exhibitions & displays

the rock model

This unique exhibit in the Gibraltar Museum has undergone conservation and restoration in this its 140th anniversary year.

History

Made in 1865 from surveys by a then young lieutenant of the Royal Engineers, Charles Warren, the model was then coloured ‘after nature’ by Captain B.A. Branfill of the 86th Regiment, the work being completed in 1868. All this work was carried out under the supervision and direction of Major-General Frome R.E. Charles Warren continued his military career with distinction, eventually becoming Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London. He is probably best remembered for having been in office during the infamous ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders.

The model itself is made to a scale of 50 feet to I inch, a scale of 600:1. It shows Gibraltar at the height of the Victorian Empire, at the time probably the foremost gunnery station in the world, boasting more than 400 pieces of artillery. Concurrent developments and additions to the defences of Gibraltar, including the retired batteries on the western slopes, rendered it practically impregnable and gave rise to the saying ‘Strong as the Rock of Gibraltar’.

The Conservation work

The 1865 Rock Model is made of plaster on a wooden frame and is painted in minute detail with oil  paints - in effect it is a 3D oil painting. The age of the Rock Model meant that time had taken its toll - natural movements and settling in the wood over time had caused cracks to appear in the plaster work and individual pieces of the model, i.e. buildings, to work themselves loose. Today the Model is housed within a large glass cabinet, but this has not always been the case, leading to a build up of dust and fine debris. It appears that the model must have at one point been in a room where there was a great deal of smoke, possibly from a fireplace, as there was a fine black soot accumulated over much of the model.

The Conservation and Restoration project began in November 2004 and has taken 5 months to complete. It has entailed the careful cleaning of the entire surface of the model with cotton wool swabs and the consolidation of loose paint. Cracks have been filled and covered over and areas where the paint had chipped have been consolidated and re-painted. The model has also been given a final coating for protection from dust and dirt in the future.

The cleaning of the model has uncovered detail which had been lost on the model - mainly the minute attention to detail that went into painting it. Roof tiles have been painted on, the waves breaking on the shore, the swirl of the currents off the south eastern side of the Rock, the stones in the breakwaters before the city walls in the west, the details of windows and doors on the buildings in the town, even the shadows cast over all the buildings and across the town squares by the sun nearing setting in the evening. With so much attention to detail, it is no wonder the model took 3 years to paint!

Lieutenant Charles Warren

All conservation work done on the model is totally reversible and conservation standard materials have been used in all aspects of the work, hopefully ensuring that it will survive for at least another 140 years.