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"This book examines Preti's art and studies the context of his Maltese period, which climaxed in the triumphant manner which imbued his first decade there. The book researches his life and his work, analyses the complications of his knighthood and examines the mechanics of patronage. It catalogues the paintings which are in Malta and, based on archival research and stylistic study, it attempts a chronology for the paintings under review. The book builds up on the work of other Preti scholars and addresses issues which have already been previously studied, whilst presenting others which are new."--Preface, page ix.
Mattia Preti is considered as one of the leading artists of the High Baroque period. He came to Malta attracted by the patronage of the Order of the Knights of St John. His contribution to their conventual church is unequalled. His influence on the artistic milieu of the island during the seventeenth century was immense and several churches are adorned by his paintings. The book is a thematic study of works of art by Mattia Preti and brings together various paintings of St Catherine produced by the artist. Within the Christian Church, St Catherine has been the subject of popular devotion for at least six centuries as she ranks as one of the fourteen most invoked saints in heaven. The canvases presented in this book are some of Preti's most outstanding works and they make a very interesting study of his diverse palette and compositional studies. For the first time these works have been brought together where they can be studied, compared and analysed. This monographic study is designed to offer, besides a general recognition of the artist's stature, an attempt to stimulate the artistic research and interpretation of thematic studies of the artist's works. The book is a result of the collaboration of the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation and Sante Guido Restauri.
"This book studies the iconography of saints and heroes of the Knights of Malta as depicted by the artist Mattia Preti between 1658 and 1698."- [preface].
The title Caravaggio to Mattia Preti aptly provides the parameters that span seventeenth century baroque painting in Malta. Caravaggio s move to Malta in 1607 opened this magnificent chapter in Maltese art, to which the island responded with extraordinary artistic foresight. Malta offered Caravaggio security, but more importantly it offered him the opportunity to redeem himself. On the island, the power of Caravaggio s brush and the celebration of his virtuosity overcame the dishonour of his lifestyle, despite the fact that this materialised in a Catholic frontier country until then renowned, not for the artistic patronage of its rulers, but for its military austerity. During this period, Malta was ruled by the Knights of the Order of St John and their fascinating political context impinged significantly on the character of its art. Their political clout and their eight-pointed cross attracted other artists, including Mattia Preti, whose four-decade stay on the island defined the triumphant manner of Maltese baroque art. Preti s death on the island in 1699 came at the end of the century. This book discusses the work of the major artists who painted on the island during the seventeenth century and analyses the context in which they were produced. It also discusses paintings of importance that were sent from mainland Italy and reviews them and their critical fortune within the story of Maltese art."
The story of Baroque painting in Malta reflects that of the Italian peninsula and, in many ways, can be directly integrated within it. In terms of quantity, the island was impressively prolific. In terms of quality, works vary tremendously. There were, however, celebrated instances when the island was significantly at the forefront of stylistic development. A handful of Maltese artists worked beyond the island's shores and some, like the painter Francesco Noletti (il Fieravino), made major breakthroughs in Rome, the 'mother' of all cities. The island's small size also meant that it could be easily conditioned by one or two major artists working there. Therefore, a talented artist, Maltese or foreign, could exert tremendous influence on the stylistic currents that prevailed. The story of Baroque painting in Malta is thus marked by such artists. Contents: The pre-Baroque Years; Caravaggio; Leonello Spada; Caravaggism in Malta: Imported Works; Caravaggism in Malta: Copies after Caravaggio and Works executed in Malta; The mid- eventeenth century; Mattia Preti; The Bottega of Mattia Preti and Giuseppe d'Arena; The Erardi Family of Artists: Stefano and Alessio; The early eighteenth century; Gio Nicola Buhagiar and Enrico Regnaud; Mid-eighteenth century works by foreign artists; Francesco Zahra; Antoine Favray; Rocco Buhagiar; Giuseppe Grech; The late eighteenth century and the end of the Baroque.
Rogues in the Gallery exposes it all: the cozy insurance ransom racket, the professional gangs of art thieves, the specialists, the connections with the international drug racket and the Mafia. Hugh McLeave has researched the whys and wherefores of the question for years, drawing on resources available to him through agencies such as Interpol, the FBI, the French Sret(r), and Scotland Yard. Rogues in the Gallery is a lively and informed account of the causesOCoand limited curesOCoof this epidemic. It charts the classic outbreaks, portrays the rich gallery of protagonists, and defines what means there are to combat the disease. But even with sophisticated computers and Interpol, the total elimination of art theft is unlikely. As long as auction prices continue to rise and inflation devalues savings, the theft of precious objects will flourish. The lure of easy money is at the root. This is a serious book on an urgent problem, especially for those who collect art. For an author bio, photo, and a sample read visit bosonbooks.com"
Fusing the social and economic history with the cultural and artistic achievements of seventeenth and eighteenth century Italy, this book presents a unique and invaluable perspective on the period.
