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The murals of the 12th-century hermitage of Vera Cruz de Maderuelo have been forgotten for decades; The chapel was a haystack at the beginning of the 20th century
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The Prado moved them to the museum after removing them from the wall to save them from the Linares reservoir that was to be built, which threatened to flood the sanctuary.
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Its value is extraordinary, as it has one of the first nude depictions of Adam and Eve in record.
Other times, it wasn’t uncommon for the Linares reservoir to flood the Linares reservoir in the spring, when drought hadn’t withered Spain. One day Vera Cruz’s hermitage will floodin the beautiful walled town of Maderuelo (Segovia).
Outside the city walls, overlooking the Riaza River, the single-nave and straight front apse church has a surprising story, with a happy ending as a result of a series of coincidences. But he couldn’t.
Abandoned for decades, the hermitage began to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. as a store for hay and farm and barn tools.
However, its interior has preserved an authentic Romanesque gem, some paintings that are now one of the treasures of the Prado Museum, but forgotten for many years.
“It was 1907 when we first heard of the value. what is inside the hermitage”explains María López Villarejo, a painting restorer at the Madrid art gallery.
The inner walls and vaults of the small sanctuary were painted with frescoes in the twelfth century. One of the most exceptional works of late medieval Spanish painting.
At the turn of the century, paintings became a potential object of desire for antique dealers who acquired gold by selling their cultural heritage abroad, particularly to the United States. dealers they took advantage of the fact that there were no clear laws advocating the preservation of the arts.
In the paintings of the church, various biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments were represented, the vault was led by a Christ, His Majesty, surrounded by angels and saints. Cain and Abel with the Mystic Lamb, Adoration of the Magi, and the Creation of Adam and Eve were the remaining themes represented.
In fact, according to Villarejo, the latter is particularly valuable as it is one of the first nude representations of Adam and Eve in history. “It is a very schematic representation of human nudity.”explains to the restorer about some of the paintings that were transferred to the Prado Museum in 1947.
However, to have a broader picture of what fate has prepared for the paintings, we must go a little earlier, to 1896, when Maderuelo’s parish priest asked permission from the Archdiocese. “To sell the hermitage, as he needs money for other churches in the city,” he explains. José María Sadia, journalist and author specializing in heritage, tells the whole story of the hermitage in his book ‘El románico español’.
So, as he explained, it was sold to a neighbor of the town. for 150 pesetas, and it was later resold to a rancher and farmer named Raimundo Ruiz, who put his donkey to sleep there, in addition to using it as a warehouse and barn.
“The neighbors did not value the interior drawings; They thought they were old-fashioned with those front figures… The children even tried to remove the paint with buckets, which caused the deterioration seen later. Although the paintings are extremely well preserved”, explains Sadia.
As early as the 1920s, an antiques dealer in Madrid offered the rancher 30,000 pesetas for paintings, but the matter reached the ear of a lawyer from the State of Segovia, who learned that something was brewing in those areas. “The lawyer went there and talked to the priest, the mayor, the owner, and when the operation came out, the State temporarily confiscated the keys. and canceled the operation,” recalls Sadia, emphasizing that that period was a dark period of plunder.
“In those years, until 1933, when the first major inheritance law was passed, there were different laws, but they were very complex to implement; There was a certain disdain for the Spanish heritage,” recalls the expert, He has several books published in the Romanesque style.
The hermitage was still declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1924, but Prado, who was aware of the quality of the images and sent experts to prepare the reports, in placefirst refused to take over the business, Because it is impossible for the state to do this.
However, it would be done with them years later, as they were afraid that they would be damaged by the swamp to be built. But he paid dearly for his delay, because he had to pay. much more than was originally requested for them: 50,000 pesetas.
this was the workshop Ramon Gudiol person responsible for the process of starting the murals and mounting them on the panels for later transfer to Prado. López Villarejo, “Beginners”, “it started already in the 6th century. Vitruvius already talks about the removal of the frescoes from Pompeii, but the more it was practiced in the 18th and 19th centuries, the more artifacts are seen at stake”.
In the case of Vera Cruz’s seclusion, what’s known as the boot style strap, where the final coat of plaster and paint is taken. It is made by applying an organic adhesive to the surface. cartilage -mostly rabbit-. This collagen is heated and placed over the drawing, and then strong cotton gauze is placed. When it dries, the paint is withdrawn and the surface is started.
“Once you start, you transfer it onto gauze and burlap and with a water-soluble glue. To save the painting, the first gauze is removed with hot water,” the Prado restorer specifically notes about this work carried. to several wooden panels with fabric-reinforced cross-bar beams.
“In the end, it remains like a painting on canvas,” says López Villarejo, who restored the piece in 2010 with a team of eight. It is located in room 51C on the ground floor of the museum in its original size: about five meters by four and a half.
In this restoration process, the entire surface was cleaned, “A stencil technique was performed that eliminated the repainting and simulated the texture of the stone”. “The work is in very good condition, only the child figure, which the kings admired, was missing. There are doubts when the chapel was abandoned. someone stole it or in an antique shop”, says the restorer.
The use of the hermitage as stables and stables may also be related to their disappearance. The original drawing is of the two apostles, as a hole was made in the wall: It is believed to act as a ventilation system.
Sadia also emphasizes the artistic value of the work, whose author is unknown, although various analyzes have made connections with the resulting paintings. In the complexes of Santa María de Taüll and Casillas de Berlanga. This specialist in Romanesque painting also highlights “the heavenly scene, one of the most iconic in Spanish Romanesque painting” among all representations.
Today there is a fairly well-made copy in the Maderuelo church. Sinopia ruins, remnants of old painting. “Anyone who visits the hermitage will see the remains of the head of paintings and a reproduction on the right that is the same as in the Prado. It was a performance to honor the retreat”, Reassures the journalist who specializes in Romanesque art, valuing good luck running, not as good as others with substantial value. “A series of coincidences meant it didn’t end in the US.”
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