The crowd-pulling devotional statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, revered at the Our Lady of Jesus Oratory, known as Ta' Giezu, in Valletta, is getting its first proper facelift since it was made some 300 years ago.

The statue underwent several alterations and renovations over the years. At one point, even its head was adjusted slightly because, apparently, the Madonna was not deemed to have a proper posture. Eight coats of paint, at least, were applied to it over the years, and even a layer of fibreglass, according to the trend at the time, when it was "renovated" in the 1970s.

The people who run the Ta' Giezu Oratory where the Good Friday statues are kept have commissioned Fr Charles Vella to carry out restoration works on the statues, starting with the one of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Fr Vella, a Gozitan priest residing in Valletta, studied restoration in Italy and has restored paintings in private collections as well as works in churches, both here and abroad. He is also an artist who makes terracotta and wax figures and who has revived the tradition of the Neapolitan crib in Malta.

With the help of Roberta Cassar, Fr Charles patiently removed the "recent" layers of paint, the last coatings of which had to be painstakingly scraped off with a scalpel. He has decided to repaint the statute using the natural pigments that were applied when the statue was originally made.

The dress was initially painted with azurite, a semi-precious mineral with a deep blue hue that was often used as a dye for paints and fabrics.

"A mere 100 grams of azurite costs Lm140, but I have bought the original colours, which include cinabro (vermilion) and lapis lazuli and will paint the statue with tempera, using egg white as a base with which to mix the ground colours," he said.

Azurite has the tendency to change its tone according to the intensity of the light and was in widespread use in the 18th century.

In the case of the statue of our Lady of Sorrows, this translucent colour has been snuffed under layers of paint, the last of which was a coat of cheap paint that also badly affected the texture of the base material of the effigy.

"I will paint the statue with a series of washes. Most of the tough work, that included the stripping of the more 'recent' paint and giving the statue its original smooth texture, has now been done and the statue is almost ready to be painted.

"Everything I am doing is reversible. This is the modern trend. Every step is documented in a report that contains photographs of how things were before and after I intervened, so that future restorers would be able to see what I had done. My interventions are as minimal as possible," he explained.

The statue was made in Malta but the artist is unknown. As was the practice at the time, the work was not signed.

During restoration, Fr Vella could detect the spots where changes had been done over time.

"You can spot the places where fabric, wood or other material was added. What is not necessary is being removed to retain as much of the original work as possible. But, on the other hand, one cannot strip the statue to what it was when it was commissioned because that would change too much of what people are used to seeing now," he said.

One of the things that mostly damaged the statue was the way the support for the adjacent wooden cross was fitted. The support was directly linked to the backbone of the statue and the vibrations from the cross as it was carried along the procession caused substantial damage. Fr Vella has found a way to have the cross separated from the statue. The cross will now be fixed to the platform on which the statue is carried.

The Gozitan priest has been working on the statute for over a month.

"It will be ready well before the feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows and Good Friday. The statute draws crowds from all walks of life to this very day, and I feel I have a lot of responsibility to shoulder. But I drew up a preliminary report where I designed what had to be done and I am now doing just that.

I am extremely meticulous in my work, and this task is no exception," he said.