9 minute read
Valletta - Jennifer Herrick Porter
from Vigilo 55
by dinlarthelwa
A pAinteD frieZe AnD AltAr
at Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta
Advertisement
by Jennifer herrick porter
Palazzo de la Salle, located on Republic Street in the heart of Valletta, is perhaps best known for its exciting programme of exhibitions and events organized by the Malta Society of Arts (MSA), which has been based at the palace since 1924. Part of what makes those exhibitions so successful is their beautiful setting, largely the result of a concerted campaign by MSA since 2009 to renovate the palace, showcasing its original knights-period elements while also converting its spaces for contemporary use.
A little-known gem within the palazzo complex is its early baroque domestic chapel, decorated with various wall painting schemes. Though the space had been neglected during earlier tenancies, the MSA, under the leadership of perit Adrian Mamo, recognized its value. In 2016, as part of their larger programme of renovations, the MSA invited the Department of Conservation and Built Heritage of the University of Malta to study and conserve the chapel’s wall paintings.
This project, completed in 2019, was recently awarded the the Prix d’Honneur for Rehabilitation and Re-Use of Buildings by Din l-Art Ħelwa, and the Department is very proud of this recognition of its collaborative work with the MSA.
Left: The chapel at Palazzo de la Salle, at the completion of the conservation project in 2019. The carved and painted altar surround can be seen on the south wall, and portions of the frieze painting on the tops of south, west and east walls. © 2019 Malta Society of Arts
Above: Coat-of-arms of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena. Detail from the frieze painting on the south wall of the chapel, during conservation. © 2017 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.
Top right: Detail of the coat of arms of Grand Master de Vilhena on the south wall of the frieze, after conservation. © 2019 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.
The project to conserve the chapel at Palazzo de la Salle can serve as a model for conservation treatment design and conservation education.
The chapel is a small room, approximately 4 x 5 m with 6 m high ceilings. Its walls are bare except for a large arch in its north wall which once framed an altar, which is therefore referred to as the altar surround (Fig 1). The surround is embellished with painted relief stonework, characterised by the extensive use of pure gold leaf with painted details of cherubs, insignia and foliate motifs.
Above the altar surround, a painted frieze decorates the upper portion of all four walls of the chapel, displaying scenes from the life of St John the Baptist and the coat-of-arms of Grand Master de Vilhena and of Fra Guillaume de la Salle, a knight of the Order of St John and mideighteenth-century resident of the palace (Figs 2 & 3). These painted decorative elements were the focus of the Department’s conservation project.
Evidence uncovered during the project clearly indicates that the two decorative schemes are from different periods, the altar surround having been created first and the frieze being painted some time thereafter. An informal stylistic analysis of the altar surround by Professor Keith Sciberras, of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta, confirmed its earlier date, placing it in the mid-seventeenth century, while the frieze can be dated to the period between 1731-1736, a period arrived at based on the overlap between the grandmastership of Manoel de Vilhena (1722-1736) and Fra de la Salle’s residency at the Palace (1731-1739). No information has so far been found to identify the artists responsible for either work, but it can be inferred that Fra de la Salle commissioned the frieze painting.
Sometime after Fra de la Salle’s departure from the palace, the chapel was repurposed and the frieze was painted over, possibly because the painting had begun to deteriorate, or due to factors such as changes in taste or changes in the use of the room. Although an attempt to remove the covering paint was made at some point in the past, the covering paint still obscured most of the surface of the frieze at the outset of the conservation project in 2016 (Fig 4).
A leaking roof and somewhat damp walls, and damage during past building modifications, compounded this problem, resulting in the loss of some areas of the painting, powdering of paint and underlying stone, and a whitish veil which covered large areas of the surface of the frieze, making the decorative elements very difficult to appreciate.
Meanwhile, the altar surround had fortunately escaped this fate. When the Department began work on the chapel in 2016, the altar surround was found to be covered in a layer of soiling and was suffering from some areas of flaking paint; otherwise the scheme was mostly intact, with little deterioration.
