Event
Old North Illuminated's Speaker Series: Uncovering Our Angels
Fee:
Free. To register for this virtual event, press the Tickets button and make a donation of any amount to Old North Illuminated, the nonprofit that preserves and interprets Old North Church & Historic Site. Your generosity supports our education programs. A Zoom link will be sent to you before the event.Location:
The event is hosted virtually.Dates & Times
Date:
Time:
Duration:
Type of Event
7:30pm-8:00pm
Description
A once-in-a-lifetime paint restoration project is currently underway at the Old North Church in Boston! Expert conservators are painstakingly removing layers of white overpaint to reveal some of the church's colonial-era artwork. By the spring of 2025, the team will uncover 16 angels in the balcony arches that were painted in the late 1720s and 1730s by congregation member John Gibbs. Thousands of visitors are flocking to Old North this fall and winter for a glimpse of the church as Paul Revere saw it.
In this online talk, we are excited to welcome Gianfranco Pocobene, the lead conservator of the historic paint restoration project at Old North. Gianfranco will discuss the techniques, tools, and technology that have allowed his team to penetrate layers of white overpaint to reveal the beautiful artwork hidden underneath. He will share photos of the newly revealed angels, discuss theories as to how the angels were painted in the 1700s and why they were painted over, and answer your questions about the project.
To register for this virtual event, press the Tickets button and make a donation of any amount to Old North Illuminated, the nonprofit that preserves and interprets Old North Church & Historic Site. Your generosity supports our education programs. A Zoom link will be sent to you before the event.
Born in Italy and raised in Canada, Gianfranco Pocobene received his Master of Arts in Conservation from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario in 1984. He first came to Boston in the 1980s to earn a Certificate of Advanced Training from the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard Art Museums. He then spent the next 15 years working for the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard Art Museums where he oversaw the restoration of mural cycles at the Boston Public Library by Puvis de Chavannes, Edwin Austin Abbey, and John Singer Sargent. In 2004, he was appointed Chief Conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where he carried out treatments and technical studies on the paintings collection. Early this year he left the Gardner Museum to focus exclusively on his private practice, Gianfranco Pocobene Studio which was established in 1991. Some of the Studio’s significant mural projects include the restoration of the John LaFarge murals at Trinity Church, Boston, the Women’s Gallery mural at Vilna Shul, Beacon Hill, Puvis de Chavannes’ Philosophy mural at the Boston Public Library, and Benjamin Constant’s mural at the Ames-Webster Mansion, Boston.
Old North Illuminated's 2024 Speaker Series events are brought to you in part by Hub Town Tours.
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