Valencia (26 - 04 - 2001). The exhibition organised by the Valencian Community Foundation "The Light of Images", which shows the process for restoring the frescos in the vault and the tondi at Segorbe cathedral, will be closed next 1st May. This is the last weekend that the exhibition will be open at the Círculo Segorbino.

The exhibition is an example of the work that The Light of Images is doing on the buildings and property in Segorbe, and other towns in the county of Alto Palancia, in order to house the exhibition of religious art from next September. At present over 100 restorers are working on roughly 600 works, which form the content of the exhibition, at the same time as restoring all the buildings that are to house The Light of Images.

The recovery of the frescos in the vault and the tondi in Segorbe cathedral was endowed with a budget of 22 million pesetas: more specifically the restoration of the vault meant an investment of 15 million pesetas and that of the tondi 7 million pesetas, being directed by Fina Martínez. The restoration work was begun in 1998 by making the analyses, samples and readings that determine the type of work to be done. These studies indicate that the vault is not as it originally looked and that in 1919 a detail of one of the scenes disappeared.

In the process implemented the fresco in the vault was divided into days' work, as its creator, José Camarón would originally have done. The work started with the recovery of the drawing of the lost detail, from samples and graphic evidence dating back to 1919 from the Mas Archive, showing how it looked before the civil war. The team of specialists has thus recovered the work as this was conceived in 1800.

The tondi (the Assumption, the Presentation, the Annunciation and the Blessed Virgin) by José Vergara were in a clear state of decay with marked evidence of aging.

The work done on these paintings has focused on applying protection of the zones where there was a risk of cracking, consolidating and replacing mortars, generally cleaning off the dust and smoke stains as well as carrying out a chromatic retouching process.

Sealing up the cracks with injections of mortar allowed direct action to be taken on the affected surfaces, to proceed to chromatic retouching. The general cleaning of the dust and smoke stains accumulated means that the original painting can now be seen as sharply as it originally was.