A first essential step in the process of conserving both paintings was the identification of the materials and methods used for their creation, since this informs an understanding of the paintings as historic works of art, but also helps understand the causes of their deterioration and is essential for the design of the best solutions for their long-term preservation. Analytical work carried out by the Department found that the pigments used in both paintings were bound with oil, most likely linseed, and the range of materials used was quite typical of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries in Malta, including pigments such as blue, glass-based smalt; orangey-red and bright white lead-based pigments; the lemony-yellow, arsenic-based pigment orpiment; muted red, yellow and green earth pigments; rich, pinkishred cinnabar; and dark blue indigo dye.
Despite the similarity in ingredients, the techniques used to create the paintings, such as the mixing and layering of the paints, and the use of gilding, are quite different in both
Above: East wall of the frieze, after conservation. © 2019 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.
schemes. A more detailed study of the painting techniques and their deterioration are the subject of ongoing research and the results will be published in due course.
The technique of the paintings and many of their deterioration problems are typical of wall paintings created in Malta during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, the chapel conservation project was exciting because it allowed the Department to take specific and innovative approaches to resolving these common conservation problems and therefore will hopefully be useful to future conservation projects facing similar issues.
For example, it was sought to minimize the use of modern organic coatings and adhesives because these are known to cause problems when used in the repair of porous materials (stone and plasters) in humid environments. For this reason, the wall paintings were not varnished or coated at the end of the project. Plasters and injection grouts were specifically formulated using natural lime and local stone materials to maximize compatibility with the aged historic materials of the paintings. After careful consideration of the sensitivities of aged oil paints, the project minimized the use of water and other solvents during the cleaning of the paintings, and chose to carry out only a partial cleaning of the paintings rather than to risk damaging them in an effort to remove all traces of covering paint and dirt layers – and the end results are still stunning (Fig 5).
The conservators then worked with the MSA to develop a lighting system to provide satisfying illumination of the objects to be displayed in the chapel, but which would minimise damage to the sensitive original painting materials and also help to show them in their best light.
Like all the conservation projects undertaken by the Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, the chapel at Palazzo de la Salle served as a practical training site for students following the three-year MSc in the Conservation of Decorative Architectural Surfaces, who spent approximately
Above and above left: Details of the altar surround painting, after conservation. © 2019 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.
Above: West wall of the frieze, after conservation. © 2019 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.
Above: The chapel in 2016, at the beginning of the conservation project. The carved and painted altar surround can be seen on the south wall, and portions of the frieze painting on the tops of south, west and east walls, still partially obscured by covering paint. © 2016 Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta. 50% of the entire course working in the chapel. The project therefore offered the first opportunity for these aspiring professional conservators to put into practice appropriate, modern conservation methodologies by first undertaking in-depth examination, documentation and scientific analysis of painting materials and their deterioration, before designing and implementing appropriate treatments.
The MSc students were thus involved in all aspects of the project, from its inception to its completion, always under the careful supervision of the Department’s academic staff, who are all also professional wall painting conservators. Where possible and appropriate, students were given the opportunity to advance significant aspects of the project on their own. This was the case for Nathalie Debono, now graduated and working as a wall painting conservator in private practice in Malta, who, under close supervision, developed the cleaning intervention for the frieze paintings as the subject of her final-year MSc dissertation. Once she had completed her research and graduated from the MSc program, the MSA engaged Ms Debono and another of the MSc graduates to implement the treatment she had developed and complete the final phases of the conservation project, to the point where the entire chapel was then ready to be enjoyed by any visitors, of which now there are many.
The Department feels that the project to conserve the chapel at Palazzo de la Salle has been both successful and inspiring, and can serve as a model for conservation treatment design and conservation education, in Malta and abroad. It has helped launch young conservators into the oftencomplex world of the conservation of wall paintings by giving them the right knowledge, skills and practice to address unique situations in the most professional manner.
It is also an excellent example of collaboration between conservators and architects, highlighting in a very practical way the multi-disciplinarity of conservation work, often lacking in commercial projects. Din l-Art Ħelwa’s recognition of the process and outcome of this unique project are thus gratefully acknowledged. n
