A commemoration of the fourth centenary of the birth of the Cavalier Calabrese

Sante Guido

GiuSeppe Mantella

Photography

enrico ForMica

THE MASTERPIECES IN THE CHURCHES OF MALTA

Published by

Miranda Publishers the publishing division of

Promotion Services Ltd, Sliema, Malta

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© 2012, Miranda Publishers, Sliema, Malta

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,

no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,

mechanical, photocopying or otherwise) without the prior written permission

of the copyright owners and publishers of this book.

Printing

Castelli bolis PoligrafiChe S.p.a.

November, 2012

Colour Scanning

arti grafiChe Martinetto

Photography

enriCo forMiCa

English translation

theresa Vella

Design

Maria degabriele (Sense – San Paolo Services Ltd)

1st edition

ISBN 978-99909-85-47-4

AcknowledgementThis book could not have been compiled without the cooperation and, above all,

patience of the people whose privilege it is to be the guardians of Mattia Preti’s

legacy on canvas, spread out as it is in churches in Malta and Gozo.

We thank them for their generous help.

BIRGU

The Collegiate Church of St Lawrence 145

The Church of St Anne of the Benedictine Monastery of St Scholastica 145

FLORIANA

The Church of the Immaculate Conception of Sarria 151

LIJA

The Church of the Assumption, or ‘Tal-Mirakli’ 165

LUQA

The Church of St Andrew 171

RABAT

The Church of St Publius, the Grotto and the Collegiate Church of St Paul 179

The Chapel of Verdala Palace 191

ZURRIEQ

The Church of St Catherine of Alexandria 197

SLIEMA

The Church of Our Lady of Graces 211

GOZO – RABAT

The Collegiate Church of St George 217

BIBLIOGRAPHY 222

MATTIA PRETI

The Masterpieces in the Churches of Malta 5

VALLETTA

St John’s Co-Cathedral 19

THE VAULT 23

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF ARAGON, CATALONIA

AND NAVARRE 33

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF CASTILLE, LEON

AND PORTUGAL 45

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF ITALY 53

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF FRANCE 59

THE CHAPEL OF PHILERMOS 63

THE ORATORY 69

St Catherine of Alexandria 75

The Church of All Souls 83

Church of the Jesuit Order, or The Gesù 89

The Monastery Church of St Ursula 97

The Church of St Francis of Assisi 103

The Church of St Augustine 109

MDINA

The Cathedral of St Paul 133

The Church of St Peter in the Benedictine Monastery 139

CONTENTS

4

Portrait of Mattia Preti at St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum

5

MATTIA PRETITHE MASTERPIECES IN THE CHURCHES OF MALTA

Fra Mattia Preti must be considered as being one of the main

exponents of Italian and European art of the seventeenth century. This

was a period that gave rise to various disparate schools of figurative art.

Preti observed and studied the various trends and ultimately developed

his own personal pictorial style. His paintings embody a dramatic tension

and vivacious flourishes that are in part personal and in part testament to

previous masters such as Veronese, Tintoretto, Guercino, Lanfranco and

Poussin. He in turn became a protagonist and interpreter of the crucial

transition to the art of the ‘high baroque’.

The widely unanimous recognition of his talent and his burgeoning

fame enabled him to establish profitable relationships with the powerful

personalities and families of that time such as the Barberini, the Rospigliosi,

the Pamphilj and the Ruffo of Calabria thanks to whom he was made a

Knight of the military and hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, Cyprus,

Rhodes and Malta. Preti moved to Malta in 1661 and remained on the

Island until his death in 1669. During his stay in Malta he executed a large

number of paintings for the Order as well as several works for Maltese

and Italian churches and numerous works commissioned by lay and

private collectors.

Ironically, out of the almost 450 works attributed to the Cavalier

Calabrese, as Preti was known in seventeenth-century Italy, only a few

are reliably dated, and documentation is limited. Similarly rare, if not

completely missing, is any documentation regarding his frequent journeys

(Venice, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Cento, Madrid, and Antwerp) as well as

with regard to his interaction with other artists.

The lengthy biography written in Naples between 1742 and 1745 by

Bernardo De Dominici is very confusing. It is replete with errors, wrongly

dated annotations and relationships with historical figures whose

biographical data is incorrectly dated and in some cases totally wrong as

with dates that are known to be too early or too late.

Almost two and a half centuries after the first biography, thanks to the

studies conducted by Roberto Longhi, Domenico De Conciliis, Riccardo

Lattuada, Giuseppe de Vito, Edoardo Nappi, James Clifton, Federica

Piccirillo and especially the fundamental work of John T. Spike, it is now

possible to reconstruct with relative accuracy a near-complete biography

as well as an exhaustive catalogue raisonnée.

MATTIA PRETI IN MALTA

Mattia Preti’s arrival in Malta is strongly connected to the transformation

of the large Conventual church – that ‘holds the specious and ancient title

of High Church, ever since the time in Rhodes, and that competes for this

title with the Metropolitan [Cathedral] church’1 – dedicated to St John the

Baptist, patron saint of the Knights whose Order originated in the Holy

Land with the first church founded by Pope Pascal II in Jerusalem on the

15th of February 1113. In 1573, two years after the inauguration of the

new city founded by Grand Master Jean Parisot de Vallette (1557–1568),

1 AOM 1953, Chapter XXX, Descrizione della Chiesa Conventuale di San Giovanni Battista di Fra Ottavio Garcin (1760); Scarabelli 2004, pp. 469ss.

Grand Master Jean de la Cassière (1572–1581) placed the first building

block of the Conventual church. The construction was completed in

the four years between 1573 and 1577 as documented by one of the

two stone inscriptions placed above the main doorway: HUIUS TEMPLI

CA(LENDIS) NO(VEMBRIS) MDLXXIII IACTA SUNT FUNDAMENTA. QUOD

AUSPICIIS ILL(USTRISSI)MI D. F(RATRIS) IOANNIS LEVESQUE DE LA CASSIERE

IX CA(LENDAS). IUL(II) MDLXXVII AD SUMMUM FASTIGIUM PERDUCTUM

EST. (‘The foundations of this temple which was completed on the ninth

day of the month of July [in terms of today’s calendar, 23 June] 1577 under

the auspices of the illustrious Fra Giovanni Leveque de la Cassière, were laid

down on the month of November [1st November] 1573’).

The massive and austere building, designed by the Maltese architect

Girolamo Cassar follows sixteenth-century tradition with a simple linear

structure in the late mannerism of the Roman style with a flat façade

– today featuring the bronze head of Christ the Saviour,2 by Alessandro

Algardi – between two bell towers.

The interior consists of a single nave surmounted by a massive barrel

roof without a transept and with absidal endings.3

The internal space consisted of bare-walled side-chapels decorated

solely by simple stone altars with paintings dedicated to Saints who were

associated with the Order’s devotion, such as St Catherine of Alexandria,

St George and St Sebastian.

