Andrea Chevalier, left, and Wendy Partridge worked on restoring parts of the 19th-century oil painting “The Dead Christ Mourned” based on a 17th-century painting.
Record Staff Report
The Archdiocese of Louisville and the Speed Art Museum will offer the public its first view Oct. 12 of a 19th-century oil painting called “The Dead Christ Mourned (The Three Maries) After Carracci,” a painting by Matthew Harris Jouett.
The 195-year-old, eight- by 10-foot painting, hung in the Cathedral of the Assumption until the mid 1970s. It was damaged in 2003, but has been fully restored over the past four years, according to the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Archives.
Father Martin Linebach, vicar general for the archdiocese, will preside at the private unveiling Oct. 12 at the Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. Third St., at noon.
The painting will go on display for the general public following the unveiling and will remain at the museum through May.
The painting, based on a 17th-century painting by Annibale Carracci, depicts three women believed to be Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary of Cleophas comforting the Blessed Virgin Mary as she holds Jesus Christ’s body after the crucifixion.
Jouett’s painting came into the possession of the archdiocese in the mid 1800s, according to the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Archives.
Jouett was a native of Kentucky and created the painting in Lexington in 1824, according to archdiocesan archivist Tim Tomes.
