A unique exhibition of Mattia Preti works was inaugurated at the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta yesterday.

The exhibition, Mattia Preti: Faith and Humanity, is being held by Heritage Malta in collaboration with Museo Civico di Taverna in Calabria.

Preti, an Italian renaissance artist and Knight of the Order of St John, is most famous for transforming the interior of Valletta’s St John’s Co-Cathedral with a series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St John the Baptist.

The exhibition brings together 34 paintings, sketches and historic artefacts from collections across Europe, including works from Spain’s Prado museum and the Louvre in France.

Heritage Malta curator Sandro Debono said the exhibition was the result of several months of planning and cooperation bet-ween Heritage Malta, foreign museums and embassies.

Most of the works in the collection have never been displayed in Malta and the exhibition was originally unveiled in Preti’s hometown of Taverna.

Visitors with smartphones can learn more about certain paintings by scanning nearby QR codes.

Mr Debono said: “By no stretch of the imagination can I see a Preti exhibition of this calibre and historic significance for Malta at our shores again.”

It forms part of a series of events organised by Heritage Malta in the run up to Valletta’s title as European Capital of Culture in 2018.

Mr Debono said the three-tier exhibition fuses paintings of national and historic significance with the results of scientific work and a new, interactive element.

The arguable star of the exhibition - Preti’s depiction of the beheaded corpse of St John the Baptist - will be on show alongside its original sketch, which Mr Debono said had not been side by side since they left Preti’s workshop some 350 years ago.

The exhibition will run until July 7. More details at http://preti.heritagemalta.org .