The Stations of the Cross include 14 scenes from the final day in the life of Jesus, and represent a series of meditations.  The stations at St. Vincent de Paul in Baltimore were constructed in Italy in the early 20th century out of plaster, and each one weighs over 100 lbs.  One of the stations, Jesus Meets His Mother, fell off the wall and shattered when it hit the floor.

WEI designed a new hanging system for the entire series and also worked on reconstructing the broken composition.  While the intention was to reassemble the existing sculpture, in the end it was too structurally compromised to reinstall.

The conservation team first reassembled the remaining pieces that were collected by the parish staff and volunteers.  It was extremely important to get pieces reattached without expanding the size of the final assembly.  Because each glue joint could add volume, the decision not to reinstall the original made it possible to reassemble the outer layer without including some of the interior fragments.  These voids could be filled with plaster after reconstruction to add stability.

Inevitably, some of the surface fragments were lost, but using cues from the surrounding composition, the losses were resculpted in the style of the original series.  Once that was completed, a mold was made of the entire thing, and a replacement was cast.  After curing, WEI matched the paint and coated the new plaster to match the other 13 stations.

The WEI masonry team repaired the walls where the old anchors were installed and embedded the new anchor system.  All 14 stations were rehung using the new system.