During the mid-seventeenth century the church underwent further

modifications with the purpose of adapting the sobriety of the building

towards a more modern baroque style so as to better reflect the prestige

the that the Hospitaller Order of St John had acquired during the course

of the century.

One of the first changes dates back to 1645, during the rule of Grand

Master Juan de Lascaris-Castellar (1636–1657) when the Messinese

sculptor Vitale Covati was commissioned to create a new alter in precious

marble for the chapel of the so-called Madonna of Philermos. The precious

icon was originally known as the Madonna of Bethlehem and was already

in the custodianship of the Knights of the Order before their occupation

of Jerusalem.4

In the years that followed shortly after, the renovation of the interior

decorations had an impact on practically all the internal spaces. Amongst

these were the Chapel of Philermos, the Chapel of the Langue of Provence

and the Chapel of the Langue of Auvergne.5 Previously, prior to 1656, the

transformations had most significantly affected the Chapel of the Langue

of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre, which is dedicated to St  George, as

documented by the inscription on the border: SACELLUM HOC QUOD

EMINENTISSIMUS AC REVERENDISSIMUS D. F. D. MART[INUS] DE REDIN

OLIM PRIOR IN HONOREM D. GEORGIJ M. EXORNANDUM SUSCEPERAT

IDEM NUNC M. M. SUMPTUOSIUS ANNO [MAGIS]TERIJ SUI SECUNDO

PERFICIUNDUR CURAVIT AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIA MDCLVIII, (‘The most

reverend and eminent Fra Don Martin de Redin had started to adorn this

2 Guido–Mantella 2004.3 Scicluna 1955; bonello 1956; debono 2005; SciberraS 2004; Guido–Mantella 2008;

SciberraS 2010; de GiorGio 2010.4 roSSetti 2010.5 debono 2005, pp. 26–27; 57–58; Guido–Mantella 2008, p. 457.

6

chapel in honour of St George during the time when he was Prior and

he himself when elected Grand Master oversaw its completion during his

second magistral year in a more sumptuous manner for the greater glory

of God. 1658’).

Following De Redin’s initiative, the Chapel of Aragon, Catalonia and

Navarre became the model and template for all other chapels that had

hitherto been bare and unadorned.

Martin de Redin wanted to intervene on the chapel whose altar was

decorated with a canvas painting titled St George and the Dragon – a work

by Francesco Potenzano dating back to 1578–1579 and considered to

be too old and anachronistic. To do so De Redin sought paintings that

went beyond Maltese vernacular of the time by seeking such works in

nearby Italy.6 His predecessors in the second half of the sixteenth century

had taken the same approach when it was decided to embellish the first

buildings which had been completed in the new city of Valletta.

This was previously the case with the Hall of the Grand Council in the

magistral palace when Grand Master Jean de la Cassière (1572–1581) invited

Matteo Perez d’Aleccio (1547–1616) from Rome to Malta in 1576,7 with

the commission to work on the creation of the twelve frescos depicting

the Great Siege (1565) with allegorical figures in didactic composition

executed in a late mannerist style. The same artist was responsible for the

altar pieces in the main churches in Valletta such as St Paul’s shipwreck in

Malta that is found in the church of St Paul Shipwrecked, or the Baptism of

Christ which used to be housed in the sacristy of the Conventual church

and is now housed in the Museum of St John’s Co-Cathedral, altarpieces

that were executed before his departure from Malta in 1581.8 In the

course of a brief phase spent in Malta,9 the Palermitan artist Francesco

Potenzano (1152–1601) had also painted large canvases in a style which

was reminiscent of mannerism but with a provincial trait: The Martyrdom

of St Catherine adorned the Chapel of Italy, while St George and the Dragon

was to be found in the Chapel of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre and is now

in the museum of the Co-Cathedral.

Grand Master Hugues Loubenx de Verdalle (1581–1595) had

instead turned to the late-mannerist Florentine painter Filippo Paladini

(1544– 1614). Paladini had arrived in Malta in 1589 as he served a penal

sentence as a rower in the galleys of the Grand Duke of Florence, and thus

the Grand Master had to negotiate with the Grand Duke Ferdinand de

Medici for Paladini to remain in Malta, where he stayed until around 1595.

Paladini executed the fresco paintings in the Palace chapel with the scenes

from the Life of John the Baptist as well as the altarpiece Mary and the Child

Jesus with the Baptist, St Paul and other saints signed PH. P. P–1589, today

found in the Palace of the Archbishop in Valletta. Paladini also painted the

ceiling frescos in the hall and vestibule of Verdala Palace. This palace is

in Buskett, an inland location close to Rabat, and was used as the Grand

Master’s summer residence. He also painted the large Circumcision of Christ

canvas that is to be found in the Jesuits Church in Valletta.

In 1605, after Paladini’s departure Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt

(1601–1622) had to once again turn to Florence in seeking an artist to

6 SciberraS 2009, p. 93.7 Ganado 1984, p. 127–159; Vella 2006, pp. 568 Ganado 1984, p. 127.9 Mandarano–Muroni 2008, pp. 205–209.

complete the decoration of the magistral halls.

Following Caravaggio’s turbulent phase in Malta between 1607 and

1608, the embellishment project was eventually undertaken with the arrival

in Malta of the Bolognese painter Lionello Spada (1576–1622). Between

1609 and 1610, Spada, who was a student of the Academy of the Carracci,

decorated three halls in the palace: the Assembly Hall, the Ambassadors’

Hall and the Pages’ Hall. By means of a large frieze with allegorical figures

painted in fresco, Spada depicted the pictorial narrative in a didactic style,

representing the history of the Order from its origins to the Great Siege, and

in so doing completed the work which had been begun by Perez d’Aleccio

thirty years earlier. This project brought to an end a period of great artistic

fervour that was characterized by the commissioning of great works of art

by the Grand Masters and Knights. The next thirty years witnessed a lull in

this trend until the start of works on the Philermos chapel in 1645.

—

Soon after being elected Grand Master in 1658, Martin de Redin

was involved in the finishing works on the Chapel of Aragon, Castille

and Navarre and, as his predecessors had done before him, he turned

to Naples. He wrote to Marcello Spinelli, the Jesuit father provincial who

was based in Naples,10 asking for his advice in the matter of a painting

that he intended to commission to ‘the most qualified painter that lives in

Naples’.11 He wanted to commission a portrait to be placed in the Chapel

of St George that depicted the ‘glorious St Francis Xavier’,12 an illustrious

Jesuit father of the Order to which De Redin had special connections that

were well-known through ‘his particular affection for the Order of Jesus ...

that is known to all the Fathers’.13 Furthermore, the Grand Master boasted

of belonging to the family of the saintly missionary who was born in

Navarre and canonized in 1622.14 He was so proud of his famous ancestor

that he had this relationship recorded on his burial monument,15 which

he planned on placing in the Chapel of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre:

MAGNI MAGISTRI DON MARTINI DE REDIN / MAGNI XAVERII OB GENUS

PROPINQUI [Grand Master Martino de Redin descendant of the family of

the great Xavier].

