“We hope it comes as it was before.” It is the desire of Carmen Marcelo and Manuel Pino, brothers of the Macarena who have just left their Virgin for the last time, before tonight is withdrawn from the cult to be restored and that can recover the face that had the size before the controversial and failed intervention last June. Like them, since 9.30 they have been parading devotees for the Virgin’s dressing room to say goodbye to the image, all with the same hope that “he will come back as he has to return.” The works to try to reverse the alterations that were verified by the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH), will begin this Wednesday, according to sources of the Brotherhood. Today has been the last day in which Sevillians have been able to contemplate the face altered after the controversial intervention that took place in the month of June and was questioned by the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH).
According to the report that the entity dependent on the Junta de Andalucía prepared for the Brotherhood, the size of the seventeenth century suffered alterations in the eyelids that modified the original shape of the eyes after the intervention that the brotherhood commissioned Professor Francisco Arquillo, who, according to the IAph, uses inappropriate techniques that caused obvious alterations in the original morphology of the image. The technicians also appreciated changes in the hands of the Virgin and determined that the tears of the face, which should be translucent, were opaque for the application of inadequate adhesives.
But the restoration, entrusted to the expert Pedro Manzano, is not only limited to trying to reverse the alterations caused by Arquillo’s intervention. The IAPH denounced in its report the poor state of conservation of the size, which dates back long before the latter and failed retouching. The technicians warned of the presence of xylophages and a crack that crosses the entire face of the Virgin. Manzano, in an interview with this newspaper, insisted that the intervention he was going to perform on the image, in addition to “necessary and urgent”, should be, for all this accumulation of circumstances, “integral.” “You have to act on all aspects that compromise the stability and readability of the image,” said the restorer.
The failed intervention in the Virgin, which, according to the commission made by the Brotherhood, had to adhere to a maintenance action, ignited not only the devotees of the Macarena, but to all Sevillians, by the character of symbol – which transcends the religious belief – that the image has for the city. The outrage of the faithful and brothers on Saturday in which the image was restored to the cult after that restoration, forced the brotherhood to cut the eyelashes during the time when the basilica was closed to the public. During the night, another restorer retouched the cheeks, partly returning the reddish tone that characterizes it, some touch -ups that still solivized the devotees, which on Monday concentrated in front of the basilica asking for explanations.
The restoration works, which will take place within the basilica, have an expected duration of three months, which could be extended to Lent, although Manzano already warned this newspaper that the performance would not be marked by the liturgical calendar. “What is late what Carmen and Manuel have to take, although they trust that the restaurateur will have ended in time and, most importantly, the size A will have restored as it was before.