Art Antonio Espinosa Rodriguez

he earliest artistic manifestations in in and produced a number of T Malta date to prehistoric times. This is stylised flat terracotta figures and testified by a rich archaeological heritage decorated their potte.ry with an ornate consisting of a variety of decorated clay sharp geometrical motif. and stone artifacts and a series of The eclectic Phoenicians made their first impressive megalithic structures. The appearance in Malta some time round the potter's craft developed into an expression year 700 B.C. With their trading wares of cultural vitality materialised through a they brought new customs and fashions. At series of patterns and decorations that Tas-Silg, near Marsaxlokk, they erected a reflect successive aesthetic requirements. sanctuary in honour of the goddess The Impressed Ware of the early neolithic Astartes. With time Malta's link with the farmers of the Gliar Dalam phase Punic world, particularly Carthage, grew (5000-4500 B.C.) was superseded by the closer. Personal jewellery, amulets, prosaic forms of the Grey Skorba phase ornaments and a few surviving architectural (4500-4400 B.C.) and enlivened by a bright remains betray the egyptianizing forms red slip in the course of the so called Red favoured by this Semitic people. The Skorba phase (4400-4100 B.C.). Meanwhile impressive baked clay anthropomorphic man discovered the art of modelling sarcophagus found at Ghar Barka near anthropomorphic figurines. However it was Rabat dating to the fifth century B.C., is during the Temple Period (4100-2500 B.C.) illustrative of Egyptian influence. On the that prehistoric man in Malta poured forth other hand a few imported bowls found in an extraordinary civilising energy that took tombs, the typology of certain locally the contours of greatness. manufactured pottery and a pair of marble Beside the master potter there developed candelabra, with Greek and Punic a race of builders and stone carvers whose inscriptions dedicated to Herakles-Melqart, inspired daring and skill are vouched for by indicate some form of contact with the the monumental temples of Ggantija, Greek world. Mnajdra, Hagar Qim, Tarxien and a string In 218 B.C. conquered the of less known sites. Buildings that are Maltese Islands from the Carthaginians. reputedly amongst the finest and oldest Roman rule was to last some six hundred stone edifices in the world. Here the · years. Notwithstanding its provinciality and sculptor carved into the soft globigerina relative isolation there is evidence of lively limestone uncanny abstract and figurative artistic activity in Malta. Excavations relieves and statuettes in the round that vie carried out in 1881, at Rabat, revealed with the best of modem art. in the fragments of the rich mosaic pavt:rnents of hallowed underground environment of the a patrician town house. Dating to the first Hal Saflieni Hypogeum architecture and century A.D. these mosaics are composed stone carving were fused into a single act in the refined opus tessel/atum and opus whilst complex spirals, executed in red vermiculatum techniques and show a high ochre, testify inherent painterly practices. degree of workmanship. The Roman baths The succeeding Bronze Age people built, at Ghajn Tuffieha were likewise at Borg in-Nadur, the earliest fortifications embellished with mosaics. Architectural

143 ·fragments confirm the former existence of practice was the use of underground lavish buildings. The tombstone of a cavities as dwellings and churches. One of musician and comedian and other the earliest paintings in Malta is the late archaeological evidence indicate that thirteenth century image of the Virgin and Roman Malta had its own theatre. Notable Child in the rock-cut sanctuary at Mellieha. amongst the extant statuary of the period Of special interest is the Crucifixion and are the portrait bust of Antonia the Annunciation, probably dating to the Younger and the head of Emperor fourteenth century from the apse of the Claudius. Cicero in his prosecution against crypt adjoining the Abbatija Tad-Dejr Caius Verres describes the latter's pillage catacombs now removed and exhibited at of works of art from the temple of the National Museum of Fine Arts. These Astartes, which by then had been and other surviving troglodyte murals, rededicated to Juno, her Roman notably those in St Agatha's Crypt at counterpart. Rabat, betray the iconography and formal Christianity made its first appearance hieratic composition of the Siculo­ during the Roman domination. Traces of Byzantinesque School. Pertaining to the ·early Christian art are evident in same tradition but dating to the late underground cemeteries called Catacombs. fifteenth century are the frescoes adorning Fragments of murals, graffiti and carvings the wayside chapel of the Annunciation at stand witness to the desire of translating Mal Millieri near Zurrieq. into visual forms the prayers of the faithful The avowed St Luke Madonna in the and the Christian message of eternal life. Cathedral at Mdina is a beautiful and Unfortunately most of these works are now refined Byzantinesque panel whose in a dilapidated state and consequently sophisticated execution suggests Sienese their artistic evaluation is difficult and and International Gothic influences. problematic. However, their quality Similar artistic traits appear in the superb appears to range from the purely naive Virgin of Mercy with SS. Paul qnd carvings of the Mal Resqun Catacombs to Augustine now in the sacresty of the the ornate sophisticated forms noticed in Augustinian Church at Rabat. This was the decorations at the Abbatija tad-Dejr originally a polyptych of which a fourth and Salina Bay Catacombs. Tracts and panel, depicting St Catherine, also traces of wall paintings are still visible in St survives. Another altarpiece dating to the Agatha's Catacombs at Rabat. middle of the fifteenth century and of The vestiges of an early Christian which four panels are still extant is to be basilica and baptistery, uncovered at Tas­ found in the parish church of St George at Silg, and the above mentioned Catacombs Qormi. The central scene represents an are remnants of palaeochristian artistic extraordinary Lamentation. Here the practices. On the other hand a few painter conveys, through the emaciated tombstones - of which the elegant body of Christ and the intense doleful Maimuna's Stone is the best known expressions of Mary and her companions, example - a silver ring, and some bits of a heavy atmosphere charged with strong pottery, is all we have to attest to the emotional piety and pathos. The entire ._;~'tn. .... ~~ 1 1"'1"'\T"r\'l"'t.l.av nfh~r-.h ;nrolnrl.aco C!+ }.1.1.'-'r...V.I. .U;4.l ~V.I..I..l}-'.1.'-'.1'\. YY ..lJ.J. .... J..l .l.I.J...... I.UU"'~ U\. the Maltese Islands. George, St Gregory and a Crucifix As Mario Buhagiar rightly points out in encompass Byzantine spirituality with his authoritative The Iconography of the International Gothic narrative zest. Maltese Islands no painting, excluding The splendid St Paul Polyptych, now at fragments extant in Christian catacombs, the Cathedral Museum, was the former can be dated to before the late Middle reredos of the Cathedral Church. It is a Ages. A common Maltese Mediaeval work of great beauty attr.ibutable to the

