The "A Treasured Journey: A Collection Of Artifacts From St. James Episcopal Church - Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just returned home from the Lancaster Historical Society where I made a visit to their display titled "Lancaster In The '60s; 1660, 1760, 1860 and 1960.  Interesting display which I shared with you a short time ago.  But, as I wandered around the building, I found another smaller display dealing with my church, St. James Episcopal, in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.   Many relics dealing with church life throughout the history of St. James were on display.  One item that caught my eye was a painting titled "Madonna and Child" which was painted by Master of Marradi.  I remember the painting from when I was a young child growing up in the church.  It hung in the minister's office which was directly inside the front door of the parish house, to the left.  Rev. Batchelder had his desk in front of the painting just as the following few minister after him.  

Madonna and Child

 The painting was given to the church on February 8, 1908 by Alice and Blanche Nevin, whose brother, Robert J. Nevin was at one time a minister at the church.  They presented the painting in memory of their brother.  Rev. Nevin was the son of John Williamson Nevin, the second president of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.  He had left St. James and Lancaster to go to Rome in 1869 to be pastor of what would eventually become known as "St. Paul's Within the Walls" which was the first Protestant church to be built in Rome.  Rev. Nevin had purchased "Madonna and Child" while serving in Rome.  Well, in January of 2018 Christopher Daly, an art historian located in Baltimore, Maryland, called the office of St. James to inquire about "Madonna and Child." Mr. Daly had read that the painting by Master of Marradi was at the church.  He made a visit to St. James to see if it was indeed the same painting.  He examined the tempera and gold painting, but still wasn't sure.  Eventually St. James, realizing the history the painting, decided to restore the painting.  A grant from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation placed the painting in the hands of conservator Gillian Quinn of Baltimore.  She is known well in the art world for her restorations of Old Masters.  Ms. Quinn and her staff at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore spent close to a year restoring the painting.  They found that someone else had "cleaned" the painting and had overpainted it during a previous try at restoration.  

One small section of the painting reveals layers, upon layers of paint.

Trees had been added behind Madonna and baby Jesus and additional layers of paint were used to highlight certain areas of the painting.  Solvents were used to remove those layers of "new" paint.  One part of the painting that was not able to be fully restored was the feet of the Christ child.   Over years and years of touching the child's feet by visitors during times of reverence, layers of paint were destroyed.  She decided not to add more paint to the feet, but preserve what was left, since the painting is over 500 years old now.  The wearing of the paint tells the tale of how it was worshipped by visitors in the past.  The worn paint is part of its history.  The frame was restored by Lauren Ross who is a restorer at the Baltimore Museum of Art.  But, by the time the painting had been restored, it was determined that Master of Marradi was not the artist, but Giovanni Graffione who had also painted "Virgin Adoring the Child".  Both paintings are very similar in style and technique to Giovanni from Sant' Ambrogio, Florence, that it must be his work.  To stand in front of this beautiful painting today gave me a few chills and a tear or two as I imagined someone 500 years ago painting this magnificent piece of art.  I tried to picture in my mind his studio and materials which he must have used.  And...to have it last for over five centuries is amazing.  So many things could have happened to it during that time, but today it looks as if it had been finished a short time ago.  St. James is very lucky to have such a beautiful piece of art to place on the grounds of the church.  And...did I touch it while standing in front of it?  Nah!  Just wouldn't be right!  All that would have had to happen was to see some of the restoration come off on my finger and I would have croaked.  But, at least I would have been laying in front of perhaps the most impressive piece of art I had ever viewed.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.