De Redin’s intention was therefore to commission a portrait of the

Iberian saint under Jesuit supervision during those months when Mattia

Preti was completing his paintings on the doors of the city of Naples,

with ‘the image of the Immaculate Conception with the child, the

glorious St  Januarius and on the right St Francis Xavier and on the left

Santa Rosolea.’16 Furthermore, owing to the importance of this event in

Preti’s future career, one must remember that the role of supervisor of

the works on the seven gates of Naples was the Jesuit Felice Barberito,

‘a person of great talent and expertise in matters relating to painting’,17

and who therefore had a close professional relationship with the Calabrian

painter. It is thus no surprise that when Grand Master de Redin turned to

father Spinelli in order to commission a talented and able painter for the

depiction of St Francis Xavier, it was Preti who at the time was working on

such a painting of the Spanish Jesuit Saint on Naples’s city gates under the

supervision of Father Barberito, whose name came up.18

10 Spike 1998, p. 109–110.11 AOM 1434, ff. 57–57v; Spike 1998, pp.109–110.12 Ibidem.13 AOM 1434, ff. 188r–189v.14 coSMa 2008, p. 33. 15 debono 2005, pp. 39–40.16 Deliberazioni degli Eletti, 16 June 1656: ASMN, Registro 1410 delle deliberazioni, f. 202v;

Spike, 1998, pp. 91–92.17 ASMN Registro delle deliberazioni 1410, f. 218v; Spike 1998, p. 92.18 coSMa 2008, p. 32.

7

One must also not underestimate as a factor in this choice the fact

that by 1658, the Calabrian painter had already been a member of

the Hospitaller Order of St  John the Baptist for sixteen years, with the

secondary ranking of Knight of Obedience of the priory of Capua.19 This

fact was probably considered when it was decided to give the artist such

a prestigious commission. By means of the painting depicting St Francis

Xavier, Fra Mattia was re-establishing a link with his brethren in the

Hospitaller Order through his skill as a painter, his fame and the significant

intercession of the Jesuit Order.20

A large number of documents bear witness to the various events

surrounding the execution of the painting and its arrival in Malta, although

it seems unusual that the author’s name never appears on any document

that deals with the matter.21

In the painting that Preti executed for De Redin, the missionary saint

is depicted as a full-length figure, clothed in dark robes as he turns his

bearded face as he gazes towards the heavens. The composition suggests

an apparition that takes place high amongst the clouds. The work was

produced with great diligence, as shown by the recent conservation

project,22 which has revealed a cautious execution starting with the choice

of materials such as the thick preparatory ground layer up to numerous

thin brush-strokes that define the minutest details of the rich palette

where cinnabar reds and lapis lazuli blues dominate. Preti wanted to

prove his talent so as to impress the Grand Master, and his brethren, the

Knights of St John. He was very successful, leading to a strong relationship

with De Redin based on mutual respect, and which resulted in new and

important commissions for the chapel of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre

which introduced the exuberance of seventeenth-century baroque art.

In the summer of 1659 Preti arrived in Malta after accepting the

invitation of Martin de Redin who, around one year earlier, had written

to the Jesuit Father General in Rome with reference to the painting of

St  Francis Xavier, ‘I entrusted the painting of the portrait of St  Francis

Xavier to a famous brush [artist] in Naples and it has been executed to

my great satisfaction.’23 The Grand Master’s role as first contact and

patron for the arrival of the painter on the island is engraved on Preti’s

tombstone in St John’s Conventual church with the words: SUB AUSPICIIS

EM[IMENTISSIMI] M[AGNI] M[AGISTRI] DE REDIN IN MELITAM VENIT.

Within a few months of his arrival in Malta, the painter first executed

the portrait of St Firmin Bishop,24 the second patron of the realm of Navarre,

which was placed on the lateral walls of the chapel and St George and

the Dragon, which replaced Potenzano’s altarpiece in the chapel. From

the evidence contained in certain documents it results that in 1659 Preti

also painted the lunettes that decorate the underside of the lateral wall

arches with the stories of St Lawrence: St Lawrence meeting Pope Sixtus II

and The Martyrdom of St Lawrence. The first of these works seems to have

been the portrait of St Firmin Bishop, Patron of Navarre that can be taken

as a companion piece to San Francis Xavier. From documentary evidence,

it seems that by 1658 the Grand Master had already expressed the wish

to have a portrait of a ‘Bishop Saint’, when he wrote that the commission

had not been assigned and was being postponed to a later date. ‘… it

was unfortunate not to have expressed the name of the bishop Saint that

19 ASV, Segretaria dei Brevi Vol. 915, ff. 644r–644v.20 coSMa 2008, p. 34.21 Spike 1999, pp. 329,330; coSMa 2008, p. 32.22 Restored by Giuseppe Mantella in 2010. 23 AOM 1434, ff.118r–189v.24 Spike 1999, pp. 329–330. The canvas measures 238 × 175 cm.

I desired. However since fate has so decreed, not having as much haste

for this painting as I do for the other [St Francis Xavier] I resolve that it be

suspended until further notice’.25

The dating of the painting, as well as the context within which it was

executed, have been the subject of a lively critical debate based on artistic

and historical considerations. Hypotheses on its dating have been based

on structural changes carried out on the entire chapel between 1660 and

1661,26 as well as on generic stylistic comparisons relating to works of

1670,27 that place the work to a later date, in relation to the magistry of

two of De Redin’s successors: Grand Master Raphael Cotoner (1660–1663)

and his brother Nicolò Cotoner (1663–1680). A more recent and accurate

iconographic analysis makes it possible to date the work to the period

of De Redin’s magistry,28 and thus to the time of Preti’s first stay in Malta

in 1659.

In the first place, the context and close relationship that links the

execution of the St Firmin as a companion piece to the St Francis Xavier

must be taken into account. In a more general way, one must also consider

the historical circumstances that relate to the recognition of both saints

as patrons of Navarre and De Redin’s desire to see the creation of both

works within a single iconographic programme spaced over a few months,

and consequently prior to the death of the patron that occurred on 6th

February 1660. Bishop Firmin was a great evangelizer who lived around the

end of the third century. He died a martyr and had been venerated since

the twelfth century in his native town of Pamplona. Francis Xavier had

recently been canonized and had been proclaimed co-patron of Navarre

by Pope Alexander VII Chigi on the 14th April 1657. This was the year De

Redin was elected Grand Master. It was thus a question of representing the

images of the old patron and the new one for the first time in the Chapel

of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre, and this was not done immediately

because of ‘ the oversight of not having mentioned the name of the Bishop

Saint despite my desire’.

