Preti’s The Virgin of Mercy with Souls in Purgatory at St George’s Basilica in Victoria.Preti’s The Virgin of Mercy with Souls in Purgatory at St George’s Basilica in Victoria.

The 400th anniversary of the birth of renowned Calabrian artist Mattia Preti is being celebrated this year. Paintings of the baroque master are scattered all over Malta and Gozo, in churches, museums and other public places, as well as in private homes.

Although small in size, Gozo also has its fair share of this artistic heritage.

Preti, Xewkija and St John the Baptist

The Gozo Culture and Information Office within the Ministry for Gozo publishes a monthly leaflet to inform the public of the various events taking place on the island. This month’s edition features a portrait of St John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ and patron saint of the Xewkija Rotunda and of the Order of Malta.

This portrait is featuring in an exhibition of works by Preti, organised by the Philharmonic Society Prekursur of Xewkija, together with the Sacred Art Commission of the Gozo Diocese and the Gozo Culture Office within the Ministry for Gozo.

The previous titular painting that used to hang in the old parish church of Xewkija, now demolished, was for a long time attributed to Preti. It can still be seen in the Mużew tal-Iskultura adjoining the Xewkija Rotunda. Although it has been concluded that the painting might not be the work of Preti, it is certainly the work of the Preti school of artists and his influence is evident.

In an article entitled Religious Art in Gozo (1500-1900 A Study on Patronage Patterns, Paul Muscat states that it is the work of Gioacchino Loretta (The Gozo Observer, December 2009). Tradition has it that the previous altarpiece at Xewkija was, in fact, Preti’s work, but it was taken away by Bishop Michele Molina to his new Episcopal See of Larida in Catalunya after he left our islands.

Preti painted the Baptist in a number of other works, including one found in the chapel at the Verdala Palace in Rabat. Most notably, the grand, vaulted ceiling of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta depicts scenes from the life of the saint.

Preti in Victoria

The titular painting within St Augustine’s Conventual church in Victoria was commissioned in 1690 by Maltese nobleman Giovanni Gourgion. The Gourgion family used to own the Gourgion tower in Xewkija which was destroyed to make way for an airstrip during World War II. The altarpiece at St Augustine’s Priory in Victoria is known as St Augustine with St John the Baptist and St William of Aquitaine.

In 2001, a music and literary evening was held at St Augustine church to mark the discovery of an important document in the priory’s archives that attributed the titular painting of the church to Preti and Bottega (c.1694).

Young researcher Paul Cassar of Victoria said he came across the document while carrying out research work in the archives of the priory. He said the document revealed information on the commission, the structural preparations, donations and payment of the church’s titular painting. The painting was restored by Gozitan artist and restorer Godwin Cutajar in 1997.

However, it is at St George’s Basilica that Preti’s two most renowned paintings in Gozo are to be found. Professor Mario Buhagiar states that “the most publicised work of the master [in Gozo] is the titular painting of the Collegiate Basilica of St George” (Gozo The Roots of An Island, 1990). The painting at the basilica, paid by a member of the Gourgion family, shows the saint standing on a decapitated dragon with his white horse on his side. This work has slowly established itself as Preti’s best representative painting on the island.

The other painting is that of Our Lady of Souls in one of the transepts at St George’s; the theme was quite popular in late medieval Catholic piety. There is a painting with the same theme in the museum next to the basilica.

Preti’s Our Lady of Holy Souls or The Virgin of Mercy with Souls in Purgatory was painted in 1688 and has been referred to by Prof. Buhagiar as a “more accomplished and artistically satisfying work than the St George”.

Other attributions

The titular painting at Nadur’s parish church, showing the apostles Peter and Paul chained on their way to martyrdom, has also been attributed to the school of Preti. However, scholars are now of the opinion that it is the product of the workshop of Preti and say that it was carried out entirely by Preti’s assistants. The painting reached Nadur only after 1699.

We do not know for certain if Preti ever visited Gozo, since no documentation on the matter has ever come to light.

However, it is certain that through his paintings at St George’s Basilica, in the heart of Gozo, he has become a household name for the people of the island called by the Castilians ‘the island of joy’.

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