144 circle of the Catalan painter Luis Borassa Greek Catholic Church of and a (1360-1426). Nothing is known of its early set of French illuminated choral books history but given the subject and commissioned in 1521 by Grand Master iconography it must have been purposely Philippe Villiers de L'Isle Adam. commissioned for Malta. The central In the wake of the Order of St John panel, representing St Paul in Majesty, is there came a large group of retainers and surrounded by ten other smaller panels. followers including skilled craftsmen. One Significantly one of the scenes recounts the was a certain Nicola Caccialepre who in apostle's shipwreck in Malta. 1535 carved a marble stoup for the chapel Notwithstanding the loss of its original of Santo Spirito Hospital. The influential framework and the damage brought about Sicilian sculptor Antonello Gagini by the passage of time it still has the power (1478/79-1536) had in 1504 produced a fine to arrest and impress the beholder. marble Madonna and Child for the Throughout the Middle Ages Malta Franciscan Church of Santa Maria di Gesu received its artistic stimulus via the nearby at Rabat. Now at the demise of Philippe larger island of Sicily. The 'Messina' Villiers de L'Isle Adam in 1535 the same painters, for instance, introduced artist was commissioned to execute the innovative late fifteenth and early sixteenth funeral effigy of the Grand Master. century modes. Antonio de Saliba Another work generally attributed to (1466-1535) and Salvo d'Antonio (active Gagini or his workshop is the fine marble 1493-1526) had intimate family links with Baptismal Font in the Cathedral at Mdina. Antonello da Messina (c. 1430-1479) and Artistic links with Sicily continued their art is closely related to that of the through the early years of the Order's rule. great Renaissance master. Both artists In 1551 Can. Giuseppe Manduca received Maltese commissions. Antonio de commissioned an altarpiece for the Chapel Saliba executed in 1517 an altarpiece for of St Agatha in Mdina from an unknown the church of Santa Maria de Gesu at painter of Sicilian extraction or training. Rabat whilst Salvo d' Antonio produced, in Thus sifted late Renaissance models 1505, a polyptych for the Benedictine Nuns percolated into Malta receiving, in the of Mdina. One other Sicilian painter active process, a local mannerist twist that in Malta just prior to the coming of the resulted in the admixture of retardataire Order of St John was the Syracusan and innovative features. This is very much Alessandro Patavino, or Padovano, who in evidence in the remaining fragments of from 1520 to 1521 was engaged in the Last Judgement in the Church of Bir decorating the ceiling of the old Cathedral Miftuh at Gudja. The 1546 Santa Church of Mdina. In 1529 Patavino was Scholastica altarpiece, now in the still receiving occasional commissions from Monastery dedicated to that Saint at the Cathedral Chapter. · Vittoriosa, is illustrative of the whimsical The advent of the Knights of St John in artistic currents then effecting the Maltese 1530 signified the beginning of a new era. Islands. Up to the time the Cathedral at Mdina had Giovanni Maria Abela is one of the been the principal artistic hub of the earliest recorded Maltese painters. Only Iviaitese archipeiago. The Knights shified one certain painting by his hand is known attention first to the harbour town of to have survived the· ravage of time. The Birgu and later to the new city of Valletta. picture represents the Virgin of the Rosary With them they brought from Rhodes their surrounded by the Holy Mysteries. This is archives and many of their artistic a painting, signed and dated 1591, which treasures. These included the precious originally graced the church of Siggiewi twelfth century Byzantine icon of the and is now on permanent display at the Madonna of Damascus now extant in the Cathedral Museum in Mdina. A similar