The analysis of the compositional scheme of the Bishop Saint too

demonstrates a repetition of the device used in St  Francis Xavier and

appears to confirm the link between the two saints from Navarre through

their ideological, religious and celebratory qualities.

As seen in the documentary evidence, the St Francis Xavier was originally

intended to be placed to one side of the chapel.29 Given the corresponding

nature of the two paintings it can be deduced that the St Firmin was to be

placed on the opposite wall so that the portraits would face each other.

St Firmin is depicted against dense clouds surrounded by hovering putti

in the midst of a grey mass of clouds, and who hold out the symbols of

his martyrdom for the Christian faith; his face is turned to the heavens

while his right hand points downwards towards the altar, mirroring the

corresponding gesture of the Jesuit saint, thus giving rise to a harmonious

movement within the chapel space. The technical analysis of the painting

has brought to light new data that confirms 1659 as the most likely date

of execution. Close observations carried out during the preparatory work

for the restoration indicate totally different techniques used between

St Francis Xavier and St Firmin. It almost seems as if Preti had little time to

paint the Bishop Saint as indeed was the case during his brief stay in Malta

25 AOM 1434, ff. 93r–93v; Spike 1978, p. 505. 26 SciberraS 2004, pp. 189–190, note 125.27 Spike 1999, pp. 329–330.28 coSMa 2008, pp. 27–40.29 AOM 1280, ff. 172r–172v.

8

during 1659, in order to fulfil the request of the Grand Master and thereby

to complete the ‘diptych’ of the patron saints of Navarre. Observations

carried out by means of an optical microscope reveal that the preparatory

ground layer as well as the paint layer are thin, so much so that one can

make out the underlying canvas. The artist used a technique similar to that

used in mural painting, with which he had previously experimented in Italy.

He used his skill and experience to reproduce the vivacious physiognomy

of putti in flight, using models from his known repertoire, in the midst

of thick clouds. He applied near-transparent fields of near-transparent

brushwork on the canvas as well as alternating dark and light areas. The

palette is reduced to few pigments: lead white, natural earth colours and

very diluted sky colour. The accurate particulars in St Francis Xavier were

accomplished by means of brush-strokes consisting of skilfully toned

down vivid colours and thin traces that had defined the highly accurate

details of the painting of St Francis Xavier – such as seen in the bright flesh

tones of the angels and in the drapes of shimmering fabric in vivid tints

of lapis lazuli, yellow and red. On the other hand in St Firmin he uses a

uniform field on which mass and volume were built up with rapid and

vigorous brush-strokes and few tonal variations. Differences also abound

in the definition of the two figures. Contrary to the silky smoothness of

the cloth in St  Francis Xavier, whose dark robes takes shape thanks to

numerous tonal variations, the light-coloured vestment and golden cape

in St Firmin contrast shimmeringly against the cloud background in a single

colour that the artist uses to produce only light and shade with loaded

brushstrokes. Greater attention is paid to the intense portrait of St Firmin

with his realistically rendered expressive wrinkles and detail brought about

by thick strokes of colour that highlight individual tufts of his beard. In

these areas the consistency of the thickness of the paint layer also varies.

Recent scientific analysis has for the first time yielded an extremely

important detail. Electron microscope observations have revealed that the

preparatory layer on the canvas of St Firmin Bishop is not made up of one

thick layer of calcium carbonate and drying oils and natural pigments – as

discovered in the Francis Xavier that Preti had executed in Naples – but

a compound made up of globigerina stone (Maltese limestone contains

minute fossils of algae and sea shells), umber and lead oxide mixed with oil.

—

The Papal Bull by which Pope Alexander VII confirmed Mattia Preti as Knight of Grace

9

The National Library of Malta, Valletta

Besides the St  Firmin Bishop, globigerina stone dust used for the

preparatory layer combined with pigments and oil has also been found

on other paintings that have recently been studied, such as The Virgin

interceding for the Souls in Purgatory in the Church of All Souls in Valletta

dating to 1659 as proven by a payment document dated 20th November

1659. This is also present in the case of the best known and outstanding

amongst the first works executed by Preti for Malta: the large painting on

the altar of the Chapel of the Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre, portraying

St George and the Dragon the patron of Aragon, and foremost patron of

the Knights,30 who was especially venerated as a noble warrior engaged

in defeating Evil and to whom the victorious Crusades in the conquest of

Jerusalem were attributed.31

The matter of the St  Firmin and the St  George, both paintings of

uncertain date, are both closely linked to each other for the first time as

a result of their date and place of execution. Since documents relating

to the commission are as yet unknown the proposed date for St George

varies between the second half of the 1650s and 1661. The oldest historical

30 boSio 1594–1602, Vol. III p. 219.31 SpaMpinato 2005, p. 47.

sources, such as the biography by De Dominici, place the painting between

1656–1657 and thus the location would have to be Naples and thus

commissioned by Grand Master Juan de Lascaris-Castellar (1636–1657), De

Redin’s predecessor.32 In the second half of the nineteenth century it was

thought that the work was executed in Naples ‘as a demonstration of his

skill as a painter when the decision had to be taken as to his painting the

barrel vault of the church of St John’.33 Even more recently researchers have

theorized that the altar piece was created in Naples between late 1656,34

and the end of 1658,35 or in the spring of 1659 and later sent to Malta

together with the Martyrdom of St  Catherine of Alexandria,36 the latter

securely executed in Naples together with the ten canvases for the ceiling

of the church of San Pietro a Maiella. Recently a careful iconographic study

has brought to light elements that instead place the date in summer

1659 during Preti’s first journey to Malta. The background composition,

that depicts St George leading the knights to the conquest of Jerusalem

so as to liberate the city from the infidels,37 could be linked to Martin

de Redin’s intention of spurring the west to embark on a new crusade

32 de doMinici (1742–1745), 1840–46, III, pp. 349–350, 353–354.33 FerriS 1900, p. 63.34 buhaGiar 1987, p. 91.35 debono 2008; SciberraS 2005, p. 30.36 SciberraS 2010, pp. 126–127; coStanzo 2011, pp. 56–58.37 Giordano 2005, pp.125–126; coSMa 2008, pp. 35–37.

18

The Nave

19

St John’s Co-Cathedral

THE VAULT

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF

ARAGON, CATALONIA AND NAVARRE

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF

CASTILLE, LEON AND PORTUGAL

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF ITALY

THE CHAPEL OF THE LANGUE OF FRANCE

THE CHAPEL OF PHILERMOS

THE ORATORY

VALLETTA

20

The Co-Cathedral of St John the Baptist was originally the Conventual

church of the Knights of the Sovereign, Military, Hospitaller Order of St John

of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Rhodes, and Malta, located at the very centre of

the fortified city of Valletta. The church served as the religious headquarters

of the Knights until 1798, when the Order of St John was ousted from Malta

by Napoleon. In 2003, the church was entrusted to the Foundation of the

Co-Cathedral of St John.

