Valentina Lupo, Maria Grazia Zenzari and Sandro Debono

The ‘Immaculate Conception’ of the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta, and at Sarria Church in Floriana

by Mark Agius, Valentina Lupo , Maria Grazia Zenzani and Sandro Debono

One of the most important treasures of the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta is the Immaculate Conception by Giuseppe D’Arena.

This was originally on the ceiling (mounted as a sotto in su painting) of the Old Oratory, and originally it was oval shaped. When the Oratory was moved to its present location in 1895, after the elevation of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to the status of Minor Basilica,1 the shape of the painting was changed to quadrilateral.

Giuseppe D’Arena (c.1643–1719) was the son of Matteo and Appolonia, and his birth is registered in the archives of the Porto Salvo parish church in Valletta. As a painter he was known as ‘il-Romano’, perhaps because he had spent a lot of time in Rome. He married Olympia, daughter of the painter Silvestro Querio, in 1666 and he had three sons. When Olympia died in 1681, he married Theresa Mancini in 1685.2

For some time D’Arena lived in Old Mint Street (Strada Zekka) in Valletta, opposite the Carmelite church, and during this time he painted the Immaculate Conception for the Oratory of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.2 He was the rector of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1712.3 The painting of the Immaculate Conception was not the only painting that he executed for the Oratory. There also were the ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ and the ‘Adoration of the Wise Men’, which featured as postage stamps in 1986.4, 5, 6 These two paintings are now on either side of the main altar of the Basilica. D’Arena died in 1719, after a long illness which left him blind, and he was buried in the Carmelite church in Valletta, which he had served so faithfully.2

Giuseppe D’Arena was a pupil of Mattia Preti, and he acquired Preti’s style and techniques.2 This leads us to compare his Immaculate Conception, to Mattia Preti’s Immaculate Conception at Sarria church in Floriana, a beautiful small church containing seven paintings by Preti.7, 8

Mattia Preti was born in 1613 in Calabria. He became a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John in 1660, and remained in Malta until his death in 1699.7, 8 The Sarria church that exists today, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, is thought to have been designed by Preti himself, after the 1675 plague epidemic in Malta.7, 8

The Immaculate Conception by Mattia Preti at Sarria church in Floriana, and (left) a detail of the painting.

In 2021, the Archconfraternity decided to embark on a much needed conservation and restoration project for the painting.

Above: The Immaculate Conception by Giuseppe D'Arena at the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta. Before restoration (left) and after restoration (right)

The altarpiece at Sarria church depicts the Immaculate Conception with angels sheltering their swords after defeating the plague of 1675. The painting illustrates victory over the plague, and of good over evil. On either side of the Virgin Mary, angels are seen sheathing their swords to show that the plague was over. Malta had lost a third of its population during this plague epidemic, which was considered to be a punishment from Heaven.The Virgin Mary, as the intercessor, stands surrounded by angels over a background of boats ferrying the sick from Lazaretto to Valletta. Above her, God the Father and the Holy Spirit (represented by the white dove) look down at the triumph of good over evil. 7, 8

In the Sarria painting, the Virgin Mary stands on a half-moon as described in the woman of the Apocalypse, and she surmounts the devil painted as a monstrous animal. Similarly, D’Arena’s painting of the Immaculate Conception has the devil represented as a grotesque human being, beneath the moon on

which the Virgin Mary stands. In this painting, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are not shown. The angels are putti and do not carry swords, and they are naked. It is a much more joyful composition than the Sarria version, without the tension of the plague. However the influence of Preti is clearly present in the D’Arena painting, with the teacher’s influence helping the pupil to develop a beautiful painting for his beloved Confraternity.

Conserving the painting at the Oratory

In 2021, the Archconfraternity decided to embark on a much needed conservation and restoration project for the painting, and the established conservation company Atelier del Restauro Ltd was entrusted with the work. The painting was transferred to the company’s laboratory where, as a first step, observations and visual investigations of the painting were carried out in order to evaluate the painting’s manufacturing technique and its state of conservation especially using raking and ultra-violet light.

D’Arena used a reddish preparatory layer typical of the eighteenth century, however it is interesting to note that this layer was left visible and cleverly used by the artist for the midtones. This is seen especially in the tunic of the Virgin. This specialised technique was widely used by important artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Mattia Preti.