145 altarpiece, dated 1595, at is also Castle and in the Magisterial Palace at generally ascribed to Abela. Both works Valletta where he frescoed the Palace represent a fair indication of the charms Chapel and painted its main altarpiece. His and limits of contemporary local painters. splendid St James, in the Church of that On the 28 March, 1566 Grand Master saint in Valletta, is an explicit and superb Jean Parisot de La Vallette solemnly laid example of Mannerist pictorial art. the foundation stone of the fortified city Amadeo Perugino painted in 1617 the that still bears his name. The city's layout venerable but mediocre altarpiece of Our and defences were set by the Italian Lady of Ta' Pinu in Gozo. Compared to military engineer Francesco Lapparelii this pedestrian work Vincenzo Baiata's (1521-1570). However it was the Maltese Madonna and Child of 1611, formerly at military engineer and architect Geronimo Tal-Virtu Chapel and now in the Collegio Cassar (1520-1586) who supervised the . Wignacourt Museum, appears as a actual construction of the new city and was veritable tour de force. Clearly influenced responsible for the design of its principal by Filippo Paladini it is a handsome buildings. One of the first edifices to be painting whose execution and chromatic erected in Valletta was the Magisterial values are in the best tradition of late Palace. Here the Italian Matteo Perez Italian Mannerism. Paladini's art was to D'Aleccio (1547-1616) decorated the throne have a lingering influence on painting in room or 'Sala del Maggior Consiglio' with Malta. Filippo Dingli's attractive canvas, an impressive series of frescoes that dated 1660, of the Magda/ene at Madliena recount the heroic defence of Malta at the harks back to the style introduced by the time of the Great Siege of 1565. For the master at the start of the century. new Conventual Church Perez D' Aleccio Qlle Conventual Church of St John, executed the large Baptism of Christ to built by Geronimo Cassar, rapidly became serve as its main altarpiece. For the a focal centre of art in Malta. It was the Collegiate Church of St Paul he produced main Church of the Knights of St John the vast Shipwreck of St Paul which and the Order and its members vied in its established the Apostle's Maltese embellishment. Round 1608 the great iconography. Mattia Perez D' Aleccio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio eventually left Malta and after spending (1571-1610) painted for the Oratory of St some time in Rome and Seville migrated to John his momentous Beheading of St Joiiil[ Peru where he set up shop in Lima. Other and fqr the Chapel of Italy the magnificent late mannerist painters whose works can be St Jerome. Caravaggio's triumphant stay in admired in Malta include Antonio Malta was short-lived for his pesky spirit Catalano il Vecchio (1560-1606), Francesco landed him in trouble and he was Potenzano (c.1540-1599), Giovanni Battista imprisoned. Somehow he eluded his guards Riccio (1537-1627), Daniele da Monteleone and made his escape from Fort St Angelo (active 1600-1622) and Filippo Paladini only to die shortly after at Porto Ercole in (c.1544-1616). Italy. Amongst the canvases Caravaggio The painter Filippo Paladini reached executed in Malta is the well known Malta chained to a bench of a Tuscan 'Louvre' portrait of Grand Master Alof De ..-...-.11,...,.,.. .!- 1A:'OO Tt...... --...... ! ..... ~ ...... _ t...... 1--...l i:)Q..U."")' U.l lJOO. 1 11'1;; jJJ.~VlUU~ yea.! Ut; UC:I.U Wignacourt accompanied by a page and been condemned to row in a galley for his wearing the Verdelin suit of armour. involvement in a violent fight in Florence. Caravaggio's revolutionary dramatic However the then reigning Grand Master realism, tonal values and extraordinary Hugues De Loubenx Verdale interceded on interplay of light and shade turned him his behalf and secured his release and into one of the most influential and services. The Grand Master soon had him important European painters of all working on the decorations of Verdala time.

146 In Malta the influence of Caravaggio of the Friar Minors of Valletta, which he was particularly felt by a painter called lifted direct from Luca Cambiaso. Cassarino to whom a number of generally Mario Minniti (1577-1640), Pietro mediocre and inferior paintings have been N ovelli (1603-164 7), Giovanni Battista attributed on stylistic grounds. This Caracciolo (1578-1635) and Jusepe Ribera enigmatic painter was first identified by the (1591-1652) either worked in Malta or late Dr J .A. Cauchi when his signature was executed their Maltese commissions uncovered during the cleaning and abroad. As a matter of fact there was a restoration of a St Sebastian tended by the constant flow of fine paintings coming into Holy Women belonging to the Church of Malta from overseas. Guido Reni St John. The figures appear to emerge (1575-1642) is not known to have visited from within sombre Caravaggesque Malta and yet his Christ Holding the tonalities highlighted by flashes of a warm Cross, formerly in the Grand Master's brown light that picks up salient details Palace and now in the National Museum and accentuates the drama enacted in the of Fine Arts, must have reached Malta at painting. However Cassarino's mannered the time. Very active in this respect were and rigid execution falls short of some of the Knights themselves. In 1653 respectable artistic standards. Jacques De Cordon D'Evieu, Ambassador Notwithstanding a mystifying effort to of the Order of St John to the Holy See, equate him with a certain Giulio Felici, commissioned his portrait in Rome from Cassarino's enigmatic personality still Pierre Mignard (1612-1695). The painting remains a moot point. was eventually sent to Malta and Bartolomeo Garagona' s (1584-1641) incorporated into the Palace Collection. At Deposition, dated 1627, in the Cathedral one time it hung at San Anton's Palace sacresty at Mdina, is saturated by from where it was transferred to the Caravaggesque tonal values. However its National Museum of Fine Arts. pathos and expressive religious intensity [the second half of the seventeenth recalls late Spanish Gothic models. century was dominated by the presence in Garagona, who hailed from Senglea, also Malta of Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Preti's engaged himself in architectural projects. magnificent brand of Baroque resulted Fra Lucas Gamier (active 1650-1700) and from the interpolation of his Neapolitan Gaspare Formica (d.1647) were foreing and Caravaggesque formation with his painters active in Malta. Fra Gamier was a attraction to the splendid chromatic French member of the Order of St John. qualities of Venetian painting. A brilliant His works were competently executed but draughtsman, his productions mirror a lack the lustre of the real master. His strong and overpowering artistic enormous altarpiece of St Theresa at personality. In 1661 he started work on the communicates the peculiar ceiling decorations of St John's Church. It sensation that it is the product of a well was Preti who converted this building's exercised dilettante. Gaspare Formica is erstwhile unassuming interior into a said to have originated from Piacenza. His dazzling Baroque scenario. Preti did not works are usually charged with queer limit his oevre to the Conventual Chur~ ur.ueal chromatic values and contain In the course of thirty years Preti monumentally conceived figures who are continued to work in Malta producing seemingly conscious of the beholder's countless paintings for both local and presence. His talents, however, defaulted foreign patrons. through a dearth of originality and his Mattia Preti's influence was all-pervasive .compositions are brazen adaptations of and his paintings are encountered all over other people's ideas. A case in point is his the Maltese archipelago. He had several bizarre Holy Family of 1626, in the convent followers, assistants and imitators whose

