The image of Esperanza Macarena of Seville will return to the altar of his basilica this Monday almost four months after a long process of restoration, a moment eagerly awaited by the brothers and the faithful, who will be able to see it again up close.
In the middle of last June, the image has undergone a small restoration it kept her four days of withdrawal from worshipbut when he returned, all the alarms went off: his face was no longer the same.
The work was carried out by the teacher Francisco Arquilloand provoked much criticism among the brothers and the faithful; At first glance, what is most striking is that the shape of her eyelashes had changedand, therefore, its look.
The agitation was such that the brotherhood urgently called Arquillo to work with the basilica closed for five hours, but the result was more or less the same. A few days later, hundreds of “Macarenos” gathered at the gates of the brotherhood’s headquarters. requesting the resignation of the board of directors and a complete image restoration.
Intense testing for 24 hours
The brotherhood reacted quickly, as did the Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH) of the Junta de Andalucía, a key institution in this type of work. On July 1, it was announced that the virgin would withdraw from worship for 24 hours to submit it to diagnostic tests and a technical-scientific analysis to examine its state of conservation in more depth.
At dawn, the IAPH was taken and with the results obtained by the technicians, the largest official meeting of the brothers (cabildo) in memory was called. 1,817 brothers gathered, of whom 1,475 voted, with 998 votes for and 458 against of the restoration (invalid votes aside), which was entrusted to curator Pedro Manzano. The decision was made public shortly before 4 a.m.
About 15 people waiting for the virgin
The virgin would thus be kept away from the eyes of her faithful for three months, although in the hands of around fifteen experts, including Art history teachersa sculptor-imagineer, two restorers and even a photographer.
The Macarena He withdrew from worship on August 12 to begin work that was not only aesthetic, since, among other actions, an intensive treatment was carried out to eliminate xylophages -to- who had attacked the image.
The restoration included several actions, from eyelashes to carbon-14 testing to determine the exact age of the imagealthough the IAPH specifies that it was made in the 17th century.
And all this with a control system via a Wi-Fi network which informed the technicians every ten minutes of the progress of the restoration process. On September 23, Pedro Manzano said in a video on the brotherhood’s social networks that Macarena had “regained his gaze”.
The entire process respected its deadlines, until last Friday evening, the brotherhood announced on the social network X that the virgin would return to worship this Monday, December 8. at 6 a.m.with special and intensive programs to see it up close, for two consecutive days.
December 18 celebration
In this process, the restorer Arquillo even announced that he would present his version of the works at a conference, but A few hours before the start of the conference, it was suspended because the brotherhood had reported organizers that there is a confidentiality contract that prevents speaking publicly about something so specific.
In the end, the image will be able to be in its basilica before December 18, the feast day of Esperanza Macarena, and, of course, without endangering its procession at dawn. next April 3the “early morning” of Holy Week in Seville.
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