Laurence Grech, former editor of The Sunday Times, pays tribute to Emanuel Fiorentino, the newspaper's art critic of long standing, who passed away last Sunday.
Although one could not say that recently Emanuel (Lino) Fiorentino was in the best of health, his death last Sunday, feast of the Epiphany, must have come as a shock to all those who knew him. It certainly came as a shock to me, not only because Lino was still a relatively young 61, but also because he was the art critic of The Sunday Times for 32 years.

In all this time Lino produced hundreds of reviews of exhibitions - solo and collective ones - by local and foreign artists, features on Malta's often hidden artistic heritage and on restoration of important church paintings and other artistic works, interviews with artists, and reviews of books on artists and their works. His criticism was always constructive and never patronising. His writing often focused on young, promising artists for whom he always offered a word of encouragement.

Lino was a modest, unassuming man of great intelligence and considerable cultural baggage. In our long years of collaboration, 16 of which as his editor, we never had an argument, and he accepted occasional changes to his text with grace and good humour. He tried to cater for the art-loving readers of The Sunday Times by covering as many as possible of the numerous and frequent art exhibitions, including those in Gozo, often at great sacrifice, especially in recent years when his health started to wane.

But Lino's considerable contribution to the appreciation of art in Malta was not limited to his reviews in The Sunday Times. He contributed numerous articles on art subjects to parish magazines, especially that of Cospicua, where he lived for most of his life, and Zabbar, where he moved to be close to his only brother Mario and his wife Antoinette after the death of his beloved parents, and also to other periodicals. Indeed, Cospicua and Zabbar had a special place in Lino's heart, and the two communities benefited greatly from his art expertise.

Then, of course, Lino co-authored a number of books on Maltese artists, including Giuseppe Calì, Willie Apap and Antoine de Favray, and he was the author of a book on Anton Inglott. At the time of his death he was co-authoring, with Dennis Vella, a book on Emvin Cremona.

This not to mention the numerous catalogues he wrote for exhibitions he himself curated - particularly the retrospectives of Maltese artists organised by Bank of Valletta at their head office, among them Antoine Camilleri, Frank Portelli, and Marco Cremona.

A graduate in History of Art from the Universities of London and Malta, Lino's art scholarship was beyond doubt. Initially attracted to a medical career, he took up the teaching profession instead and taught in government schools for over three decades. Before he took early retirement, he taught History of Art at the School of Art and Design.

His other interests included science, history, music and travel, Byzantine icons (of which he had a good collection), and theology - having graduated from the Augustinian Institute of Patristic Studies late in life. He was also a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre and a Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George.

Lino Fiorentino will be sorely missed by readers of The Sunday Times and the artistic community in Malta, many of whom were present at his funeral at Zabbar Sanctuary last Tuesday.

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