Restoration of 15th century sculptures leaves Virgin Mary with eyeliner and pink lipstick
A Spanish shop owner has been accused of an 'aberration' after an amateur restoration of three 15th century sculptures which included eyeliner and pink lipstick for the Virgin Mary. Maria Luisa Menendez, one of only 16 inhabitants in the tiny village of Ranadoiro in the northern province of Asturias, is said to have produced the eye-catching result with the permission of local priest Arturo Garcia.
The Virgin Mary ended up with turquoise green hair in one of the three sculptures and Baby Jesus with a look which has been compared to a Playmobil figure.
Maria Luisa, who has received support from her neighbours, hit back on Friday by insisting she had simply used colours she liked for the facelift and claimed they were horrible before she transformed them. She told a local paper: 'I'm not a professional but they were horrible and I wanted to paint them to make them look better.
I had the priest's permission. I painted them in the colours that took my fancy, that was all.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6142399/Botched-restoration-15th-century-sculptures-leaves-Virgin-Mary-eyeliner-lipstick.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
They still are in many places. This is not out of place, really. It just seems to be, because we're not used to seeing such polychrome colors today. Here's an 18th-century Madonna and child:
And here's one from the 15th century:
The brushstrokes, the colors, the paint (ground up pigments not plastic day-glo acrylics) indicate the skill level of the artisans who painted these. The woman's art looks like that of the person who painted this rock.
.webp
sculpture as it appeared just after being painted. I'm not that old. I've seen some pretty garish polychrome work in churches in Mexico, though. 
The examples you have shown are technically so superior to this woman's work that there is no comparison. The works you posted as a point of comparison did not start out looking like her restoration. Good grief.
This is a better comparison!
Odds are that the colors were much brighter when it was first painted. We shouldn't apply our current preferences to historical artworks. Now, the colors used on the figures in question may not represent the colors of that time, but we can't see the actual colors any longer as they appeared in the 15th century, when wood sculptures used in churches were almost universally painted in polychrome colors.
Our preference for natural wood is a much more recent development.
