Cracked Corpus restoration.

[Mark Yundt]

This Corpus was in the basement of a Church that had a flood. It floated around for some time and then remained in the basement where it was damp and so the body just split. The arms with are separate cracked as well in addition to most of the fingers being broken off. The odd thing is it's the original Crucifix to the Church and is nearly 175 yrs. old. Whoever carved it knew what they were doing.
I chronicled the steps of the repairs on my blog but I'm showing it here as someone might be interested in it.
The cracks were repaired with solid wood. The scroll was one piece of Basswood. The Cross was made from Mahogany. All fingers ( and split repairs) were done with Pine as the original Corpus was carved in.
The finish is more of an antiqued look as opposed to a solid type paint job that would make it look brand new instead of showing some of the age, wood and paint build up that a nicely aged piece would have. In areas the wood is showing through.

[Mark Yundt]

a couple of other shotsIMG_2054.jpgIMG_2125.jpgIMG_2409.jpgIMG_2408.JPG

[Jim Rimmer]

Fantastic work and what a testament to your skills. Must have been quite an honor and challenge to work on something as historic as this.

[Mark Yundt]

Thank you Jim , I appreciate the feedback. Yes, working on these pieces from time to time is always a challenge and a lot of fun.

[Bruce Page]

Extraordinary work Mark! I hope it lasts another 175 years before another artisan is needed.

[Karl Andersson]

Nice work Mark, as usual. Interesting that the artist included teeth - sort of a folk-art touch. Have you been able to recognize the touch of certain local church carvers, or were they mostly intinerants/ mail ordered? I know the church from when I was a kid ordered all their woodwork and statuary from Italy when it was built in 1905 -apparently there was quite an industry in church fillings there (for the Catholics, that is)

Gotta make sure the church ladies don't "modernize" the church again any time soon and put this back in the basement so their anodized aluminum and glass cricifix can go up.

[Mark Yundt]

I can't say that I can recognize local carvers. I haven't run across much in that area. Much of the carvings as you know were done in Italy,,, still are. There are a couple of carving companies there that still provide pieces across the US. I have to admit though that the style is so distinctive you can spot it a mile away. I have to say I don't care for it. Nothing comes close to this piece as the new ones have an odd,,, I don't know ,,, 60's 'Mod' look to them. Rigid, blank looking.
Ironically there was a time after the Council that Churches went on a spree to get rid of all the "Old Fashioned" woodwork, statuary etc. and make a modern, clean, empty building. The powers that be thought it would refresh the churches and attract a new audience. Now and for the past several decades I've been kept quite busy recreating pieces that churches had,, tossed out,,,, and now want to replace again.
Funny, my dad was an Architect and did quite a few of these 'renovations' for many churches. Now they all want to go back to the way they used to look.
Long story short.. just did a church in Phila where 50 yrs ago it was gutted of beautiful wood architectural details in a Gothic style,, replaced with all flat panels of Marble, aluminum, ( boring) ,,, and just this year for their latest anniversary,,,, they gutted the marble and had all the original ( from photos and orig. prints) woodwork re-created!