147 often meek output fell short of the physical character of the country is master's high standards. Preti's pupils governed by the baroque imprint left by included the Spanish Knight Don Pedro ingenious Maltese architects and Nunez De Villavicencio (1640-1698), best stonemasons, too numerous to enumerate, remembered as a lifelong friend of Murillo, whose clever use of the local building who in 1668 painted the altarpiece of St medium is truly admirable. Romano Philip Neri for the Church of Our Lady of Carapecchia, on the other hand, came Porto Salvo at Senglea. from Rome in 1706 and was not Maltese. Notwithstanding the presence of Mattia Yet, through his ingratiating and elegant Preti the painters Giuseppe D' Arena form of baroque Carapecchia transformed (1633-1719) and Stefano Erardi (1630-1716) the face of Valletta giving it its present kept a busy workshop and enjoyed a urbane stamp. certain amount of prestige. Invariably In the realm of sculpture Melchiorre prompted by the art of the great master Gafa (1635-1667) stands out at a par with their personality were not, however, the greatest Italian sculptors of the time. entirely stifled and managed to steer along He was the brother of Lorenzo Gafa and parallel artistic courses. Their paintings can his talents must have been nurtured be admired in almost every Maltese parish. through the direct handling of Malta's soft Both painters received the privilege of limestone. Unfortunately he died an painting a picture for the Conventual untimely death in Rome and his works in Church of St John. The former painted the Malta are few. The Italian Giuseppe lunette of St Sebastian before the Pope in Mazzuoli (1644-1725) followed Melchiorre the Chapel of Auvergne whilst the latter Gafa's design in his impressive Baptism of did The Adoration of the Magi in the Christ at the Conventual Church. Maltese Chapel of Germany. Generally D' Arena's ecclesiastic and domestic baroque compositions tend to be studiously architecture were enriched with refined schematic and derivative but he had the sculptural motifs by mostly anonymous ability, on occasions, to impress and rise local stone carvers. This important aspect above average. Erardi was not shy to of Malta's art has, unfortunately, never plagiarise or emulate the work of other been properly studied and only a couple of masters but his fine articulated names such as Pietro Felici (1669-1743) and compositions are fluid and grand. Alessio Paola Zahra (1685-1447) are still vaguely Erardi (1617-1727) was the son of Stefano. remembered. He was a worthy artist who deserves to be In concomitance with baroque taste the better appreciated. His Virgin of the interiors of stately houses become showy Rosary in the Parish Church of Lija is and elaborate. Niccolo Nasoni (1691-1773) truly impressive. was invited to Malta to paint the soffits In 1693 an earthquake struck Sicily and above the corridors in the Magisterial the Maltese Islands. The Old Cathedral Palace at Valletta. He decorated the and other mediaeval buildings at Mdina Chancery's main hall, some of the rooms were either destroyed or severely damaged. at the Verdala Castle, the Grand Masters' This gave the excuse to the Cathedral Crypt at St John and possibly the entrance Chapter to embark on the already hall of the . Judging envisaged plan to erect a new Cathedral. from a painted ceiling insid~ 'Pala,zzo The task of designing and building the new Spinola' at No.9 Frederick Street, Valletta Cathedral was assigned to architect it seems that Nasoni was also engaged in Lorenzo Gafa (1630-1704). This imposing the decorations of private residences. These well proportioned building epitomises the decorations usually consisted of sober elegant sculptural quality of Malta's tromp-l'oei/ architectural compositions, baroque architecture. The skyline and with open skies, foliage and floral devices

