In response to Thomas Zerafa (The Sunday Times, May 9) about Keith Sciberras's attribution of the painting at the chapel of San Pawl tat-Tarġa to Giuseppe d'Arena, I would like to point out the following historical facts.

The chapel of St Paul was built in 1699 and the painting which Bishop Cocco Palmieri referred to in that year was none other than the old painting which today still hangs in the parish museum.

Bishop Cannaves indeed mentions a painting of St Paul in 1716 and as noted in the Exhibition Book (on page 128, note 15), this picture carried the coat-of-arms of the Bonelli Testaferrata families. However, the painting hanging on the altar in St Paul's chapel carries the coat-of-arms of the Bugeja-Schembri family. It is therefore very clear that these are two different paintings.

Further to this, as also pointed out by Dr Sciberras himself in his essay on 'Church Paintings in the Parish of Naxxar', in Naxxar - A Village and Its People (editors P. Catania and L. Scerri, 2000), there is a note in the expenditure book of the chapel dated September 29, 1747, recording the payment of six tarì for the transportation of a painting of St Paul to the little chapel of St Paul; this is obviously a reference to the painting we have today.

May I also point out that Francesco Zahra was a very good friend of the then parish priest of Naxxar, Fr Dominic Caruana from Senglea. It was because of this friendship that we have in Naxxar numerous paintings by Francesco Zahra. It is not surprising, therefore, that another painting by this artist was ordered for the chapel of St Paul.

Going by proven historical facts is a sure way of arriving at the truth. Attributing such paintings with proven historical facts to other painters simply on stylistic features is not a better way of doing this.

Dr Sciberras's change of thinking quite surprises me. In the book I referred to, he had this to say on the same painting: "The extent to which Zahra explored the art of Mattia Preti is best exemplified in the altar painting representing the miracle of the viper in the church of St Paul at San Pawl tat-Tarġa.

"The painting is quite obviously derived from Preti's lateral painting of the same subject in the choir of the cathedral church in Mdina... Zahra approaches the figure representation with a monumentality which is rarely so close to Preti."

I leave readers to draw their own conclusions.