The church foundations were laid in 1573 to the design of the Maltese

architect Fra Girolamo Cassar and the whole building was completed

within four years.1 The church interior is made up of a large central nave

and a series of eight side chapels. After 1604, the chapels were entrusted

to each of the eight ‘Langues or Nations’ to which the Hospitaller knights

belonged. The langues represented the geographic origins of the knights

and were symbolically represented by the eight points of the Cross (the

number also coincides with the spiritual mission of the Order which is

based on the eight Beatitudes, taught by Christ in the Sermon on the

Mount, according to the Gospel of Matthew).

The original building was somewhat sober and sparse in appearance,

as befitted a military Order. Towards the mid-seventeenth century, it was

completely transformed with new and elaborate embellishments on the

Baroque style, with Fra Mattia Preti, the Cavalier Calabrese, acting as the

protagonist at the centre of the project for nearly forty years. The interior

surfaces of the walls of the Co-Cathedral appear to be entirely decorated

– mainly on the designs of Preti himself – in stone carvings of ornamental

motifs and heraldic symbols on the walls. The ground was coloured in

paint while the relief sculptures were gilt in thin layers of gold leaf created

by means of hammering and thinning out of the precious metal from

thousands of Hungarian zecchini, the coin that at the time had the highest

amount of gold in it.2

The first works by Mattia Preti were commenced in 1658 and were

commissioned by Grand Master Martin de Redin (1657–1660) for whom he

completed the paintings for the Chapel of Aragon, Catalunya and Navarre

with the portraits of St Francis Xavier and St Firmin, as well as the remarkable

altarpiece of St George and the Dragon. The renowned artist had already

executed a number of masterpieces in Rome and Naples in the 1640s and

1650s, before creating the magnificent ceiling painting cycle which has

been described as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the Baroque age’, and which he

executed between 1661 and 1666.3 Painting in the unusual technique of

oil on stone, Preti represented the following themes: on the curved apsidal

wall, the triumphal scene of the Apotheosis of St John the Baptist, over the

large barrel vault the Life of the Baptist subdivided into eighteen episodes,

and finally, on the interior façade, the Triumph of the Order of St John. During

the same period in the 1660s, Fra Mattia completed other masterpieces

that were commissioned by knights of the various langues for the purpose

of embellishing their respective chapels: for the Chapel of Italy – the langue

1 Scicluna 1955; cutajar 1993; SciberraS 2004; Guido–Mantella 2008; de GiorGio 2010.2 Guido–Mantella 2008.3 Spike 1999, pp. 321–323.

to which the artist himself belonged as a Knight of Grace – which was

completed, restored and decorated between 1660 and 1662, the artist

painted the altarpiece of the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria,

patron saint of the Italian knights. The painting, which was completed by

1670, is characterized by a sophisticated chromatic range and is permeated

with a diffused light which illuminates the whole scene. In 1659, in addition

to the above-mentioned paintings of the Chapel of Aragon, Catalunya and

Navarre, two more paintings were made for the lunettes of the chapel,

representing St Lawrence meeting Pope St Sixtus II on his way to Martyrdom,

and the Martyrdom of St Lawrence. Between 1662 and 1663, for the Chapel

of the Langue of Castille, Leon and Portugal, Preti painted the altarpiece

of St James as well as two large lunettes representing St James and the

Madonna of the Pillar and St James defeating the Moors at Clavijo. Between

1667 and 1668, Preti completed the Conversion of St Paul for the Chapel of

the Langue of France. Finally, in 1669, he executed the lunette representing

the Birth of the Virgin, which was originally placed in the Chapel of the

Madonna of Philermos, on the right hand side of the church, and is today

located in the passageway that leads to the Sacristy. Furthermore, the large

altarpiece in the Chapel of the Langue of Auvergne, representing St Michael

the Archangel, is an exact copy of the painting by Guido Reni for the Church

of Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome, executed in a technique that is

identical to that of Preti and acknowledged by scholars to be by his hand.4

Between 1680 and 1690, the Oratory of the Beheading of the Baptist

was also completely refurbished: the large rectangular area was built in

1602, annexed to the right hand wall of the nave of the Conventual church.

It was intended for meetings of knights and for ceremonies of knighthood

and had earlier been enhanced by the remarkable composition of the

Beheading of the Baptist painted by Caravaggio during his brief sojourn in

Malta between 1607 and 1608.5 For the Oratory, Mattia Preti designed a

new, carved gilt ceiling into which were inserted a series of paintings on the

Passion of Christ: the paintings in the nave are the Ecce Homo, Christ crowned

with Thorns and the Crucifixion. The paintings in the choir are Christ at the

Pillar and the Agony in the Garden. The walls of the Oratory are differently

decorated with a series of paintings of Saints and Blesseds, ten portraits of

former knights, heroes and heroines of the Order.

When Fra Mattia Preti died in 1699 at the age of eighty-six years, he

was buried in the place that best represents his life and his art. This was

inscribed in his funerary tombstone in polychrome marble on the floor of

the Conventual church of St John, to the left hand side of the nave, near

the entrance to the Sacristy.

DOM / HIC IACET MAGNUM PICTURAE DECUS / COMMEND(ATOR) FR(A’)

MATHIAS PRETI, / QUI POST SUMMOS HONORES, PENICILLO COMPARATOS

/ ROMAE, VENETIIS, NEAPOLI / SUB AUSPICIIS EM(INENTISSIMI) M(AGNI)

M(AGISTRI) DE REDIN MELITAM VENIT, / UBI AB ORDINE HIEROS(OLYMITANO)

ENCOMIIS ELATUS, / AC INTER EQUITES V(ENERANDAE) L(INGUAE) ITALIAE

4 Spike 1999, p. 402.5 Stone 1997; SciberraS-Stone 2006.

VALLETTAST JOHN’S CO-CATHEDRAL

21

The polychrome marble floor, the Nave

EX GRATIA ADLECTUS / HANC ECCLESIAM SINGULARI PICTURA EXORNAVIT

/ SEVERIORIS MOX PIETATIS STUDIO INCENSUS / INGENTEM PECUNIAM

TABULIS QUAESITAM / EROGAVIT IN PAUPERES / RELICTO PICTORIBUS

EXEMPLO / QUO DISCERENT PINGERE AETERNITATE / AD QUA EVOLAVIT

NONAGENARIO MINOR QUATUOR ANNIS / TERTIO NON(AS) IANUARI 1699

/ FRATE CAMILLUS ALBERTINI PRIOR BARULI / AMICO DESIDERATISSIMO

HOC MONUMENT(UM) / POSUIT.