148 and make-belief medallions and sculptures. The year 1798 was a watershed and a The Messinese Antonio Manoel produced, turning point in the history of the Maltese round 1793, the well known "fake" dome Islands. The Knights were ignominiously in the Cathedral of Gozo. This form of expelled from Malta by the French who decorative art was carried on into the were, in their turn, ousted by the British. nineteenth century by the Maltese painter The new century was inaugurated by a Antonaci Grech. The fashion was revived change in status and political regime. at the turn of the present century when British rule remained in vigour up to the painters such as Filippo Venuti attainment of Independence in 1964. (fl.1880-1906) were engaged to decorate the Shortly after taking control of the homes of the emergent well to do classes. Maltese Islands Captain Alexander John Gian Nicola Buhagiar (1698-17 52) and Ball, the Civil Commissioner, re­ Francesco Vincenzo Zahra (1710-1773) established the which were two outstanding eighteenth century had been closed by the French. The new Maltese artistic personalities. Both of them Rector of the University, Canon Francesco were sons of gifted stone carvers and must Saverio Caruana (1759-1847), then founded have received the first artistic notions from an Art Class which was incorporated in the their respective fathers. They worked Faculty of Architecture. The painter mostly for the Ecclesiastical establishment Michele Busuttil (1770-1828) was appointed painting grand compositions full of Professor of Drawing. So it happened that movements and articulated figures .. this late Barqque artist became the mentor Although they operated within the same of the new upcoming generation of Maltese environment, kept separate workshops and painters. possibly competed for the same type of Towards the close of the eighteenth commissions, their personal relations century Giuseppe Grech (1757-1787) was appeared to have been cordial. At the most promising Maltese artistic element Zejtun they were respectively commissioned but his untimely death, whilst studying in to paint, in a sort of friendly competition, Rome, impeded him from acting as a link the corresponding transepts apses of the bridging the passage of art in Malta from Parish Church of St Catherine. Of the two the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. painters Zahra clearly emerges as the more However although Busuttil dominated the dynamic and forceful. Zahra was also a artistic scene he was not the only painter successful and highly competent portrait active at the time. Due consideration painter. should be given to Gaetano Calleja who The second half of the eighteenth was commissioned by the 'Universitft', that century saw the establishment in Malta of is the municipal government, to paint the the French painter Antoine Favray portrait of King George Ill now at the (1706-1798). He just about became an Palace in Valletta. Antonaci Grech, . "official" painter to the Order of St John brother of Giuseppe Grech, supplemented and through his art he presided over its the income derived from his interior decadence, reflected in the flamboyant decorations by paintings watercolour Malta elegance of his portraits. In addition he views and militiamen. painted attractive altarpieces of 'vvhich the The exuberant and eloquent Baroque admirable Annunciation in the Cathedral style has left an indelible mark over the Museum is a fine example. His charming Maltese Islands. It is an essential feature of Maltese Ladies Paying a Visit in the the archipelago's physiognomy and culture. National Museum of Fine Arts is Yet nineteenth century Malta experienced a emblematic of a fashionable rococo genre virulent reaction against the Baroque that recorded the last vestiges of a movement and its manifestations. vanishing era. The anti-Baroque reaction was essentially

149 two pronged. 'Neo-classical ideals', executed, in collaboration with his cousin expounded by antiquarian J ohann J oachim Ferdinando Dimech (d.1840), the explicit Winckelman (1717-1768), which ostensibly Neoclassical Monument to Judge Joseph promoted a return to Greek Classical art Nicholas Zammit erected at the Upper and architecture was favoured by Malta's Baracca Gardens in 1824. On the other new rulers and a section of the local hand he was the author of the exquisite cultured elite. The 'Purist' and 'Nazarene' baroque stone Annunciation that still grace movements, which promoted a form of the parvis outside the Balzan Parish Christian art purified from what were Church. considered to be pagan incrustations, was Topographical views of Malta and its promoted by the Church and the more harbour have always enjoyed a certain conservative Catholic intellectuals. amount of favour. In 1749 Alberto The former is best exemplified in Pullicino painted a series of views for the architecture and in some instances in Chevalier De Turgot. In the course of the sculpture whilst the latter is best manifested nineteenth century the genre became in religious painting. To this must be increasingly popular. Louis Taffien added an infill of romantic Gothic revival (1811-1866), the various members of the in the form of a few pseudo Gothic Schranz and Brockdorff families, Giorgio Chapels and houses with a marked British Pullicino (1779-1851), and Michele Bellanti accent. (I 807-1883) were specialists in the genre Official preferences are clearly who made it their metier and main source manifested in public monuments and of revenue. Others like Nicolas Cammillieri buildings. Ball's Memorial at the Lower (c.1773-1860) and the elusive G. Baracca, the portico at the , D'Esposito concentrated in ship-portraiture Bighi Naval Hospital and the main which they sold to seafarers and ship­ entrance to the old University building at owners. Valletta have a definite classical Through the good offices of Canon appearance. An important promoter of this Francesco Saverio Caruana a scholarship style was Col. George Whitmore was established by Government to permit. (1775-1862) of the Royal Engineers who promising young artists to further their was in charge of the Public Works studies in Rome. Pietro Paolo Caruana Department. Certain Maltese gentlemen (I 794-1852) and Giuseppe Hyzler also developed a linking for Neoclassicism. (1793-1858) were amongst the first to Sir Agostino Portelli, for instance, benefit from this scheme. In Rome they introduced doric columns and related soon absorbed the lessons imparted by the architectural features in his Villa at Purists and Nazarene painters. Kalkara. Certainly the most pompous Pietro Paolo Caruana eventually Neoclassical building in Malta is the succeeded Michele Busuttil as Professor at Parish Church designed by George Grognet the Art Class. He enjoyed a special De Vasse (1774-1862). relationship with his mentor Tommaso However the prevailing taste of the Minardi who, as head of the 'Accademia di populace remained essentially Baroque. San Luca', was the foremost influential Proof of this are the many processional artist in Rome. Caruana received important statues produced by sacred image makers church and state commissions. His and sculptors such as the refined Mariano ecclesiastical works include the altarpiece Gerada (1770-1823) and the ever popular of the Visitation in the Dominican Church Carlo Darmanin (1825-1905). Illustrative of in Valletta. and that of the Immaculate the artistic dichotomy then existing in the Conception in the Collegiate Church at arts is the ouvre of sculptor Vincenzo Cospicua. In 1823 he executed the Dimech (1768-1831). On the one hand he monumental canvasses of St George and

