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ViGiLO - Din l-Art Ħelwa ISSUE 57 • MAY 2022
AANDSTATUE ITS STORY
The Eighteenth-Century Statue Of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta By Mark Agius
T
he Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta celebrates its fourth centenary this year. It was founded on 13th February 1622. To celebrate this centenary the Confraternity has been restoring its oratory and the artefacts that it contains. One of the most important artefacts owned by the Confraternity is the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which dominates the altar of its oratory in Old Theatre Street. This is the oldest processional statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Malta, and there has been much discussion about its author. In the past it was suggested that this statue was sculpted by Bernini or Ferrata, the teacher of Melchiorre Gafà, and that it was brought from Rome in 1657.1 This was based on an entry in the accounts of that year which noted that food was provided for the statue bearers.2 Iconographically, it followed the pattern established in 1660 by the Maltese sculptor Melchiorre Gafà in his statue of Our Lady of the Rosary sculpted for the Dominican
church in Rabat.3 With this work, Gafà had set a typically Maltese pattern in iconography. Here Our Lady directly presents an item to the beholder, and with it offers her protection and that of Her Son. It has a very direct appeal to the beholder, who is in effect part of the action of the piece—it is he who receives the object, and hence the protection offered. This contrasts with depictions of Mary offering a scapular to St Simon Stock, in which the observer is simply observing, watching a ‘sacred conversation’ and excluded from the action. However recent research by Alessandro Debono has shown that a previous statue— a mannequin which was dressed up—existed before that date.4 Some of the clothes of that mannequin were found to be listed in an inventory in the Confraternity archives. Cesare Passalacqua, the founder of the Confraternity, had asked in his will to be buried in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel close to the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which he says that he had funded and who was his special
Detail of the statue after restoration
