Guild members Phil Diers and Adrian Card restore a beloved sculpture
The Madonna della Guardia a treasured icon for three generations of Italian-American Catholics at Corpus Christi Parish, San Francisco, has been restored after a devastating fire. The sculpture was acquired by Corpus Christi Church in 1941, when a small group of church members traveled to Genoa, Italy, with the intention of procuring such a statue. The church brings it out once a year for the Feast of the Madonna della Guardia in late August.
In 2006 an arsonist broke into the church and doused the blanket-wrapped statue with gasoline and set in on fire. In the course of beating out the flames, the firemen inadvertently broke off lots of pieces such as arms, hands, and heads. Through a very circuitous route the church was finally able to connect with sculptor
Phil Diers who has faithfully recreated all the missing pieces, sculpting several of them from scratch, relying on old photos of the statue for reference.
Decorative painter
Adrian Card then used the old photos to repaint the statue to look the same as it did before the fire. He also restored the crown which is encrusted with 128 Swarovski crystals.
Matthias Gordon-Murer, a San Francisco-based woodworker built a hardwood plinth with concealed wheels for the statue which will make it easier to move around the church.
The Corpus Christi Church held a special mass and festival to celebrate the restoration on Saturday, October 18.
Labels: Adrian Card, news, Phil Diers
