The Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, has inaugurated the exhibition ‘La imagen revelada’ at the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH), where the X-rays, both small and large, of 49 assets subjected to study and restoration processes at the IAPH over the past thirty years are on display. In total, as detailed by the Minister, a selection of images from thirty entities, brotherhoods, and fraternities that own these assets will be exhibited, including sculptures by baroque artists such as Juan de Mesa, Pedro Roldán, Juan Martínez Montañés, José de Mora, or Juan Bautista Vázquez El Viejo.
Accompanied by the Director General of the IAPH, Juan José Primo, the General Secretary of Historical and Documentary Heritage, Mar Sánchez, the Territorial Delegate for Culture and Sports, Carmen Ortiz, and a representation of entities, brotherhoods, and fraternities that own the assets, to whom she thanked for their trust in the Institute, Del Pozo highlighted that this exhibition «allows us to give a new perspective to these pieces, an unprecedented perspective that makes it possible to appreciate their peculiarities, details, and craftsmanship.» She also pointed out that this experience «offers the public the opportunity to access for the first time the X-ray image archive of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage, a national and international reference center in the conservation of historical heritage.»
The X-rays or imaging examination techniques of devotional images, as detailed by Del Pozo, provide indispensable knowledge about the works when undertaking their conservation and restoration with guarantees. The application of this technique «facilitates the understanding of internal structures not visible to the naked eye, provides information about the execution process of the work, the composition and materials, and the transformations made by the artist or other subsequent authors, and even allows for authentication.»
‘La imagen revelada’ exhibits X-rays of sculptures with great historical-artistic significance that have passed through the imaging examination laboratory of the IAPH in its 30 years of trajectory. It is worth noting that, in the last decade in Seville and its province alone, the IAPH has carried out more than 200 conservation and restoration actions related to sacred art.
The exhibition, which can be visited until May 30th, aims to lead, in an atmosphere of soft light over the X-rays, to a new dimension of the beauty and expression of the artwork. At the same time, it showcases the uniqueness and capabilities of an essential scientific technique for diagnosing the conservation status of cultural assets, before and during their intervention.
This new exhibition proposal is another milestone of the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage in its effort to expand the scientific culture of society about heritage, with the ultimate goal of raising awareness about the need for its conservation and care. This social strengthening, one of the greatest achievements of the Andalusian institution in the last three decades, is carried out with the utmost respect for the symbolic values that heritage assets hold, related to the meaning of authenticity, sensitivity, feelings or affections, religious manifestations, and devotion.
‘La imagen revelada’ can be visited in the exhibition hall Claustro de Legos of the IAPH, in the Monastery of La Cartuja in Seville, from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., on Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays and holidays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The exhibition will be closed on Mondays. During Holy Week, the exhibition will only be open to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday in the morning, and during the Feria week, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in the morning.