On the feast day of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, the parishioners of Cospicua will behold a more luminous version of the titular statue as it is carried in procession.

The statue of the Immaculate Conception photographed in Milan at the renowned Milanese firm Antonio Ghezzi e Figlio after a new body made of silver-hammered sheets was created according to Abraham Gatt’s design for the renovation of the statue. The head, hands, feet and serpent were kept from the old 17th-century statue (below) and adjusted to the new design.

In fact, what started out as a mild restoration work last year turned into a fully-fledged project and now the statue’s head, hands and feet have regained the original colours and shading they had at the beginning of the 20th century.

The original wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception is attributed to Carmelite nun Maria De Domenicis (1650-1708), who belonged to a rich Neapolitan family that settled in Malta and was a pupil of Mattia Preti.

It is believed that she carved the statue from the trunk of a miraculous carob tree on which Our Lady is said to have appeared.

In 1905, Cospicua-born sculptor and painter Abraham Gatt (1863-1944) was commissioned by the Collegiate Chapter to perform alterations to the statue so that it could be plated in silver.

These modifications were so extensive that the statue of Our Lady as it is known today is, to a large part, considered the work of Gatt.

The silverwork was done at the time by Antonio Ghezzi e Figlio of Milan.

In early 1986, artist Michael Camilleri Cauchi carried out an intervention of an aesthetical nature, namely the repainting of the face, hair, hands and feet and of the serpent. A more recent intervention was carried out in 2005 by the late artist Renzo Gauci and involved the retouching of the hands to disguise scratches caused by the jewellery. In the same year, a golden ‘stellarju’ (halo with stars) was placed on the head of the statue.

The latest restoration project’s aim was to remove the layers of overpainting in order to arrive to the original paint layer applied in 1905 when the statue was redesigned by Gatt and covered in silver cladding.

The work was entrusted to Atelier del Restauro under the direction of Maria Grazia Zenzani and Valentina Lupo.

Silversmiths Laga Company Ltd, undertook the restoration of the halo and Emmanuel Vassallo and Carmelo DeLorenzo repaired and restored the wooden plinth.

The restoration works were inaugurated during a musico-literary evening last Saturday.

A detailed account of the restoration process will be published in the next issue of The Sunday Times of Malta.

Restorer Maria Grazia Zenzani applying the final coating.

The uncovering of the original painted layer of the hands using a scalpel blade.

Before and after conservation treatment of the foot and serpent.

Before and after conservation treatments of the right hand.