[Here lies the pride of the art of painting, the Commander Fra Mattia

Preti who after acquiring several honours, thanks to his paint-brush, in

Rome, Venice and Naples, finally arrived in Malta under the patronage

of the most Eminent Grand Master De Redin, when, having joined the

Hierosolimitan Order and being elected Knight of Grace by the Knights of

the Venerable Langue of Italy, he decorated this church with remarkable

paintings. Moved by a fervent and pious spirit he was liberal in his charity

with the poor, thereby setting an example to artists on what it meant to

paint for eternity, to which he arrived four years short of his ninetieth year

of age, the third day of the None of January 1699. Fra Camillo Albertini, Prior

of Barletta, placed this memorial for his dearest friend.]

22

The Apse

23

St John’s Co-Cathedral

THE VAULT

VALLETTA

24

25

The Vault: The Life of St John the Baptist

26

VALLETTAST JoHn’S Co-CATHEdrAL

on 15th September 1661, in the presence of Grand Master raphael and

the Venerable Council, ‘the knight Fra Matthia Preti, of the Venerable Priorate

of Capua, moved by the desire to serve the religion, offered to paint and gild,

at his own expense, the entire vault of our high Conventual church of St John’.1

That same day, the Chancellery of the order finally ratified the artist’s passage

to the rank of Knight of Grace.

The plan for the decoration of the vault with the Episodes from the life of

St John the Baptist from the interior façade to the apse ‘for the embellishment

of our high Conventual church’,2 was given a favourable recommendation

by the examining commission on 30th September 1661, affirming that the

painter would be responsible for his own handiwork, while the Treasury

would carry the cost of the gilding, the pigments ‘and all the oil which will be

necessary, seeing that the painting was to be executed in oil and not in fresco

to ensure its longevity’.3 Furthermore, in order to light the interior space better,

the commission agreed that ‘the window above the main door be widened

and raised higher in order to illuminate the Church better’, according to the

suggestions put forward by the painter.

Mattia Preti set about the execution of this ambitious cycle of paintings

between october and december 1661, in keeping with the agreed plan,

even though at the start, some problems surfaced with regard to the carved

decoration of the stone arches, which slowed down the progress of the

work.4 only on 19th december in fact were the stone-carvers Pietro Burlo and

domenico Gambin engaged to ‘carve the six arches, [...] the twelve windows,

executed in an horizontally oval shape in the said Church, which sculpture has

to be finished according to the model, which will be given to him by the knight

Matthia, painter of the said Church’.5

A first stage in the decoration of St John which had been initiated on the

curved wall of the concave apse was brought to a conclusion by 2nd January

1662,6 when Mattia Preti proudly declared that the Grand Master, who had gone

to St John’s to examine the oeuvre, ‘in the middle of the Church, in front of all

those present, presented me with a chain and cross, to the value of six hundred

scudi, stating that he would remain obliged to me’.7

In the Spring of 1663, work on the painted decoration continued, even

though Preti declared his bitterness at the difficulty with receiving the pensions

to which he was entitled: ‘it’s already two years since I started to work hard for

the Church of St John and for His Eminence and I have not had any sign [...] in

the belief that the applause for my oeuvre would suffice’.8 Shortly after, on 17th

June of the same year, the painter obtained a great sign of respect for his work

on the part of the Knights and, besides the promise of some new annuities, he

was given a ‘Cross and gold chain to the value of around three hundred scudi’.9

1 AoM 260, f. 106v.2 AoM 260, ff. 108–109.3 Ibidem.4 Archive of the ruffo Family, Sicily, 17 december 1661.5 nAV, notary M. ralli, r412/26 (1661–63), ff. 90–91; debono 2005, pp. 66–67.6 de doMinici 1742–54, p. 355.7 de doMinici 1742–54, p. 355.8 Archive of the ruffo Family, Sicily, 27 March 1663.9 AoM, 260 , ff. 159v–160r.

While Mattia Preti proceeded with the decoration of the vault, painting one

picture after another on the six archways with the episodes on the Life of the

Baptist, on 20th october 1663 nicolò Cotoner succeeded his recently deceased

brother, raphael.

To endow the parts with continuity and cohesion, on 3rd March 1663, it was

decided to proceed along the length of the nave with the gilt cornice which

was built in the apse (‘for the large cornice to be continued along the façade of

the main doorway and to encircle the whole Church, and that the remainder

is gilt in the manner of the niche of the high altar of St John, in order that it

all corresponds’10) and to knock down the high part of the interior wall of the

atrium, to make visible the length of cornice which ran along the side of the

interior façade in such a way as not to permit any interruption to the gilt band.

Also, always in the context of the holistic interventions intended to enhance the

new paintings and the entire building, it was decreed that ‘the windows above

the main entrance to the church be raised as high as possible with the required

ornamentation’,11 – in keeping with the projected plans of the Cavalier Calabrese

of 1661 – and one set about executing a new balustrade for the balcony above

the entrance passageway.

on the same day, the prodomi had gathered and established a fundamental

intervention to preserve the paintings by Mattia Preti which had already been

executed on the vault of the Conventual church: in fact it had been decided ‘that

an order from Flanders of a large quantity of lead in thick sheets, in order to cover

the roof of the vault to prevent the penetration of damp which is estimated to

be needed for the conservation of the painting’.12

The sculptor of Florentine origin, Vitale Covati, who had moved to

Messina and later was based in Malta around 1665,13 was entrusted with the

responsibility of executing forty-five balustrades in carved stone. About one

year was to pass for the definitive conclusion of the intervention to complete

the interior façade which was intended to support the large painting with the

Triumph of the Religion as by then the decoration of the large painted arches

was nearing completion.

on 8th July 1666 in fact ‘His Eminence and the Venerable Council

unanimously voted that the large window above the main door into the

Church of St John would be executed to the design shown to the Venerable

Commissioners’,14 with the stipulation immediately after the contract with

the sculptor and stone carver from Senglea domenico Gambin, who took

over the carving ‘in keeping with the requests of Sir Knight Fra Matthias Preti

to complement the painting on the ceiling of the same Church. The same

tradesman also takes on the task of dismantling the entire façade of the internal

wall of the said door, from the balustrade down’.15 More than the window, it had

10 AoM 261, ff. 16v–17r.11 AoM 261, ff. 16v–17r.12 AoM 261,f.17r.13 nAV notary Aloisio dello re r. 227/16 1665, ff. 30r–30v–31r (3 november 1665).14 AoM 261, f. 53r (8 July 1666). 15 nAV notary A. dello re, r. 227/16 (1665–1667), ff. 153r–153v–154r (19 August 1666).

THE VAULT

27

The Glory of God the Father

also been agreed to change the entire architectonic ensemble of the entrance

by pulling down the wall which held up the base of the passage between

the two church towers located above the entrance and transforming it into a

cantilevered balcony over large corbels.16 Even though this is not spelt out in

archival sources, it is evident that Preti had a determining role in the architectural

modifications from the first designs which he himself had devised: once the

entrance wall was dismantled, the entire area facing the interior façade would

have appeared lighter with the elimination of the bulky and massive closed

wall which appeared to lean over the entrance and with the completion of

the hanging balcony which would have given a lighter appearance to the new

ensemble,17 thereby creating a perfect setting for the painting which the painter

was about to execute over the wall above. At this point Preti could undertake

the concluding part of his project, giving shape to the large figures which were

to be designed on the interior façade.

