Jan Verbeke studied architecture in Ghent. “After my studies, I did my first stucco restoration there. I had been boarding at the Caermers monastery. In the sacristy there, I have among other things conserved and restored the rococo stucco. Yes, I have experience with monasteries”, he laughs.
Stucco ceilings of Hansche
At Park Abbey, Verbeke tackled the stucco of master plasterer Hansche. “Hansche has two realisations at Park Abbey: the historical ceilings of the library and the refectory. They are unique works of art that date from the end of the seventeenth century.”
“The stucco is applied on a wooden slatted structure, nailed to the heavy supports beams with wrought-iron nails. On that slatted structure, Hansche used lime mortar to realise the impressive scenes with human and animal figures”, Verbeke indicates.
The stucco of the refectory had been showing serious cracks for quite some time, threatening to bring down the ceiling. “Some parts of the stucco were also coming loose locally due to the movements in this building. It was in danger of suffering severe damage”, according to Verbeke.
Back to the original layer
Work commenced in September 2018. Jan and his team quickly noticed that water had infiltrated the side of the ceiling. “With engineers from the field, we looked at how we could solve this. The rotten beams were removed and replaced with new, epoxy beams. That was a dangerous job, because the stucco could fall.”
The intention of the restoration was to go back to the original (paint) layer of the ceiling. “The stucco has been painted over a number of times over the years, so the fine details had disappeared. We carefully removed the layers of paint, down to the stucco, making the details visible again.”
The removal was done by soaking the layers of paint with moist compresses and using scalpels. “It was a meticulous work, but you could see it steadily evolving. Everyone is in awe of our patience.”
"I do this work out of love for the pure craftsmanship of yesteryear", explains Jan Verbeke.
Jan and his team worked day in, day out, with a team of four. “In this way, everyone could do a part and also constantly ask questions to each other. Only once all the layers of paint had been removed, could we really assess the cracks. We then re-fixed the original parts with a thin liquid stucco mortar, identical to the original mortar.”
Craftsmanship
Is Verbeke an artist? Besides his technical and scientific baggage, he very definitely has an artist's soul. “I do this work out of love for the pure craftsmanship of yesteryear. They do not make anything like that anymore. We are happy to be able to restore such unique pieces. Every intervention, every treatment is studied and discussed in detail before it is performed.”
The restoration of this stucco work is only part of the ongoing work, but Jan stresses its importance. “The fact that this task is reserved for specialised restorers is yet more proof that everything in the abbey is treated with the greatest respect. The City of Leuven has opted for quality. Thus we have ensured that our work on the ceilings will remain beautiful into the future”, concludes Jan.
