The president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Astrid Pérez, has held this Wednesday a meeting with the restoration coordinator, Agustina Torino, and the administrator of the Cúrcuma company, José del Rosario, responsible for the recovery work of a shield adhered to the wall of the hemicycle, which has remained hidden for decades under several layers of decorative paint.
In the meeting the company has informed the president of the state of the restoration and of the details of the last phase that will be carried out in August, coinciding with the parliamentary inactive period, due to the need to install scaffolding that makes impossible the normal development of the activity of the Chamber. The technicians have determined that the intervention should be executed in phases to guarantee both the conservation of the work as well as the institutional functioning.
The first phase, already finished, has consisted of the discovery of the canvas, an especially complex process in which the team of six restorers has had to remove up to four layers of superimposed paint.
The second phase, scheduled for August, will address the restoration itself, including the consolidation of the existing polychromy, the reintegration of losses in some areas and, finally, the protection of the pictorial surface.
Astrid Pérez has highlighted the relevance of this action for the conservation of the artistic heritage of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, emphasizing that “this work is part of the history of the Chamber and its recovery will allow to return to the hemicycle an essential element of its identity”. The president has also valued the effort made to promote and culminate these works, despite the difficulties derived from parliamentary activity.
The work, attributed to the painter from La Palma Manuel González Méndez, presides over the hemicycle and corresponds to the tapestry that remained hidden since the 80s of the 20th century, when it was covered during the I Legislature. Its recovery also responds to the recommendations of the Technical Unit of Historical Heritage of the Cabildo de Tenerife, which in 2019 concluded, after various soundings, the need to restore this canvas to return to the plenary hall a unitary artistic discourse.
With the completion of the works in August, the painting can be contemplated again in its original version, recovering for the public a work of great historical and artistic value within the Canarian heritage.
It is an oil on canvas adhered to the wall, initially dated in 1906, with dimensions of 252 by 173 centimeters. According to a 2018 report by the Unidad Técnica de Patrimonio Histórico del Cabildo de Tenerife, the work was covered with a repostero in the 80s of the 20th century.