In the following month, while Fra Mattia rapidly completed the large

16 bonello 1970, p. 460.17 AoM 261, f. 58r (16 october 1666).

allegorical composition on the larger part of the wall, on the lower part he set

about the finishes to the new front of the entrance.18

on 20th december 1666 Preti finished the paintings on the interior façade,

thus his oeuvre was ‘concluded to the entire satisfaction of His Eminence, the

Venerable Council and general approval of the whole Convent’. The event was

concluded with the decision by the Treasury to favour the artist with ‘a gift to

the value of one thousand scudi in precious stones, or in any way which pleased

the artist best’.19

The vastness of the wall surface and the complexity of the subject which was

depicted, enlivened by dozens of personages, makes the speed with which the

Cavalier Calabrese concluded the final part of the mural decoration in St John’s,

all the more astonishing, by painting the entire wall in under three months; with

the completion of the interior façade, the designs for the Conventual church

of St John which were presented to the Council of the order in 1661 were

definitively executed within five years of works.20

18 nAV notary A. dello re, r. 227/16 (1665–1667), ff. 153r–153v: annotations added on 18 February 1667.

19 AoM 261, f. 61.20 baldinucci 1694 (ed. 1847, pp.572–573); paScoli 1736, II, pp. 108–109.

28

THE APoTHEoSIS oF THE BAPTIST

The concave apse is the setting for the Apotheosis of the Baptist which

presents the climax of the pictorial narrative of the mural decoration,

although the painting was the first to be executed: ‘Preti started to design

the tribuna [rostrum] of St John, which included the Holy Trinity in a glory

of beautiful angels who attend upon the Eternal Father seated in majesty

and who extends the banner of the Hierosolimitan Hospitaller order to

St John who kneels before him.’21

The insubstantial space of the heavens is taken up by a corporeal

mass of clouds that provides a material background against which to

highlight the large figures of the protagonists: the devout Baptist on one

knee is shown to the heavenly Father through the mediating figure of

Christ in diffused light, radiating the ethereal presence of the Holy Spirit

at the vortex of the composition. The ‘beautiful angels who attend’ as

described by de dominici take on a fundamental purpose of completing

the composition. Beyond the large angel bearing the banner and the putti

carrying the symbols – the cross and the lamb – of St John which are an

essential element in the narrative, in fact, the large presence of angels

imparts to the ensemble an air of suspended lightness that dissolves the

solemnity of the represented moment into a joyful choral presence. The

air of serenity that is imparted by the playful putti which peep out of the

sheets of clouds is further illusorily pervaded by celestial notes played by

21 de doMinici 1742–54, pp. 355–356.

musical angels that emerge around the frame at the lower end. The winged

coloured figures accompany the handing over of the banner to the Baptist

with lutes, violas, trumpets, cornets and harps – which Preti had already

depicted in the choir of the church of San Biagio in Modena ten years

earlier – are certainly inspired by the decoration of the oratory of Santa

Silvia in the complex of San Gregorio al Celio in rome, where identical

musical angels, similarly spread beyond an illusionary curtain at the base

of the concave apse, were depicted by Guido reni between 1608 and 1609.

The entire decorative cycle was executed by Preti using the technique

of oil painting and applying it directly to the porous surface of stone

which had been previously treated with oil. over the centuries, the state

of preservation of the mural paintings was partly compromised by the

presence of water infiltrations (particularly in the area of the apse) and

by the hydroscopic quality of the stone itself. Between 1868 and 1874,

in order to remedy the situation caused by the widespread whitening

which disturbed the legibility of the compositions, Ignazio Cortis, a

pupil of Tommaso Minardi, intervened on the entire painted cycle, with

extensive overpainting which covered Mattia Preti’s original brushstrokes.

The incongruous additions were removed between 1959 and 1962 in the

course of a restoration project undertaken by ICr, under the direction of

Cesare Brandi.22

22 Spike 1999, pp. 319–321; Guido–Mantella 2011

The Baptism of Christ

29

THE LIFE oF THE BAPTIST

Executed according to the designs that had been proposed by Preti, the

decoration of the vault of St John’s is expressed in one complex narrative

cycle which presents the history of the Baptist divided in eighteen episodes

with three different scenes painted in each of the arched sections.

The narrative starts in the section adjacent to the entrance to the

church, with pictures that depict the protagonists Elizabeth and Zacharias,

parents of the forerunner of Christ. The first series of paintings in fact depict

the moment of The Prophecy of Zacharias in the Temple of Jerusalem,

with Archangel Gabriel who announces the imminent birth of a son to

the elderly priest; in the scene at the centre is the representation of The

Visitation with the meeting between Elizabeth and Mary; at the opposite

end is the painting of The Birth of the Baptist.

In the following series of compositions the figure of St John is depicted

at the extremity of the arched vault, showing the Baptist who, in the act

of preaching the Coming of the Messiah, recognises Christ – depicted in

the background – and announces it to the bystanders by pronouncing

the words ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’, Here is the Lamb of God; the symmetrical

scene opposite instead shows John in the Desert surrounded by a natural

landscape while living a life of penitence and prayer through meditation

and isolation, accompanied only by angelic presences. Several angels

enliven also the scene depicted at the centre of the arch which foregrounds

St Elizabeth as the protagonist. In the third arched vault the central scene

is kept for The Glory of God the Father who, encircled by rows of angels,

becomes the fulcrum of the entire pictorial narration, witnessing the

events to which the Forerunner of Christ is the protagonist. The figures that

occupy the two lateral scenes are placed in rarefied natural surroundings in

which the Preaching in the Desert is seen to unfold, as well as the moment

of The Baptism of Christ.

The pictorial narrative takes a dramatic turn in the following series of

paintings that open with St John being interrogated by the priests and

Levites sent by Herod to find out who he was; the response is seen in

the cartouche held up by an angel in flight who bears the answer of the

Baptist: ‘Non ego sum Christus’, I am not the Christ. The central scene instead

depicts the moment in which, paying the Tribute to the Soldier, John enters

Jerusalem. There follows the episode of The Arrest of St John, captured by

the king’s soldiers in the midst of a crowd, depicted at the extremity of the

fourth arch.

Events are precipitated and the image of the Baptist who reproves

Herod for his immoral behaviour, standing up to the enthroned sovereign

as well as that of the Imprisonment, together flank the central composition

which foretells the end of the Life, with the depiction of Salome with John’s

Head on a silver platter.

St John preaching in the desert

30

The preamble to the tragic ending is represented in the last arch

depicting the moments which immediately precede, starting with Herod’s

Banquet which shows the dance of Salome; at the opposite end, the

instance of the Beheading of the Saint is depicted. At the centre a Concert

of Angels sings the glory of the realization of the divine will and the sacrifice

of the Baptist.

