Suor Maria de Dominici: the first Maltese female artist and her presence in Late Baroque Malta and Rome Nadette Xuereb Supervisor: Professor Keith Sciberras A dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History of Art presented in the Department of History of Art, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. May 2017 University of Malta Library – Electronic Thesis & Dissertations (ETD) Repository The copyright of this thesis/dissertation belongs to the author. The author’s rights in respect of this work are as defined by the Copyright Act (Chapter 415) of the Laws of Malta or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this full-text thesis/dissertation and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Act provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. Declaration of Authenticity I, the undersigned, Nadette Xuereb, declare that this dissertation is my original work, gathered and utilized to fulfil the purposes and objectives of this study, and has not been previously submitted to any other university. I also declare that the publications, articles, and newspapers have been personally consulted. ________________________ Nadette Xuereb May 2017 ii To my family, friends, and all those who helped me become the woman I am today. iii iv Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1: The Life of Maria de Dominici .......................................................................... 13 1.1 Early life and upbringing within an artistic family ........................................................ 14 1.3 Life as a Carmelite tertiary nun ...................................................................................... 25 1.4 Fortuna Critica................................................................................................................ 26 1.5 Presence as a female artist and other feminist issues ..................................................... 29 Chapter 2: Maria de Dominici’s Artistic Oeuvre ............................................................... 35 2.1 Historical context and the presence of Mattia Preti and his bottega in the Maltese Islands................................................................................................................................... 36 2.2 Maria de Dominici’s presence in Preti’s workshop ....................................................... 38 2.3 Independent works ......................................................................................................... 41 2.4 Maria de Dominici as a sculptor .................................................................................... 51 2.5 Attributions..................................................................................................................... 55 2.6 Erroneous and Past Attributions ..................................................................................... 58 2.7 Lost works ...................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 3: An analysis of the documents and traditional accounts of de Dominici’s Roman period ......................................................................................................................... 63 3.1 Maria de Dominici’s Departure to Rome ....................................................................... 64 3.2 Life and Work in Rome .................................................................................................. 66 3.3 Link with the Sacchetti family ....................................................................................... 68 3.4 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................. 69 3.5 Possible Works of Art .................................................................................................... 72 v 3.6 Death and Artistic Legacy .............................................................................................. 74 Chapter 4: Catalogue of Suor Maria de Dominici’s Paintings in Malta .......................... 77 Virgin with Ss Nicholas and Roque ..................................................................................... 79 Vision of St Maria Maddalena de Pazzi ............................................................................... 85 Visitation of the Virgin ........................................................................................................ 89 St Teresa of Avila ................................................................................................................. 94 St John of the Cross .............................................................................................................. 97 The Crucifixion with Saints ............................................................................................... 100 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 103 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 107 Plates ..................................................................................................................................... 113 Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 125 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Artistic interpretation of Suor Maria de Dominici, from L'Arte 1-51. Figure 2. The de Dominici family tree. Figure 3. Raimondo de Dominici, The Vision of St John of the Cross, Ciccarelli Chapel, S. Teresa degli Studi, Rome. Figure 4. Maria de Dominici, Virgin with Ss Nicholas & Roque, Attard Parish Museum. Figure 5. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, Vision of St Maria Maddalena de Pazzi, Carmelite Priory, Valletta. Figure 6. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, Visitation of the Virgin, Żebbuġ Parish Church Sacristy. Figure 7. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, Crucifixion with Saints, Private Collection Malta. Figure 8. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, St Teresa of Avila, Żebbuġ Parish Church Sacristy. Figure 9. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, St John of the Cross, Żebbuġ Parish Church Sacristy. Figure 10. The Chapel of the Visitation, at Wied Qirda. Photographic representation of the Chapel with Maria de Dominici's works Figure 11. Old photograph of the Immaculate Conception by Maria de Dominici at Cospicua, c. 1680. Figure 12. Suor Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper (detail), Sta Maria Novella, Florence. Figure 13. Suor Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper (detail), Sta Maria Novella, Florence. Figure 14. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, Vision of St Maria Maddalena de Pazzi (detail), Carmelite Priory, Valletta. Figure 15. Attributed to Maria de Dominici, Visitation of the Virgin, Żebbuġ Parish Figure 16. Bottega of Mattia Preti, Visitation (Private Collection). Figure 17. Mattia Preti, Visitation with St Thomas Aquinas and St Paul the Hermit (Church of St Catherine, Żurrieq). Figure 18. Mattia Preti, Blessed Gerland d’Alemagne, Oratory of the San Giovanni Decollato, vii St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. Figure 19. Mattia Preti, Conversion of St Paul, (c. 1668), Chapel of the Langue of France, St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. Figure 20. Gioacchino Loretta, Virgin of Sorrows, Virgin of Sorrows Church, Pietà. Figure 21. Giuseppe D’Arena, Virgin and Child with Ss Roque and Sebastian (1710), Lija Parish Church. Figure 22. Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, 1610-1611, Schloss Weißenstein, Pommersfelden. Figure 23. Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding her Thigh, 1664, Stephen Warren Miles and Marilyn Ross Miles Foundation, Houston. Figure 24. Old photograph of the Immaculate Conception sculpture by Maria de Dominici, with original pedestal. Figure 25. Immaculate Conception, Cospicua Parish Church, remodelled by Abram Gatt. Figure 26. Detail of face and hands of the Immaculate Conception by Maria de Dominici, Cospicua Parish Church, remodelled by Abram Gatt. Figure 27. Properzia de' Rossi, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (c. 1520), Museo de San Petronio, Bologna. Figure 28. Drawing of Lo Sposalizio attributed to Maria de Dominici, Mdina Cathedral Archives. Figure 29. Sculpture of the Virgin at St Catherine's Nunnery, Valletta, attributed to Maria de Dominici Figure 30. Beato Franco, Carmelite Church, Valletta, formerly attributed to Maria de Dominici. Figure 31. Crucifixion, Chapel of Our Lady of Ransom, Qrendi, formerly attributed to Maria de Dominici. Figure 32. Unknown artist, Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, Wignacourt Collegiate Museum, Rabat. Figure 33. Mattia Preti, The Immaculate Conception with Ss Gennaro, Rosalia and Francis Xavier who intercede for the plague in Naples (1656), Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. viii Figure 32. The current state of the painting, discoloured by varnish and with scattered losses. Figure 33. The broken frame and exposed canvas, and scattered losses within the painting. Figure 34. The broken frame and exposed canvas, and scattered losses within the painting.