In 2018, Lanzini & Sons restored the vandalized St. Cecilia painting above the narthex at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in Castroville, California. The parish contacted us without knowing that our grandfather, Angelo Lanzini, had designed the church and painted the artwork.
Removing the graffiti and repairing the painting
Bright-orange graffiti covered the lower half of the painting. Our painting restoration included removing the graffiti and using oil paints to inpaint losses and repair damaged areas. The repairs were selective, leaving the surrounding original image in place. We also cleaned the entire painting and applied a fresh coat of varnish.
Work in the sanctuary
The 2018 job extended to other parts of the church. We carried out wood and gilding restoration and bronze refinishing, and cleaned the reredos, crucifix, tabernacle and hand-carved Stations of the Cross.
From the family archive: building Our Lady of Refuge
Our family’s connection to the church goes back to its construction in the early 1960s. Alongside Angelo’s design and painting, the original interior work included pews, marble and stained glass. A mosaic of Our Lady of Refuge was created for the exterior. The family archive includes these photographs of the church under construction.
The original sanctuary included a 30-foot reredos, the structure behind the altar, with a hand-carved corpus and surround. The corpus is the figure of Christ on the cross. A hanging baldacchino, or canopy, completed the setting. Hand-carved Stations and statuary were also part of the interior.
Our reredos and decorative painting restoration at St. Anne’s in Porterville is another project involving several kinds of existing church artwork.
Project location: Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church, 11140 Preston Street, Castroville, CA 95012.
For damaged paintings or furnishings, send photographs and any known history of the work so we can discuss an assessment.
