restoration was an extensive project. It involved removing surface grime, dealing with mold, treating stains with a synthetic resin, and retouching paintings where the stains were, according to Craig Crawford, Crawford Conservation’s president.
His team also created two new ceiling panels depicting stars and the sky. The new panels replaced plywood that once filled the holes left by two attic fans removed when the building got central air conditioning 10 years ago.
“A lot of what we were doing was trying to secure the panels back in place. There were a couple that really were on the verge of falling out,” he said of the ceiling panels made from bagasse — a waste product from sugar cane production — and once held in place with just the moldings surrounding them.
“At some point, somebody put nails in to hold them in place a little better. What happened is a lot of the nails pulled through. The material kept expanding and contracting, and over time it created a larger hole where the nail was, ” Crawford said.
Crawford blamed the water stains on both grime and the adhesive holding the panels’ pulpy fibers together. He observed it coming through de Wit’s very thin layer of animal glue-based paint.
“That’s why it was so vulnerable to water and mold because the mold is attracted to the binder in the paint. … And the moisture just goes right through it,” said Crawford, who helped restore the church’s murals in the 1990s with Cunningham-Adams Conservation Ltd. He also repaired damage from Hurricane Katrina and worked on de Wit’s murals at Sacred Heart Church in Baton Rouge.
Even with those other projects, the refectory remains a special place for Crawford.
“That’s a beautiful space. It’s such a unique environment in there,” he said.
For Brown, the murals are part of de Wit’s inspiring work at St. Joseph Abbey.
“If you live here, you tend to get used to the artwork you’re surrounded by, and it becomes sort of ‘every day,’” he said. “But the experience of having the ceiling restored reawakens the gift of the uniqueness of this work here in our monastery.”
source https://www.nola.com/news/communities/st_tammany/article_c7717b8c-d0c1-11e9-8531-bb604d3b5847.html
Damage Mold 