The Restoration and Conservation Cooperative Limited has concluded restoration and conservation work on Mattia Preti’s titular painting of The Miracle of St Nicholas of Bari which hangs in the parish church of St Nicholas in Siggiewi. Restoration was entrusted to ReCoop Limited by parish priest Fr Joseph Grech.
The painting, which was executed using pigments bound in an oil medium applied on canvas, is a late work by Preti and dates to the 1680s.
Records show that the painting went through at least two restoration interventions – the most recent dates to the second half of the 20th century, while an inscription discovered at the back of the canvas shows that the painting underwent another restoration intervention in 1929 by P. Galea.
The painting needed immediate attention since sagging and areas of bulging canvas were apparent. Numerous patches and stains of both varnish and scattered over-paintings were also evident. Its strainer was also weak and showed signs of infestation.
First, the painting was documented photographically. These physical examinations enabled the ReCoop team to identify past restorations and any foreign materials present on top of the paint layer and helped the team design the best treatment possible.
The treatment commenced with cleaning tests, which were executed to ensure the tailoring of the safest and most effective cleaning agent and methodology. Particular phases of treatment included the cleaning, whereby dark layers of aged oil and varnish together with any over-paintings were removed to uncover the original paint layers underneath. Thus the painting regained its original luminosity, depth and palette of the artist.
Another important phase was the structural intervention. During this phase the canvas was removed from its old strainer and its back was cleaned from layers of aged dirt. The painting was then consolidated and a pretreated piece of new and strong linen canvas was attached to its back. The canvas was then stretched onto a new wooden stretcher frame. All loses were integrated and final protective layers were applied.
A number of discoveries were made while restoring this work. One was that originally, Preti must have been commissioned a slightly larger painting. This would have been understandable, since the painting was commissioned when the church was still being built and slight alterations to the building would obviously have been made.
This restoration coincides with the 400th anniversary of the baroque artist’s birth and thus marks an important contribution to research and study on Mattia Preti and his work in Malta.