While the canvas was found to be in a fairly good state of preservation, superficial deposits, such as atmospheric particles, insect droppings and other substances, were found on the entire surface of the painting. In particular, a drop of wax was observed on the lower side, probably resulting from the candles that were placed under it in the past. This layer, together with the oxidised varnish coating, darkens the general appearance of the painting and obscures the original tonality and aesthetic qualities of the work.

In addition, it was evident that several areas of the painting were repainted during a later intervention, or interventions. Most notable was the Virgin’s tunic, most of which was found to be completely painted. The preparatory layers and the paint film were found to be affected by a network of cracks resulting from mechanical damage, particularly present along the edges of the auxiliary frame and its crossbars.

Abrasion and loss of paint and preparatory layer were also noted during preliminary observations. The original canvas is made of two pieces of canvas sewn together in the middle. Due to its good condition it was decided not to dismantle the painting from the stretcher frame. The varnish darkened over time and changed the aesthetic appearance to a dark one, flattening the three-dimensional volumes of the faces of the Virgin and the angels and the background, and thus completely transforming the legibility of the paint layer.

Giuseppe D’Arena was a pupil of Mattia Preti, and he acquired Preti’s style and techniques. This leads us to compare his Immaculate Conception, to Mattia Preti’s Immaculate Conception at Sarria church in Floriana, a beautiful small church containing seven paintings by Preti.

The Immaculate Conception by Giuseppe D’Arena undergoing restoration.

The cleaning process was a meticulous and laborious task that included softening and removing the varnish and overpaintings using a solvent-based gel applied for a set amount of time in order to safeguard the original polychromy and the patina of time. Thick coating accumulations including layers of dust and dirt were removed manually using small blades. Thanks to the cleaning done, it was possible to appreciate the original tones, which the artist had used such as the vibrant blue colour of the tunic. For the cleaning intervention, different gels were formulated in our laboratory, which allowed the full control and efficacy of the cleaning treatment. Several layers of different stucco were found that had different compositions. These were the result of various interventions from the past. During their removal it was found that some of these infills were also covering details of the original paint layer. During the cleaning intervention it was very important to respect the original patina of the painting.

The lacunae were then filled using gesso di Bologna. The last phase of the restoration intervention involved the aesthetic reintegration of the painting. The painting was then retouched using varnish colours used specifically for conservation. Finally, the painting was protected with a conservation grade varnish.

All conservation and restoration treatments were carried out according to ethical principles for the protection and preservation of a work of art. The projects required many hours of very detailed work, made entirely to address the artwork not only from an aesthetic but also from a materials point of view.

In a separate project spearheaded by Din l-Art Ħelwa, the Mattia Preti painting at Sarria church was also recently restored. With the restoration of the D’Arena Painting in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the similarities between the master and the pupil’s work can now both be admired as the painters would have wished. n

Notes: (1) M. Agius, J. Farrugia and C. Pace, ‘The Arch-Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and its Oratory in Valletta’, Vigilo, (Din l-Art Helwa, 2016), pp.46–48; (2) ‘Iconography in Maltese Churches’ https://sites.google.com/site/iconographyinmaltachurches/home/dar---far; (3) G. Bonello, ‘The Confraternity of Our Lady Of Mount Carmel 1622–2014’, Programm talFesta, Festa tal-Madonna tal-Karmnu, Valletta, pp. 27–35; (4) https://colnect.com/en/stamps/ stamp/11548-Epiphany_by_Giuseppe_DArena-Christmas_1986_Paintings_by_Giuseppe_ DArena_1633-1719-Malta; (5) https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/malta-christmas-paintingsby-giuseppe-darena-3v-1986-mnh-sg789-791/45155643; (6) https://www.stamps-for-sale.com/ malta-1986-christmas-paintings-by-giuseppe-darena-set--fine-mint-85433-p.asp; (7) https:// www.facebook.com/kappavision/photos/a.279601965880940/723114014863064/; (8) Adriana Bishop, ‘An Inside Look at Sarria Church, Floriana’, https://www.guidememalta.com/en/aninside-look-at-sarria-church-floriana.