150 St Michael purposely commissioned by the end of his life. He produced a large Governor Thomas Maitland for the Palace number of altarpieces notable amongst throne room. Caruana also pioneered the which are the main altarpieces of Balzan art of lithography in Malta. His son Parish Church and that of the Franciscan Raffaele (1820-i886) was also a talented Church of St J oseph in Rabat. Apart from though less successful painter. Calleja other painters such as Tommaso Giuseppe Hyzler (1793-1858), however, Madiona (1803-1864), and Salvatore was probably the most influential Maltese Micallef (1810-1891) continued to artist of his age. He was the leading propagate the Nazarene style long after it advocate of the Nazarene movement in had become stale and dated. Sadly, few if Malta and was a personal friend of the any of Hyzler's followers or imitators ever German painter Friedrich Overbeck managed to rise above mediocrity. (1789-1869). Hyzler became one of the Michele Bellanti (1807-1883) deserves to determinant factors that fomented anti­ be singled out as one of the most original baroque feelings in Malta. His artistic and talented painters in Malta at the time. ideals lay in the middle ages, the Umbrian His Virgin of Mount Carmel and Elijah are School particularly Perugino and the early truly remarkable works. As already noted Raphael. The emblematic Our Lady of the he was also a fine watercolourist and Rosary in the Dominican Church in lithographer. Can. Giuseppe Bellanti Valletta and the titular painting in the (1787-1861), the Cathedral Dean, was his Chapel of Manresa in Gozo are amongst brother and was himself an amateur Hyzler's finest works. The National painter and art connoisseur. Museum of Fine Arts has a fine self Several foreign artists, mostly Italian, portrait depicted in 1821 in which he shows dominated Malta's artistic scene at the himself in the characteristic garb of the close of the century. Domenico Bruschi Nazarenes. His brother Vincenzo Hyzler (1840-1910) was active in Malta in the (1813-1849) was an artist of great promise. 1880's. His most impressive Maltese Unfortunately his early demise cut short painting is the large Annunciation in the his career. Cathedral at Mdina which is dated 1886. The despoliation of baroque carvings Another Italian painter was Giovanni and decorations suffered by several Maltese Gallucci (b.1815) from Ancona who was churches are generally attributed to the commissioned to paint the dome of the influence exercised by Giuseppe Hyzler and Cathedral. Francesco Grandi (I 831-1891) his followers. Certainly he was responsible produced a fine Descent of the Holy Spirit for the unhappy modifications carried out also in the Cathedral Church. Pietro in 1838 to the Chapel of France in the Gagliardi (1809-1890), however, was to Conventual Church of St John. However it become the most successful and popular is unfair to attribute to him the often Italian painter in Malta. He was introduced senseless mutilations carried out in into the local artistic scene by Canon Paolo Churches in later times. Whatever his Pullicino who commissioned him a merits or demerits Giuseppe Hyzler was Madonna and Child for the Philermos instrumental in shaping nineteenth century Chapel in St John's. Gagliardi's popularity religious painting in IVIalta. It was through grew to the extent that he came to entirely his intervention that important Maltese dominate religious paintings in Malta. mediaeval panels and murals were saved Attilio Palombi (c.1860-1912), Eliodoro from destruction or utter oblivion. Coccoli (1880-1974), Virgilio Monti Giuseppe Calleja (1828-1915) was (1860-1940), Caffaro Rore (b.1910) and Hyzler's most assiduous and faithful Giovanni Battista Conti (1880-1972) are disciple. He continued advocating the some of the notable Italian artists who, Nazarene and Purist philosophy right to from the second half of the nineteenth

151 century to the second half of this century, nineteenth century bourgeois academism became household names in many Maltese marked by a strong dose of sentimentalism parishes. and melodrama. Giuseppe Cali (1846-1930) was the most In the wake of Giuseppe Cali's art there forceful and acclaimed Maltese painter of was his son Ramiro Cali (1882-1945). Less his age and could not stomach what he able than his father he was nonetheless a considered to be unfair competition from capable painter. Two of his largest Italian artists. He was born in Valletta of canvases are the allegories of Me/ita and Neapolitan parents. His father was a Britannia, on display in the Maritime musician and scenographer, his mother a Museum at Vittoriosa, which he painted soprano. He received his artistic training in for the Malta Pavilion at the British Naples under Giuseppe Mancinelli Empire Exhibition held at Wemble Park, (1813-1875) but was greatly attracted by London in 1924. The contemporary Guze the art of Domenico Morelli (1826-1901). Duca (1871-1948) was a copious painter Morelli's influence is clearly manifested in whose numerous altarpieces seldom rose his St Jerome at the Sacro Cuor Church in above mediocrity. Sliema. His strong personality and great With the demise of Giuseppe Cali and facility with the brush saw no rivals. Avid Lazzaro Pisani Maltese religious painting for work he suffered no qualms in fell into the doldrums. The sculptor undercutting prices to insure he got (1879-1947) became commissions that would otherwise have Malta's most significant artistic gone to an Italian competitor. He was a personality. Sciortino spent a good part of fast and prolific painter and his his active life in Rome where he was productions encompass a very wide director of the British Academy of Arts. spectrum of subjects and genres. In the Stylistically he was abreast with .his time field of religious art he produced some of and many of his works show clear his most remarkable works, foremost modernistic tendencies undeniably inspired amongst which is his splendid Glory of St by 'Art Nouveau' and 'Futuristic' Francis in the Valletta Church of that obsessions with speed and movement. satnt. Highly respected and esteemed, he became Lazzaro Pisani (1854-1932) was some a national celebrity. His impressionistic twelve years younger than Giuseppe Cali. bronze Les Gavroches of 1907 at the Upper He was a gifted painter who has left us Baracca Gardens and his stupendous Christ some very fine works. However the quality the King at remain Malta's finest of his productions tend to fluctuate. His public monuments. Although he did moment of glory came when he execute some religious works his collaborated with the sculptor Francis production was largely secular. Xavier Sciortino (1875-1958) in the Francis Xavier Sciortino (1875-1958) was decoration of Nadur Parish Church in Antonio's brother. His talents as a sculptor Gozo. An important decorative scheme, were considerable and what we have of his which alas was lost during World War 11, in Malta is worthy of admiration. F .X. was the ceiling decorations in the Sciortino travelled widely and in 1914 settled in Canada. In 1939 he returned to altarpiece in St Ubaldesca Church at Paola Malta but went back to Canada in 1954 is noteworthy for some of its painterly where he died. Edward Galea (1893-1971) passages and the inclusion of figures in was one other gifted sculptor who migrated contemporary dress. Although aware of the to Canada in search of work and various revolutionary trends effecting the recognition. arts abroad he remained the last of a breed Abram Gatt (1863~1944) was a first rate of painters who owed their allegiance to practitioner of traditional 'papier mache'

