Feast for a prodigal son

Branding Malta with such luminous names as Caravaggio's will place the island in the big league of art and culture, Mario Tabone says with the relish of a sharp marketing executive.

Dr Tabone is an ophthalmologist but the manner in which he has been promoting the island's cultural heritage shows he could, with great ease, shift from using his delicate tools to running an advertising campaign.

In a calm and methodical manner, he says the exhibition, Il Chiaroscuro Del Caravaggio, which will be on between the end of September and the end of November, will transform Valletta into a centre of European art.

"It is incorrect to say the Maltese do not appreciate high art. The fact of the matter is that most people have not been regaled with choice works of art laid out in a professional manner.

"For example, I have viewed the Terracotta Soldiers in Rome and one has to compliment the Italians on their expertise in presenting such priceless artefacts.

"On the other hand, one cannot find anything to criticise in the way Heritage Malta executives have presented the Terracotta Soldiers to the public at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Indeed, the whole effort was perfect to a fault."

I have found that most people who look closer at Caravaggio's life end up speaking about him with an intense passion.

Dr Tabone is no exception.

"Various scholars claim there is art before Caravaggio and art after Caravaggio.

"Whereas artists before Caravaggio idealised nature, this genius recorded the sordid life he came across. If the person had dirty feet or was wearing torn clothing, that is how the great master recorded it. His female models were mostly prostitutes he was acquainted with."

The exquisite paintings show that Caravaggio was able to make the viewer complete mentally sections of the canvas that the artist did not fill in. To effect closure.

"He challenges viewers to come into the picture and become part of the event being depicted, whether it be the beheading of John the Baptist, the sacrifice of Isaac or the death of the Virgin."

Michelangelo Merisi, who called himself Caravaggio after the town of his birth, arrived on the island in July 1607 after he got into trouble with the authorities in Rome for killing a man.

Here, he was involved in a brawl in which a member of the Knights of the Order of St John - which at the time ruled the island - was seriously injured.

Caravaggio was imprisoned in Fort St Angelo in 1608 but spirited himself away to Messina in Sicily.

He died of fever in Porto Ercole on his way from Naples to the eternal city in 1610, two years after leaving these shores.

The exhibition which is being organised with the assistance of the Italian company Romartificio, will consist of 12 works, the majority of which have been declared by top scholars as being 100 per cent works by Caravaggio.

The rest are still sparking off debate in the international art world about their authorship, with scholars from various schools putting forward their hypotheses.

From the Malta end, Renaissance Productions acted as facilitators to trigger this wondrous show.

The most difficult problem was getting financial indemnity from the government. That achievement has permitted the island to break into the international circuit of some of the most prestigious exhibitions.

"This exhibition, like the Terracotta Soldiers, which has just ended, shows that despite its size, Malta has knowledgeable and professional people who are able to negotiate and conclude deals of a high calibre.

"This is placing the island on the international cultural network.

"This is a collective effort by Heritage Malta in the sense that each and every one of the staff contributed in one way or another to bringing this magnificent show together."

Heritage Malta will offer the public not only a closer look at Caravaggio but will provide details about the tempestuous and tortuous life of this enigmatic painter, life in Malta during the early 17th century and works from the Museum of Fine Arts by artists who imitated the great master.

The main sponsors are the National Lotteries Good Causes Fund, Air Malta, HSBC, the Malta Tourism Authority, the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Malta Stock Exchange.