The 18th century titular painting of Ta’ Liesse church, Valletta, is considered one of the finest works by Maltese artist Enrico Arnaudi (also known as Regnaud or Arnaux, 1692-1764), who was influenced predominantly by Stefano Erardi and, to a lesser extent, by Mattia Preti.

Cleaning trials and treatments.

This oil-on-canvas painting recently underwent a two-year conservation-res­toration intervention. The project was commissioned by Fr Joe Borg, rector of the church, and supported by Heritage Malta, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Restoration Directorate, with sponsorship by Tug Malta Ltd.

Conservator-restorer Amy Sciberras embarked on this restoration project in 2016. The painting had been severely damaged throughout the years. It was likely that the extensive network of tears  in the painting’s original canvas, and the corresponding paint losses, occurred during the bombing of 1942, when the entire church suffered acute damages.

Canvas tears and paint losses had been masked by past restoration interventions, which probably took place following World War II. However, these past interventions – including the old lining canvas which had been attached to the original canvas – had aged and were no longer performing their function of strengthening the deteriorated painting.

Other past interventions of the time included the gesso infills, which were covering the extensive losses in the origi­nal paint layers. These were not precisely applied and were, in some areas, overlapping the original paint.

The painting after treatment, on site.

This problem was also present in other past retouchings which, in some places, were found to be covering the original paint. Additionally, an overall thick and yellowed varnish coating was significantly obscuring the vivid hues used by Arnaud. All these factors were contributing towards rendering the legi­bility of the painting very poor.

Following preliminary investigations and studies, conservation treatments started. These included consolidation treatments addressing adhesion problems between the various strata constituting the painting; cleaning of the oxidised varnish layer; and the removal of past interventions, including past retouching, overpaint, old infills and the old lining canvas.

Tears in the original canvas were repaired, and canvas lacunae inlayed using newly-prepared canvas. Due to the extensive canvas tears present it was imperative to carry out a double lining treatment.

This involved preparing two separate lining canvasses, which were first attached to one another and then to the verso of the canvas painting. Ultimately, losses in the ground and paint layers were integrated and a final protective coating applied. Following these interventions, preventive on site measures were also taken to protect the painting from the architectural fabric and related deterioration problems.

Ta’ Liesse titular painting has now been put back in place, where it can be appreciated in its full splendour.