Heritage Malta’s National Museum of Fine Arts and Italy’s Museo Civico di Taverna have come together to mount a major international exhibition about famous baroque artist Mattia Preti.

The exhibition, marking the 400 years of the artist’s birth, is in the context of a 2010 protocol providing for joint collaboration projects

The exhibition project will mark the 400 years of the artist’s birth and will kick off next year in Taverna – his birth city – and later come to Malta where he spent almost 40 years of his life.

Preti transformed the interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta with a series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St John the Baptist.

Many paintings by Preti can also be found in private collections and in parish churches.

Launched last week at the church of San Domenico in Taverna, where Preti’s masterpieces painted for his hometown still hang, the project is the result of the close collaboration that existed between the Museo Civico di Taverna and the National Museum of Fine Arts over the past 25 years.

They signed a protocol in 2010 which providing for knowledge sharing, joint conservation projects on works of art, publications and other initiatives.

Themed Mattia Preti – Faith And Humanity, the exhibition will feature prestigious loans from top European museums and institutions, including the Spanish Museo Nacional del Prado, the Louvre and the Uffizi, among others.

The exhibition will be inaugurated in Taverna on February 24, 2013 and then transfer to Malta in late April.

In May 2010, the National Museum of Fine Arts had hosted the exhibition Mattia Preti 10x10, which featured works by 10 contemporary Calabrian artists inspired by Preti’s work. Taverna had also hosted a complementary selection featuring works by 10 contemporary Maltese artists.