It is a rare opportunity in the US to unveil a nearly 300-year-old work of art in one of the country’s most historic buildings. But historians and conservationists are doing just that as they embark on the second phase of conservation work on decorative painting that dates to the days of Paul Revere (1735-1818) inside Boston’s Old North Church during the American Revolution. These paintings, of cherubs and festoons in the upper arches of the church, are just a portion of the interior work that the artist John Gibbs started in 1727.
The Old North’s steeple is the site of the famed lanterns used to signal the movement of British troops on the night of Paul Revere’s ride in 1775. Revere was a founding member of the church’s bellringers guild but he would not recognise its current austere interior, says Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated, the non-profit that stewards the historic site (separate from but in partnership with the leaders of this active house of worship, Christ Church in the City of Boston).
Stewart explains that the interior was overpainted white beginning in 1912, one of many renovations and redecorations the church has gone through over the years, but that the original décor was elaborate.
“From the historic-site lens, it is exciting to us to see what the people of the past saw,” Stewart tells The Art Newspaper of the mural-restoration project. “But from the congregation's lens, this actually improves the interpretation of the church's religious history and its religious identity, because these were very intentionally done, and art was important to the congregation, where human achievement was celebrated.”
Courtesy the Old North Church, Boston
In advance of Old North’s 300th anniversary in 2023, the church began exploring opportunities to bring this centuries-old work to light. It tapped the historic-preservation firm Building Conservation Associates to conduct a paint study in 2016 and commissioned the conservator Gianfranco Pocobene to do the restoration work in 2024. The original plan was to reveal four angels, then replicate their design across the high arches. To their delight, a new path emerged.
Pocobene’s team staged scaffolding 30 feet high and experimented first in square-inch treatment areas with solvents to coax the overpaint to bubble and soften, later expanding the work area and removing several layers with soft spatulas. The first coat from 1912 was the most tenacious, Pocobene says.
“It's this fine line of how to get off everything you can without doing damage to the original work,” he says of the process.
The uneven plaster walls and Gibbs’s own brushwork with thick oil paints created challenging recesses that Pocobene’s team would address with treated cotton swabs. Baby-faced angels in the spandrels and fruit-laden garlands in the columns showed expected damage but also revealed a few surprises.
Courtesy the Old North Church, Boston
The festoons, painted on wood panels, were from a single template. Pocobene thinks they were made off-site and installed as finished pieces. However the cherubs, to everyone’s surprise, were not replicas but unique works, each angel with its own expression and personality. Their earthy muted tones, meant to mimic European stonework, were unexpectedly set against a rich teal background. The group agreed to reveal and restore the remaining cherubs in the high arches.
To date, eight angels have been restored and coated with a protective varnish. Areas of loss have been inpainted with reversible, conservation-grade paints. The rest of the 16 total angels are expected to be revealed soon, in advance of the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride on 18 April 1775. The total cost of the project is estimated at $465,000.
“What's really cool is that we're going to have these cherubs and festoons running across the whole surface of the upper portion of the church,” Pocobene says, “which is a beautiful window to the past.”