152 devotional and processional statues and with a special Maltese flavour. In 1927 he also provided numerous designs for church was appointed head of the Government silver and furnishing. His only known School of Art. Edward Caruana Dingli painting is the attractive Christ the King distinguished himself for his brilliant which he did for the Domus Piux IX of palette and great artistic technical abilities. Cospicua. The art of popular 'papier Obfuscated by his brother's shadow, mache' devout sacred imagery was Robert Caruana Dingli (1882-1940) merits perpetrated by the prolific Gozitan better recognition. He was an excellent Agostino Camilleri (1895-1979) and is now illustrator and engraver and his paintings continued by the latter's son Alfred. Paul, are often full of zest and vibrant life. another son of Agostino Camilleri, is Unlike his brother who hardly ever currently sought for his conservative ventured into sacred art, Robert did pseudo baroque church decorations. produce a few Church paintings for Gozo. In the mean time architecture had been Gianni Vella (1885-1977) was a prolific if going through various developments that somewhat uneven painter. For many years reflect a combination of a traditional he dominated church painting in Malta and mentality and building methods with his works tend to be repetitive and stale. models or fashions imported from abroad. His easel paintings, however, are more A fine instance is the remarkable Royal satisfactory. They show his awareness of Naval Bakery at Vittoriosa designed by the modernistic trends and reveal the artist free British architect William Scamp of the constraint of popular taste imposed (1791-1871) and built in the period on his church commissions. 1842-1845. Giuseppe Bonavia (1821-1885) Joseph A. Briffa (1901-1987) deserves to was the first ever Maltese architect to use be remembered and revered as one of the Gothic idiom. This was the Malta's outstanding twentieth century Presbyterian Church of St Andrew in masters. His command of the painting Valletta consecrated in 1856. The style medium was complete and his handling of became a fad with local anglophiles who the brush was superb. His sacred introduced it in domestic architecture. productions are truly impressive, but so are Architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia his non religious works. His bozzetti are (1830-1907) took the mode to heart and masterpieces of spontaneity and freshness. used it in several projects including the Briffa deserves to be properly studied and Addolorata Cemetery and its Chapel. appreciated. Amongst his many works are At the turn of the century Modernistic the ceiling decorations of the Tal-Merba trends gradually crept in domestic Church, the small Church of St Paul at architecture. In the 1920's Art Nouveau and the dome of the Parish found fertile grounds in the development Church of St George at Qormi. of Sliema. A number of new houses at The years immediately preceding the Birkirkara and Balzan also followed the second world war saw the formation of a fashion. Notwithstanding inherent beauty group of remarkable Maltese artists. Most and elegance these buildings are now of them had received their artistic training falling prey to speculators with disastrous at the Government School of Art under consequences to the genera.! environment the brothers Caruana Dingli and had and transmutation of Sliema. furthered their studies at the Regia After Giuseppe Cali and Lazzaro Pisani Academia di Belle Arti in Rome. Here the painter Edward Caruana Dingli their guiding light was Prof. Carlo Siviero. (1876-1950) became the premier Maltese However a few did go to England whilst painter of the pre-war period. A society the remarkable etcher and painter Carmel painter par excellence, he excelled in Mangion (b.1905), for instance, travelled portraiture, landscape and genre subjects to and New York.

