This is the chapel between the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the chapel of the langue of Aragon.
Work is now in hand with the three remaining chapels in St John’s (actually two spaces as the chapel of the Anglo-Bavarian Langue, formerly the chapel of relics, is in the same space as the chapel of the Langue of Provence; the other chapel is that of the Langue of France).
Work is also in hand on the restoration of the choir stalls and, in Belgium, on the restoration of the Gobelin Tapestries.
At a seminar held last Wednesday, Curator Cynthia de Giorgio gave a short historical description of the chapel. Like the rest of St John’s, the chapel started off as a very austere space, which lasted around 100 years. Then, in a General Chapter of the Order in 1604, this chapel was allocated to the Langue of Auvergne, as this langue was the second in order of importance. However, since the langue of Castille had chosen St James as its patron saint, the langue of Auvergne decided to dedicate their chapel to St Sebastian.
Langue Commander Fra Annet de Gessans commissioned Captain Antonio Garsin to install an altar carved in stone. Its next benefactor was the Prior of the langue, Fra Jean de Foursat, whose coat of arms – a golden fleur-de-lys on a red background is found in the middle of the ceiling. During restoration three names were found inscribed or painted in corners of the chapel – belonging probably to Antonio Ridolfi the gilder, and two Maltese, carvers Domenico Gambin and Pietro Burlò.
Italian experts from Iconos Restauri, on behalf of whom Daniela Murphy Carelle gave an entertaining and full description of the works carried out in the restoration.
The first stage of the restoration was to diagnose the state of the chapel. Mainly due to rain infiltration and damp, the gold in the vault had been covered up with up to 90% loss in places. Salt was another problem, especially from the ground up. There had also been a restoration of sorts in the 19th century but fake gold was used instead of the original gold leaf.
As a result of the neglect of centuries, the reds had become greys due to oxidation, and the original blue background had been substituted by light blue in a restoration.
Further study showed that the original gilding had taken place at two different times, each with a different approach. The rising damp and rainwater infiltration also affected the stonework and carvings in the chapel of which there is a multitude. And there were massive amounts of dust – we never saw as much dust as we saw in Malta, the restorer commented.
There was however a silver, or rather a golden lining. All restorers were women and all single, but the huge amount of cherubs on the walls became their own particular babies, who they proceeded to nurture to a new life.
The restoration method used included water and later steam, which removed the grey and allowed the gold to re-emerge. Broken carvings were re-instated using fibreglass pins. Salt was extracted using water and later a poultice and Japanese tissue.
The last phase was the re-gilding, the best part of which was that of the brocade covering an angel, using Batik techniques.
The chapel’s paintings were also restored. The main altarpiece is a painting of St Sebastian – the artist of which remains elusive. It is a 17th century painting, possibly installed during the early part of the century and has been attributed to Silvestro Querio, an artist active at that time, and also Lucas Garnier. The variation of the quality of the painting, which became obvious during the restoration, suggests two different hands.
The two lunettes by Giuseppe d’Arena depict the martyrdom of St Sebastian and the saint meeting Pope Sixtus. These are some of his best works, which were perfectly executed and remained in very good condition.
Finally, the seminar was shown a light-hearted video showing the hard work of hoisting the paintings back where they belonged, rather incongruously to the tune of the Radetzky March.
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