Self-Portrait of Durer with landscape dated 1498 and his monogram below the window.Self-Portrait of Durer with landscape dated 1498 and his monogram below the window.

The Cathedral Museum in Mdina and its archives fully deserves its proud reputation of being a ‘crossroad of faith and culture’, epitomising the actual function of a church museum. This prestigious museum, which will soon mark its 50th anniversary, is a depository of priceless paintings, original manuscripts, unique prints, ancient reliquaries and outstanding objets d’art of the medieval Università. Its unique archives include the records of the Inquisition and the Militia List of 1419, exquisite works of art and original baroque music, which this year has even reached the shores of the US.

The museum, a splendid baroque palace built to serve as a seminary in the centre of Mdina by Bishop Paolo Alpheran de Bussan (1728-1757), is considered as one of the best church museums in Europe. It is alive with cultural and religious dimensions compatible with the modern concept of a living museum, as evidenced by the various activities scheduled for this year. Last month there was an extraordinary attendance at Prof. Stanley Fiorini’s lecture on the precious remains of the old medieval cathedral.

Alfred Durer diffused a new way of looking at art, elevating the graphic arts to a highly esteemed major art at a time when printing had not yet been invented

The newly elected committee of the Friends of the Museum is breathing new life into this living institution with a range of lectures, concerts and exhibitions. The committee enjoys the full support and direct involvement of its energetic curator, Fr Edgar Vella, and Mgr Aloysius Deguara.

The Durer Collection at the Mdina Museum feature a large collection of woodcuts and copper plates of Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), including The Life of the Virgin, a series of images relating the life of the Virgin Mary; and The Small Passion, a sequence of images on the passion and death of the Lord. They are among the museum’s most priceless acquisitions.

Detail from fresco of the Great Seige of Malta by Matteo Perez D’Allecio at the Palace, Valletta, showing Mdina and its medieval cathedral.Detail from fresco of the Great Seige of Malta by Matteo Perez D’Allecio at the Palace, Valletta, showing Mdina and its medieval cathedral.

Durer was born on May 21, 1471, in the medieval city of Nuremberg, Germany, long famous and infamous throughout Teutonic history. Ever since his childhood, Durer had been preoccupied by the thought of approaching death at a time when fatal diseases were lurking around every corner.

This phobia prompted him to embark on a series of woodcuts on a Biblical theme, starting with the Apocalypse, written by St John the Evangelist, on the island of Patmos, followed by the Large Passion, and later by the extraordinary gems at Mdina of The Life of the Virgin and The Small Passion.

Durer was devoutly religious and considered Martin Luther, the German religious reformer living in the Augustinian Convent in Wuttenberg, as God’s instrument. He was plagued by stiff religious codes, and although in certain ways he shared in the tenets of the Renaissance Movement towards science and reason, religion remained his guiding light.

During his lifetime, Durer’s reputation spread all over Europe and he was on friendly terms with all the outstanding painters of the period. In fact, the great Raphael (il gran pittor d’Urbini del pennello divino) felt greatly honoured to exchange paintings with Durer. He also made his home town of Nuremberg a centre renowned for the promotion and study of graphic art, as evidenced by the beautiful siege maps issued in Nurenberg during the Great Seige of Malta of 1565.

The Durer Collection was originally housed at the Mdina Cathedral.The Durer Collection was originally housed at the Mdina Cathedral.

Durer diffused a new way of looking at art, elevating the graphic arts to a highly esteemed major art at a time when printing had not yet been invented. The genius of Durer cannot be properly assessed without considering his detailed and precise paintings of animals. This is evidenced in the exquisite 1502 watercolour painting of a Young Hare.

His scientific interests are particularly visible in his pictures of the animal kingdom and plants. It is recorded that on one occasion he rowed for six days to closely study the carcass of a whale.

A few decades ago the then curator of the Cathedral Museum, Mgr John Azzopardi, affectionately known as Dun Ġwann, remarked that in Durer’s time, books were the only means of multiplying and dissiminating ideas and images. So engravings on copper or wood were particularly essential for holy images (santi) to be distributed to the illiterate masses.