153 George Preca (1909-1984) returned to George Borg (1906-1983) can be Malta on completing his studies in Italy considered as Antonio Sciortino's true but, after some disappointments, he opted successor. His command of the sculpture to return to Rome where he worked and medium, especially modelling, was lived paying occasional visits to his native complete. His slow and fastidious manner country. His little understood Crucifixion of execution prolonged the completion of at Zejtun marks a departure from his works but the end result can only be traditional formulas and paved the way described in superlative terms. His portraits towards a new form of religious artistic are no mere likenesses for they pulsate with sensibility in Malta. life and express incredible internal energy Anton Inglott (1915-1945) had a sensitive and power. His religious works are also and deeply religious personality. He invested with great sensibility and seemed destined to dominate Maltese originality. Probably because of his painting but his untimely death kept him introvert nature George Borg was not from enriching Malta's artistic heritage. popular with the general public who tended Nonetheless he has left a respectful number to bypass him. Yet he stands like a giant of works that attest to his great artistic amongst his contemporaries. The portraits abilities. The large apse decoration in the of Dun Karm, Princess Poutiantine and Parish Church of Msida representing the many other works are pointers to the rare Death of St J oseph can be considered as qualities of this sculptor. the epitome of Maltese sacred art. Vincent Apap (b.1909), brother of Willie Willie Apap (1918-1970) spent most of Apap, is an extrovert. A man of great his productive life abroad. He was a technical ability and refined a:rtistic remarkable and versatile painter and his sensibility he has great facility in modelling paintings bear the impression of a strong and producing works of art. He has and original artistic personality. His received important commissions and Woman taken into Adultery at the Fine produced the likeness of several famous Arts Museum is a moving and powerful personalities including members of the work that attests to the superlative level of British Royal family and Sir Winston Willie Apap's art. He was also a refined Churchill. The Temptation of St Anthony and accomplished portrait painter. is one of his happy ventures into sacred Whilst studying in Rome Willie Apap art. shared his apartment with Carmelo Borg Joseph Kalleja (b.1898) is the current Pisani (1914-1942) a Maltese painter of doyen of Malta's artistic community. His some promise whose blind Fascist ideals peculiarly mystic character made him led him to an early and tragic death. experiment with the tortured forms of Emvin Cremona (1891-1987) was a great expressionism. His works are marked by decorator and his artistic style bears a great individuality and idiosyncrasy. strong personal imprint. He did embellish Slightly older than Kalleja was the sculptor many churches with vast decorative Ignatius Cefai (1894-1981) whose polished schemes and produced several altarpieces. sensual figures have distinct Art Deco Cremona engaged himself with equal elan accent. Other equally valid sculptors of this in executing non-religious works of art. His generation include Emmanuel Borg Gauci innovative verve led him to experiemtn (b.1911), Victor Diacono (b.1915), Joseph with new and unusual materials. His Galea (b.1910) and John Spiteri Sacco abstract and semi-abstract works bear a (b.1907). I strong personal mark, as does his art in Pertaining to a younger generation was general, and deserve respect. The designs the sculptor Edward Pirotta (1938-1968) for his Malta stamps remain to date whose rising talents were squashed by a unsurpassed for their beauty and originality. traffic accident. His works are not

154 numerous but what we have testify to the introspection and experimentation: he has great possibilities this man possessed had the power to crystallise the breathless he had the chance to develop his talents energy of a cyclone into reflective stillness. fully. Esprit Barthet (b.l919) is best known for Our century has seen the rise of a his many portraits yet his female nudes and number of remarkable watercolour his studies of rooftops are landmarks in painters. Joseph Galea (1905-1985) is Maltese contemporary art. Alfred Chircop perhaps the best remembered of the older (b.1933) has ventured into a symphony of generation for his name became a synonym ever-changing ever-fresh abstract pure with watercolour Malta views. The latter's forms whose texture and chromatic values son, Edwin Galea, proudly continues the are delineated with the consummate hand family tradition but with a marked of an old master. Harry Alden (b.1929) preference for ships and maritime historical uses the hard edge technique to model his scenes. The remarkable Giuseppe Cassar subjects and landscape through clean facets (b.1917) prefers the intimate narrow of pure colour. The sculptor Anton Agius streets, nooks and corners of his island (b.l933) releases the fantastic forms he home with occasional ventures in the discovers hidden in old and dead tree depiction of fishing boats and villages trunks. The extrovert Gabriel Caruana capturing in the process the sharp (b .1929) expresses his creative energy chromatic brilliance of Maltese light. John through the bizarre form and glazes of his Martin Borg (b.1953) with his transparent incredibly beautiful ceramics. Richard atmosphere handles the medium with great England (b.1937) has injected new dexterity and effect. The upcoming Debbie invigorating concepts into Maltese Caruana Dingli (b.1962) shows she is a architecture. Other artists are J oseph Borg worthy daughter of a family with a strong Xuereb (b.1928), Samuel Bugeja (b.1921), artistic tradition. George Fenech (b.l926), and also John Giuseppe Arcidiacono (b.1908) must be Bonnici, J oseph Mallia, Frank Portelli. singled out for he belongs to a class of his Belonging to my own generation are Frans own. This extraordinary watercolourist Galea, Lino Borg, Paul Carbonaro, Caesar handles the medium with incredible ease. Attard, Norbert Attard, Marco Cremona, His brushstrokes flow to the natural Eman Grima, Salvu Mallia, Luciano rhythm of water capturing refracted light Micallef, Raymond Pitre, Mary De Piro, that render his subjects direct and J osette Caruana and Elizabeth Borg. Of palpable. Arcidiacono's paintings never course there are others whose passionate date for hidden in them is the secret of dedication to the arts continues to enrich eternal youth. Malta's variegated artistic firmament. The post war period saw a remarkable As the older generations of painters, revival of the arts for a new generation of sculptors and architects pass away, fledging artists. Inspired by the innovative spirit of new masters take their place. The test of Modern and Contemporary art, they time will select the chaff from the grain appeared to rebel against academic and the deserving will emerge to receive formalisms. Antoine Camilleri (b.l922) lasting recognition.

155 Bibliography

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