This book celebrates the 300th-year anniversary of Francesco Zahra's birth in 1710 and seeks to show the extraordinary range of the artist's output. Zahra was Malta's most important native painter of the mid-18th century and his style wonderfully captured the spirit of the Late Baroque. He was extremely prolific and could handle the brush with a fascinating ease, thus furnishing Maltese churches with hundreds of paintings, large and small. His extraordinary creative spirit also ensured that his pictures breathed the compositional freshness of mature artists. Francesco Zahra produced various designs for church furniture, marble altars, silver artefacts, liturgical vessels and other objets d'art that still survive scattered around the island. Zahra's output can be divided into a number of phases and this book seeks to trace such evolution and development. It also seeks to re-evaluate some of the most important works of his oeuvre. Zahra's early style is his weakest and was largely dependent on the works of his first tutor Gio Nicola Buhagiar (1698-1752). The 1730s were largely dominated by the artistic affinities of these two painters and there were instances when it was difficult to tell them apart. Zahra reached his early maturity by 1740 when his art started to depart from the manner of his tutor. By the mid-1740s, Zahra was the most important native painter on the island, only to be challenged by the arrival of the Frenchman Antoine Favray. Zahra's interest in proper disegno and in the work of Mattia Preti and Favray made him modify his style and - by the mid-1750s - adopt a more solid approach. His figurative forms changed and the general atmosphere of his works became more sophisticated. Francesco Zahra marked Maltese mid-18th century art with his timbre and distinctly shaped the character of religious painting. His decorative appeal and theatrical manner complemented the context of the period and made him one of the most fashionable of the Baroque painters active in Malta.
2013 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Mattia Preti. This important occasion is being marked by an exhibition organized by Heritage Malta and the Comune of Taverna, where Mattia Preti was born. The exhibition is the final stage of a three year process during which the works of Preti have been studied and revisited. The exhibition together with the Catalogue is the culmination of this journey. The Catalogue includes 9 papers by leading art scholars and historians, some of whom are publishing for the first time their findings after the recent studies of Pretti's paintings. The Catalogue also includes entries of the 49 art-pieces and artifacts forming part of this unique exhibition. Much passion and commitment has gone into the making of this project. Dignity is perhaps the intended objective which to our great satisfaction also received the positive support of some of the major European museums including the Louvre, Prado, Musei Vaticani, Brera, Uffizi, Capodimonte and Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini amongst others. This common intent shared between Preti's two historic realities, the native city of Taverna and Malta, spurred the curators to reap the desired results and achieve the intended objectives of this complex cultural project. The backbone of this project is a scientific research project proper concerning Preti's works in both Taverna and Malta, particularly the National Museum of Fine Arts, and goes beyond art historical research to include scientific investigations undertaken jointly by Taverna's Laboratorio di Restauro Conservazione e Ricerca and Heritage Malta's Conservation Division at Bighi. The scientific investigation carried out on Preti's Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria, in particular, yielded unexpected results and confirmed the iconographical attributes of the martyr saint lying underneath. We hope these results will be the scope for more debate and discussion for the international academic community to take further. All this empowered us to read deeper into Preti's works in both Taverna and Malta and guided our selection of works to feature in the exhibition. The 400th anniversary of Mattia Preti's birth makes us all proud of a shared heritage which this project rethinks and consolidates. Vincenzo Bonello, who contemporary to Alfonso Frangipane and Valerio Mariani, rediscovered Mattia Preti's legacy and corpus of works in Malta transformed all this into a powerful identity construct mostly effective during colonial times. Preti's ideals have thus moved beyond any delimiting borders on to our times, four hundred years later and, from this safe distance, empower us to objectively assess his exceptional creative trajectory. Preti can now be read as a noble man who strives hard with his art to get back what his family had lost a few years before his birth. His quest transformed him from knight to a monk of war ready to do battle in the name of his spiritual and social affirmations which can be fully recognized in the ideals of Faith and Humanity.