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Baldachin Renovation

The baldachin over the high altar was composed of colors other than those in the original sanctuary art work. Michael Gibbons and Bill Coronet along with the Rector and Vestry begin exploring ways to improve the baldachin, not normally found in Romanesque architecture, to fit better with the original color palette used by Fr. Bernard Geiser when he created the triptych, ascension mural and scenes from the lift of Christ.

The pictures below tell a simplified story of the steps Michael Gibbons and helpers followed to produce what you see in figure 1 (just below).

Finished baldachin refurbishment

Figure 1. This is the completed view of the baldachin in its new colors with the altar showing its purple array.

STEP 1. The first thing that was done was to dust and clean the surfaces to be painted. By accident some of the water streaked the center panel of the triptych and when dried showed that there was a buildup of dust and smoke. Michael then carefully washed with water the main panel twice and carefully dried it. The colors came back more vibrant. Michael will explore with preservationists what the best way to proceed with the other paintings. The picture above is an extreme close-up of Christ after the cleaning. Because flash illumination was used the colors are not true but only close. The nimbus is especially bright because the camera directly faced the canvas.

Christ in center panel of triptych

Figure 2. The cleaned figure of Christ in the center panel of the triptych.

STEP 2. After the surfaces were cleaned masking began so that paint would not reach surfaces it should not. The triptych center panel cleaned it was covered in plastic of the same sort that already covered the altar and tabernacle. Then scaffolding was erected over the altar for the painters to work on the baldachin.

Scaffolding and masking

Figure 3. Plastic covering and scaffolding.

STEP 3. The edge of the baldachin was spray painted red and where necessary masking was added (for instance, near the wall). You can see the details of the original color palette as Michael sprays red paint over it. When the gold was applied the background was left red. In other words, only the raised parts were painted gold.

Spraying edge red

Figure 4. Over spraying the original edge with red paint.

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