The history and provenance of the Durer Collection at the Mdina Cathedral Museum dates back to 1831 when Count Saverio Marchese (1757-1833), a member of a notable family from southern France who had settled in Malta in the 17th century, decided to donate this rare collection to the Mdina Cathedral, then as now considered an enclave of artistic sophistication.

A panel showing the arms of Emperor Charles V who ceded Malta to the Knights in 1530, at the museum. Photo: Peter Bartolo ParnisA panel showing the arms of Emperor Charles V who ceded Malta to the Knights in 1530, at the museum. Photo: Peter Bartolo Parnis

Marchese, an art connoisseur, had collected a vast selection of paintings, drawings and prints over the years, which he bequeathed to the Mdina Cathedral in his will of May 2, 1831, stipulating that “these paintings, drawings and prints be deposited and preserved forever in the hall and library of the Cathedral”. Marchese is rightly regarded as the founder of the Cathedral Museum Collection, forming the nucleus of the previous museum housed within the Cathedral itself amid the splendour of Franceso Zahra’s masterpiece The Apotheosis of St Paul.

The complete set of the Life of the Virgin and the Small Passion, replete with their inexhaustible variety of dramatic graphic invention, is a feast for the cultured eye. These masterpieces are incongruously and simultaneously Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque in style, a concept which Durer had dreamt of during his sojourn in Venice.

In his Passion woodcuts, Durer had established the concept of the momentousness of human sufferings by showing Christ with the crown of thorns and marks of the wounds. In the Life of the Virgin one cannot fail to admire the eloquent detail of the Meeting of Joachim and Anna under the Golden Gate matched with The Betrothal of the Virgin.

The Cathedral Museum houses unique medieval and baroque musical manuscripts.The Cathedral Museum houses unique medieval and baroque musical manuscripts.

The poignant rendering of the story of The Praying Hands painted by Durer is a result of a remarkable bond of friendship with another artist friend for whom he expressed a lot of attention and admiration.

In the museum’s print section one can also view woodcuts by Durer’s students Hans Leonard Schaufelen (1480- c 1539 ) and Hans Sebald, as well as engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi (1488-1546), whose persistent plagiarism of Durer’s style initiated the earliest known court proceedings for copyright. It has recently been revealed that a Durer painting once adorned the walls of the Castrum Maris (Fort St Angelo) in Vittoriosa.

Today, Durer is as popular as he was in his lifetime. In 1978, three of his copper engravings exhibited in the Cathedral Museum, were reproduced in three Maltese stamps to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Durer’s death.

Young Hare, 1502. Durer excelled in watercolour paintings as reflected in this detailed drawing.Young Hare, 1502. Durer excelled in watercolour paintings as reflected in this detailed drawing.

One stamp presents a noble lady on horseback conversing with a young soldier in a medieval setting; another stamp shows bagpipes, one of Durer’s most refined engravings, in which his monograms are clearly visible, and the third stamp represents a scene from the Life of the Virgin in which the Virgin Mary is seated in a pastoral setting holding the infant Jesus playing with a bird, while in the foreground a playful monkey is resting at the top of the Virgin.

It is both ironic and at the same time ecumenically significant that Durer, whose art and thought were the very essence of those German qualities which produced the Reformation, and who was personally a collaborator with the founders of this strong movement including Martin Luther himself, should occupy such an exalted and prominent position in the rich art collection of the Mdina Cathedral Museum.

Inauguration of baroque hall, open day at the museum

Archbishop Charles Scicluna will inaugurate a renovated baroque period hall at the Cathedral Museum on Wednesday at 6.30 pm. This will be followed by the launching of the book Treasures of Faith by Fr Edgar Vella and an the opening of an exhibition related to the book, entitled Relics and Reliquaries. The public is invited to attend. The museum will be open to the public on Thursday from 9.30am to 4pm.

Lino Bugeja is public relations officer of the Mdina Cathedral Museum and Archives.

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