MIAMI SHORES | After more than three decades in the
Florida sun, heat and humidity, Ivan Mestrovic’s massive Pieta is getting a
much-needed cleaning and refurbishing.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
David Prada, director of the Building and Property Office, speaks with Yojacne Tellez of Art & Sculpture Unlimited while his co-worker, Lazaro Pullares, continues to work on Ivan Mestrovic's Pieta at the Pastoral Center.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
The Pieta glistens in the afternoon sun after being sprayed with water and having most of the patina rubbed onto it, March 23, 2018.
The 10-foot-tall bronze
sculpture, by the late Yugoslav artist, dominates the Archbishop Joseph P.
Hurley Garden of Memories at the archdiocesan Pastoral Center. The garden is
dedicated to Catholic Floridians who lived before creation of the Diocese of
Miami in 1958.
The refurbishing work on
the four-ton artwork began before Holy Week and continued after Easter, with
only a finishing coat of wax remaining April 18.
“Providential, isn’t it?”
said Sister Elizabeth Worley, the archdiocese’s COO and chancellor for
administration. “We have tried for five years to get someone to do the work and
managed to get it done for Holy Week. World class art, too!”
Workers began March 19 by
sandblasting years of dirt off the sculpture, which most likely had not been
cleaned since its 1983 installation at the Pastoral Center. A team from a local
foundry, Art & Sculpture Unlimited, then began applying layers of patina to
bring out the original color.
“Bronze can be any color you want,” explained David
Prada, director of the archdiocesan Building and Property Office. “You can go
from black to gold and everything in between.”
The foundry researched old photos of Mestrovic’s
works — unfortunately, all in black and white — and consulted art historians to
determine the color of the original patina, Prada said.
Workers then sprayed new patina onto the sculpture
and rubbed it in using scouring pads. Before spraying, they heated the sculpture
to help it absorb the patina. The final wax coat will help protect the patina,
and the sculpture, from the elements.
The process “dates back thousands of years to the
Etruscans, back in the Bronze Age,” said Prada.
He noted that ASU is “one of the premier foundries”
in the country. It is a family-owned business, founded by Cuban immigrants. ASU
also created the corpus of Christ that hangs in the sanctuary of Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church in Doral.
The Pieta was commissioned
in the 1940s by Archbishop Hurley of the Diocese of St. Augustine, which at
that time encompassed all of Florida. Cast in 1955 in Naples, Italy, the sculpture
was cut into two parts and shipped to South Florida.
It has stood at several
spots in Miami: first at Immaculata-La Salle High School, then next door at Mercy
Hospital. After the sculpture began to show damage from the salt air, it was
moved to Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Doral, where it remained until the
Pastoral Center was completed in 1983.
“You really see it now,”
said Prada, adding that the archdiocese will implement a regular maintenance
program “to keep it in all its glory.”
The Pieta faces Biscayne
Boulevard at 94th Street, where the Pastoral Center is located. The center also
houses the massive cross that adorned the altar where St. John Paul II
celebrated Mass at Tamiami Park, Sept. 11, 1987.
Surrounding the Pieta in
the Garden of Memories are Mestrovic's granite bas-relief sculptures of six
churchmen who opposed communism. Depicted are Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty of
Hungary; Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac of Yugoslavia; Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of
Poland; Archbishop Joseph Beran of Czechoslovakia; and Maryknoll bishops
Francis X. Ford of China and Patrick J. Byrne of Korea.
Besides the garden
sculptures, Mestrovic is also the creator of the 20-foot-tall crucifix atCorpus Christi Church, Miami, carved from a single piece of mahogany.
The artist died in 1962
at Notre Dame University, where he had accepted a professorship in 1955. He was
buried in his native Croatia.
Florida
Catholic freelancer Jim Davis contributed to this report.
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
View of the Pieta after it was cleaned and most of the patina rubbed onto it. Workers would need scaffolding to get deeper into the faces of the image.
Photographer: Jim Davis
Ivan Mestrovic's Pieta as it looked before the cleaning. The photo was taken in 2014.
Comments from readers
Vilma Angulo -
04/20/2018 11:11 AM
This beloved sculpture was my favorite place to pray and spend quiet time during my 4 years of High School at Immaculata-LaSalle (class of '69). On my countless visits to the Pastoral Center during the past 27 years of ministry in the Archdiocese of Miami, I've never left the PC with out a short visit to stand in awe of this magnificent sculpture and take a few moments for personal reflection. Thank you to all who have taken such good care to restore it to its magnificent glory.
Comments from readers