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ViGiLO - Din l-Art Ħelwa ISSUE 57 • MAY 2022
SEVEN PAINTINGS BY MATTIA PRETI At Sarria Church
Din l-Art Ħelwa, together with the Rector and Jesuit Community of Sarria Church, organised an online presentation giving an overview of the various aspects of the restoration of the seven paintings by Mattia Preti at Sarria Church.
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onservator and art historian Prof. Sante Guido presented a detailed history of Sarria, starting from the original smaller chapel erected by a knight, Fra Martino Sarria, whose name it still bears. This was replaced by today’s larger church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception to give thanks for the end of the pestilence of 1675–76, which took the lives of thousands of people. Mattia Preti (1613–99) was commissioned by Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner (1605–80) to design this new church and the seven masterpieces that adorn it, including the ‘Immaculate Conception’ altarpiece, ‘St Sebastian’, ‘St Roque’, ‘St Rosalia’, ‘St Nicholas of Bari’, and two lunettes depicting the ‘Allegory of the Order’ and ‘St Michael Victorious over Lucifer’. This church is the only known building to have been designed by Mattia Preti. Dr Sebastiano D’Amico, head of the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta, explained the methodology and scientific investigations carried out to support the restoration of the two large lunettes, using 2D and 3D surveying to formulate hypothetic reconstruction, and XRF spectroscopy to get more information on how Preti prepared the various types of materials, in particular, the painting preparation, the pigment palette and the formulation of shades and highlights. Conservator Dr Giuseppe Mantella, whose firm carried out the restoration project, highlighted the salient points from this project, which spanned over more than a decade, starting from the pitiful condition that the paintings were in, especially the large ‘Immaculate Conception’ altarpiece, which was literally detaching from its frame and buckling under its own weight, risking severe damage and losses of the pictorial layer. Many discoveries came to light as a result of the restoration process. Foremost among these was Mattia Preti’s use of globigerina limestone dust mixed in with the pigments, which gave the paintings a distinctive palette identifiable as originating from Malta, when compared to his other works from Rome and Naples.
Din l-Art Ħelwa Executive President Professor Alex Torpiano thanked the sponsors for their generosity and support in funding the restoration of the individual paintings, namely, Shireburn Software Ltd, Malta International Airport, Middlesea Insurance Ltd, Sparkasse Bank Malta Ltd, the Rotary Clubs of Palermo and Malta, and an anonymous sponsor as an Ex-Voto. He also thanked Simone Mizzi, Maria Grazia Cassar and Patricia Salomone for coordinating this project.Thanks are also extended to Fr Lino Spiteri of the Jesuit community at Sarria Church. n Right: Restoration of the St Nicholas of Bari painting. Below: Birds-eye view of the interior of Sarria Church with the St Sebastian, St Roque, St Nicholas of Bari, and St Rosalia paintings, after restoration. (Images courtesy of Giuseppe Mantella)