In all the vault arches, Fra Mattia depicted large figures which stand out

against the sky and architectonic views, depicted boldly in sotto in su, as

they would appear from below, with carefully studied compositions which

focus on foregrounded scenes. The large surfaces of the open backgrounds,

which appear to open out from the point of view at ground level, recall

the grand paintings depicting impressive scenographies of the Venetian

school, more specifically as seen in the paintings of Paolo Veronese (for

example, the large canvas painting The Banquet in the House of Levy,

executed for the dominican convent of Saints John and Paul, today in the

Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice) which are the prototypes for large-format

airy compositions which are circumscribed by classical architectural wings

placed at oblique angles.

All the narratives and the personages depicted on the vault are actually

compressed within a painted architectural frame which is articulated with

bulky arches and ashlar surfaces, balustrades and ledges, large telamones

and carved reliefs in the monochromatic texture of illusionary grey stone,

which cause the colourful scenes to stand out prominently. Even the

diffused light and pure colours are linked to the Venetian-Emilian school,

The Allegory of the order

88

89

The Church of the Jesuit Order, or The Gesù

VALLETTA

Left: The Liberation of St Peter

90

91

The Church of the Jesuit Order, or The Gesù

92

VALLETTAThe ChurCh Of The JeSuiT Order, Or The GeSù

in 1592, a papal brief sent by Pope Clement Viii Aldobrandini established

the institution of a Jesuit college in Malta.1 Part of the new institution, which

had been established in the city of Valletta, was the Church of the Gesu’,

built between 1592 and 1609 to the design of the Jesuit architect from the

Abruzzo region, Giuseppe Valeriani.2 On 12th September 1634 the original

building was seriously damaged by a deadly explosion in the gunpowder

depot of the Order of St John, that caused extensive destruction and led

to around twenty deaths in the surrounding vicinity.3 The location of the

gunpowder refinery was in the so-called ‘Polverista quarter’, a block that

was originally planned for the area taken by the Auberge of the Langue

of england, surrounded by St Paul Street, St Christopher Street, Merchants

Street and St dominic Street, that is adjacent to the Jesuit College complex

of buildings. The church was almost completely destroyed, and was finally

restored around 1637, to the design of the Tuscan architect francesco

Buonamici, to whom the new dome and monumental façade has been

attributed. The church was built on a longitudinal plane with a large nave

and five large chapels at its sides and an imposing transept. The inclusion of

a high attic with large windows along the vaulted nave imbued the interior

of the new church with bright daylight.

in the course of the second half of the eighteenth century, the

1 pecchiai 1938, pp. 140–141.2 de lucca–procida 1995, pp. 384–385.3 dal pozzo 1703, p. 828; denaro 1962, p. 52.

Jesuits took on the role of eminent spiritual leaders in european courts,

as counsellors and confessors to catholic sovereigns, as well as influential

orators amongst the wider masses. Their authority came to represent an

obstacle to attainment of monarchical Absolutism and to the claims of

autonomy by regional dioceses. The situation initially led to the expulsion

of the Society of Jesus from Portugal in 1759, then to the Papal Bull issued

by Pope Clement XiV who, ostensibly to keep the peace within the Church,

decreed the dissolution of the Order that had been founded by ignatius

of Loyola. in 1768, Grand Master Manuel Pinto de fonseca (1741–1773),

similarly to what was happening in the principal kingdoms of Catholic

europe, expelled the Jesuits from Malta. They were thus constrained to

relinquish their church and the Collegium Melitense in Merchants Street.

The following year, in 1769, the college became the seat of the Pubblica

Università di Studi Generali, the university that was established by decree

of Grand Master Manuel Pinto de fonseca.

The second chapel to the left of the church, dedicated to ‘San Pietro

ad Vincula [was entrusted] to Pietro ronelli [sic] and Aloisia Massa, on 25th

April 1662’.4 The wealthy Maltese goldsmith and his wife resided in the

vicinity of the College, in a palazzo on Merchants Street (today bearing door

number 167) at crossroads with St Christopher Street, and on which one

4 FerriS 1866, p. 192

St Peter and St Paul led to Martyrdom.

93

can still see the coat-of-arms marked with the initials of both their names.

They turned the side-chapel into their family chapel, intended as the burial

site of their mortal remains5. The new title-holders of the chapel of St Peter

in Vinculis turned to Mattia Preti, who had moved his residence to Malta only

a few months earlier, commissioning him to execute a cycle of paintings

that depicted the last episodes of the life of the saint. The Cavalier Calabrese

emulated the pictorial decoration of the richly-embellished chapels of

the Conventual church, by executing three large canvas paintings that

enriched the rosselli chapel with real masterpieces6.

The altarpiece represented The Liberation of St Peter, depicting the saint

as he escapes from prison, freed from chains and following the angel sent

by the Lord, while the soldier on guard lies asleep in the foreground; the

large figures dominate the composition, illuminated by a raking light that

creates sharp contrasts on their faces, while the background remains in

the thick darkness of the night. On the side walls of the chapel, one finds

two large lunettes that represent the last days of the saint: one lunette

recreates the dramatic moment of the encounter between St Peter and

St Paul led to Martyrdom, and the brief exchange of looks rudely interrupted

by the executioners taking them to their final torment. The pictorial

narrative continues in the opposite lunette that represents the moment

5 anV, Notarial deed of the Notary Giacinto Cauchi in Valletta on 24 June 1682; denaro 1958, p. 168.

6 Spike 1999, pp. 305–306.

of the Martyrdom of St Peter, as he is tied to the cross head to the ground,

and hoisted with difficulty by the executioners. in both instances, the

composition is expressed along parallel planes where the foreground is

defined by an element (a person or object, an ancient ruin or archaeological

finding) that appears to protrude into real space, the middle ground

where the main narrative takes place, and finally the background where

bystanders watch the spectacle as it unfolds. This is a similar schema, with

a different narrative, to that of the lunettes in 1659 executed by Mattia Preti

for the Chapel of the Langue of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre, dedicated

to the figure of St Lawrence, that therefore preceded by a few years the

paintings executed for the Chapel of St  Peter in Vinculis in the Jesuits’

Church. As a rare instance of a private commission in the extraordinary

number of works executed by Preti during his Maltese period, the paintings

executed for the rosselli contain little theatricality; in this instance, in fact,

the compositions of the Petrine cycle appear to be very simple, and assume

a highly didactic and commemorative quality. The wonderful complexity of

the ‘baroque invention’ seen in the more famous oeuvre of fra Mattia Preti is

here replaced by a sincere, devout and emotional hagiographic depiction

of the Prince of the Apostles.

The Martyrdom of St Peter

94

detail of St Peter and St Paul led to Martyrdom

95

detail of The Liberation of St Peter