Sparkasse Bank Malta will be funding the restoration of Mattia Preti’s St Nicholas of Bari at Sarria Church.

Dr Mantella, left, explains the work that needs to be done to Sparkasse managing director Paul Mifsud.

The oil painting is one of seven Preti jewels adorning the church.
Giuseppe Mantella Restauri have committed to complete the work within a few months.

Fra Preti, known as il Cavaliere Calabrese, carried out the work on commission by Grandmaster Nicholas Cottoner as a pledge to the Blessed Assumption for deliverance from the plague in 1676.

St Nicholas of Bari depicts the Grandmaster’s patron saint, who is said to have saved a group of infants from being martyred in a cauldron of boiling water.

The young children appear at the foot of the saint, while on the opposite side a putto holds a sheaf of cotton, representing Grandmaster Cottoner’s coat of arms.

Din l-Art Ħelwa thanked the bank for its donation and hoped that the new legislation regulating tax rebates on funds provided for the salvage of Maltese heritage would encourage other donors to support the restoration of the two remaining works by Preti, which have not yet been restored.