Dark night of a painter's soul

The leitmotif in the Descent From The Cross, an oil on canvas painted in 1964 by Willie Apap, one of the main exponents of Maltese art in the 20th century, has been deciphered in a clinical manner by artist Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci.

The painting is being exhibited until Monday at the Mdina Cathedral Museum together with 27 drawings in pencil, charcoal and ink which show how Apap arrived at this religious composition, how he came to depict the participants to this mystery and how he developed the overall theme.

This masterpiece shows Apap's struggle as he fought to come to grips with the doubts he harboured about his religious faith.

Dr Schembri Bonaci said he became aware of this leitmotif when he was studying the painting.

"This line of thought was confirmed to me by other authorities who said I was treading the correct path coming up with this kind of reasoning," he said.

This is Christ the man, not Christ the God, being so helpless, shorn completely of divine power. There is no symbol of divinity in the Descent.

"You are seeing man in his suffering. The shroud is not painted white but smeared with various tones. Christ is suffering not as a son of God but as a man.

"The question the painting seems to be screaming is 'Why have you forsaken me?' The Madonna lacks a face and looks more like the Medea of death accentuating the moment of loss."

This is by no means a criticism of Apap. These are the elements that make up this masterpiece because they are not the traditional symbols of sacred art. The work is devoid of any symbolism. It is a narrative of loss of hope.

The white stripe that would have been a message of hope is not clearly white. There is a duel between the white and the black stripes but none of them is pure because the black is profound blue while the white is unclean.

Dr Schembri Bonaci's thesis has been published by Midsea Books on behalf of the Mdina Cathedral Museum in a book called Willie Apap: Descent from the Cross.

The book is illustrated with details from the main work together with the initial sketches and drawings that are being shown along with this great work. The oil on canvas as well as the sketches were ferreted out from private collections.

This exposition is a first by the Department of Art at the University of Malta which intends to organise a series of exhibitions of Maltese masters, by picking a masterpiece of each master and see how he or she arrived at the great work by showing alongside it the sketches and preliminary drawings.

The opening times are 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. The museum is closed on Sunday.