Eye-Popping Find in a Boston Church
Five workers climbed 100 feet above the nave of the historic Trinity Church in the heart of Boston's Copley Square, to pull down a blackened canvas. They got the surprise of their lives. Behind the darkened painting they were removing was an unknown painting that has been hidden for more than a century. The mural's sharp, vivid red, blue, and flesh tone colors are almost blinding set against the darkened tower and are in sharp contrast to the surrounding murals that have not been protected over the decades, reports The Associated Press.
The painting depicts the apostle Peter reaching inside a fish's mouth for a coin, referring to Chapter 17 of the Gospel According to Matthew in which Jesus tells Peter he will find a coin needed to pay the temple tax in the mouth of the first fish he catches.
The painting has apparently been covered up since the Episcopal church first opened its doors in 1877. The canvas that was being removed was a darkened painting depicting the flight of the baby Jesus to Egypt. "I think the colors were what hit me most, just the brilliance in reference to the other ones," Emily Gardner, a conservation assistant at Gianfranco Pocobene Studios Inc., which worked on the mural restoration, told AP.
The murals that grace the top of the Trinity Church tower were painted by a team led by 19th-century muralist John LaFarge; it's assumed that LaFarge also painted this newly revealed mural, but it was not signed and it's unclear why he covered it up. "That's the intriguing thing, it could be any number of things," John Canning, whose firm is working on the paint restoration under way at Trinity, told AP. "It could be unfinished. It could be a change in style. At this point we don't totally understand it. You're seeing something that was probably not meant to be seen." There is even speculation that the mural was created by rival artist Francis Davis Millet, which raises the possibility of political motives for hiding it, according to Joan Norris, a consultant with the mural restoration project.
Trinity Church, which is one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the country, is undergoing a $53 million restoration project. The active Episcopal congregation hosts 100,000 tourists a year. It's not yet known if the church will recover the painting or attempt to preserve it.
Five workers climbed 100 feet above the nave of the historic Trinity Church in the heart of Boston's Copley Square, to pull down a blackened canvas. They got the surprise of their lives. Behind the darkened painting they were removing was an unknown painting that has been hidden for more than a century. The mural's sharp, vivid red, blue, and flesh tone colors are almost blinding set against the darkened tower and are in sharp contrast to the surrounding murals that have not been protected over the decades, reports The Associated Press.
The painting depicts the apostle Peter reaching inside a fish's mouth for a coin, referring to Chapter 17 of the Gospel According to Matthew in which Jesus tells Peter he will find a coin needed to pay the temple tax in the mouth of the first fish he catches.
The painting has apparently been covered up since the Episcopal church first opened its doors in 1877. The canvas that was being removed was a darkened painting depicting the flight of the baby Jesus to Egypt. "I think the colors were what hit me most, just the brilliance in reference to the other ones," Emily Gardner, a conservation assistant at Gianfranco Pocobene Studios Inc., which worked on the mural restoration, told AP.
The murals that grace the top of the Trinity Church tower were painted by a team led by 19th-century muralist John LaFarge; it's assumed that LaFarge also painted this newly revealed mural, but it was not signed and it's unclear why he covered it up. "That's the intriguing thing, it could be any number of things," John Canning, whose firm is working on the paint restoration under way at Trinity, told AP. "It could be unfinished. It could be a change in style. At this point we don't totally understand it. You're seeing something that was probably not meant to be seen." There is even speculation that the mural was created by rival artist Francis Davis Millet, which raises the possibility of political motives for hiding it, according to Joan Norris, a consultant with the mural restoration project.
Trinity Church, which is one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the country, is undergoing a $53 million restoration project. The active Episcopal congregation hosts 100,000 tourists a year. It's not yet known if the church will recover the painting or attempt to preserve it.
