Estudo dos processos construtivos de esculturas de madeira dourada e policromada dos séculos XV ao XVIII

: conservação e restauro da escultura religiosa Nossa Senhora da Orada

Abstract

This internship report was prepared within the scope of the Master of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Goods at the Portuguese Catholic University. The internship took place at the Atelier Samthiago Company, in Viana do Castelo. The project based sought, at first, to follow the evolution of the sculpture workshops between the XV and XVIII centuries, emphasizing its influence on the art of carving. In this sense, this approach allowed to deepen knowledge about the properties and characteristics of the selected raw material, wood, the justifications that converge in the choice of certain types of wood for the realization of sculptures, as well as about the constructive processes since the slaughter, sawing, drying and sculpting methods. In this way, information was traced alluding to the constructive methods, facilitating and ensuring support to the future processes of intervention in sculptures of this typology. In a second moment, the case study of the sculpture of Nossa Senhora da Orada, from the Chapel of the Orada in Melgaço, was presented. In this step, the detailed recording of the procedures of conservation and restoration treatment was involved. Historically, carvers and sculptors, many of them guild members, made wooden sculptures respecting specific rules to ensure their durability. However, the placement of these works over the centuries in environments with marked variations in humidity and temperature (churches, cathedrals and monasteries), often resulted in preventive negligence and poor handling, leading to physical pathologies of the support that extend to the rest stratigraphy (preparation, gilding and polychromy). In the study of Nossa Senhora da Orada, the analysis of the pathologies of the support and the realization of radiographs revealed that the cracks as the fissures corresponded, possibly, to the places of assemblage and tops. These results can guide us to the use of materials compatible with the support. We highlight its repolychromy, a discovery only achieved through historical contextualization, through bibliographical references and methods of examination and analysis. The argument that underlies its removal emanates from the contextualization established in the religious question, the believing community. The internship allowed contact with the professional and business world, often so different from the academic world, enabling contact with all kinds of works and materials. Teamwork was crucial, favoring the understanding and mutual help, discovery and acquisition of new knowledge in the vast conservation and restoration.

Date of Award	10 Oct 2025
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Arlindo Silva (Supervisor) & Carlos Costa (Co-Supervisor)