A furious Moses. A callous tycoon. A battlefield Madonna. Pittsburgh church murals revived

When the scaffolding came down inside an unassuming hilltop church, it revealed a raging storm of biblical proportions. A wide-eyed Moses holds the Ten Commandments aloft in righteous fury, ready to shatter the tablets when his followers abandon God for a golden calf. Lightning sizzles and a tornado surges in the background. The late artist Maxo Vanka created the mural in 1941, based on a scene from the Book of Exodus. It is one of 25 that cover the walls and ceilings of St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church near Pittsburgh, in the US state of Pennsylvania. Vanka, a Croatian-American immigrant like most of the original parishioners, painted the scenes in bursts of creative energy. In marathon sessions, he captured stark social inequities alongside traditional religious themes. The murals depict scenes with dualities. An angelic justice figure contrasts with a haunting figure of injustice in a World War I gas mask. Mothers – posed like the grief-stricken Madonnas of traditional pietas – weep over their sons who died in war or were worked to death by American industry. A callous tycoon ignores a beggar. A Madonna snaps a rifle on a battlefield. At the same time, the murals honour the achievements of the immigrant parishioners and the consolations of faith, home and maternal care. The work has drawn international visitors and become a beloved local landmark. One former priest for the church called it “The Sistine Chapel of Pittsburgh” – a sanctuary dominated by the single artist’s tour de force. But decades of smoke, atmospheric salts and water leaks had dulled and damaged the paintings. Since 2009, the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka has been leading a painstaking conservation effort – one section at a time. Results of the latest work completed in late May are evident. The paint in Moses’ florid cheeks and deeply grooved facial lines now stands out starkly. Behind him, the large hand of God now gleams brighter. So too do the hair and flamelike feathers of onlooking angels, painted in Vanka’s unique palette of bright pink and sea-foam green. “It is like seeing it how he really wanted it for the first time,” Vanka’s granddaughter, Marya Halderman, said of the conservation work earlier this year. “He always called it his gift to America.” Over four months, a team of more than a dozen workers climbed a 10-metre (32ft) scaffold to clean off grime, extract corrosive salts from the walls, stabilise plaster and delicately fill in areas of lost paint with new pastels and watercolours, which can easily be reversed by current or future conservators. This story that Vanka was telling was specifically for the Croatian people, but it could also speak towards many immigrant families Naomi Ruiz, art conservator and wall paintings expert They worked to reveal the artist’s original work, including the vigorous brushstrokes he applied during long hours that stretched into the night, when Vanka reported eating little food, consuming much coffee and often seeing a ghost. The murals “speak to a unique time in history, World War II and immigration and social justice”, says Reverend Nicholas Vaskov, director of the Shrines of Pittsburgh, a cluster of historic Catholic parishes that includes St Nicholas. “To allow them to continue to speak to people and to see that they are preserved is a great gift.” In January, the crew worked a section that includes the tempestuous Moses and two gospel scribes in placid poses, St Matthew and St Mark. “One of my favourite things about being a conservator is that I get to touch things that no one has been able to touch for over, what, 70 years?” says Naomi Ruiz, a wall paintings expert. “You really get to see the artist’s brushstrokes, his original hand, his struggle when he’s trying to reach off his scaffold to reach that last little part. It makes you even want to work harder and longer.” Challenges loomed. They were working on the side of the church that takes the most sunlight, which has caused more damage, from fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Vanka transformed the sanctuary in two intense seasons of creativity, in 1937 and 1941. He fused traditional Catholic iconography with searing commentary on war, capitalism and immigrant labour, and contrasting depictions of communal piety and economic greed. “It is religion, expressed in our social life,” Reverend Albert Zagar, the late former pastor of St Nicholas, said in 1941. “At the same time, it’s completely Catholic.” Vanka continued his artistic career until his death in 1963, when he drowned off the coast of Mexico while on holiday. The conservation workers began by brushing and vacuuming off loose dirt and soot. They did further cleaning with sponges and cotton buds by the thousands. Much of the grime, Ruiz said, probably resulted from years of atmospheric pollution from Pittsburgh’s former steel mills and everyday highway traffic. The crew also worked to reverse damage to the plaster caused by atmospheric salts. For Ruiz, the murals have universal themes. “This story that Vanka was telling was specifically for the Croatian people, but it could also speak towards many immigrant families here in the US and how they felt and how they brought a lot of their culture with them,” she said. Vaskov said the murals remain central to the parish’s identity. Though most services are now in English, the parish still holds a monthly Croatian-language mass and celebrates other ethnic traditions. The scaffolding supporting the conservation work posed “a temporary inconvenience to reveal something marvellous”, Vaskov said. It finally came down in late May, in time for the parish’s 125th anniversary Mass on June 1.

A furious Moses. A callous tycoon. A battlefield Madonna. Pittsburgh church murals revived

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Croatian-American artist fused Catholic iconography with biting commentary on war, capitalism, migrant labour. 90 years on, murals restored

Croatian-American artist fused Catholic iconography with biting commentary on war, capitalism, migrant labour. 90 years on, murals restored