Inauguration of Restorations at Sarria Church

The restored titular painting of the Immaculate Conception with St Sebastian (left) and St Roque (right).

INAUGURATION OF RESTORATIONS AT

SARRIA CHURCH

On 12th July, His Eminence Mario Cardinal Grech presided over the inauguration of the restoration of the seven paintings by the great seventeenth-century Calabrian painter Mattia Preti, which are located at Sarria Church in Floriana. This has been a flagship Din l-Art Ħelwa project over the last twelve years, coordinated by volunteers Maria Grazia Cassar, Patricia Salomone and Simone Mizzi. The event was attended by His Excellency Dr Fabrizio Romano, Italian Ambassador, Professor Alfred Vella, Rector of the University of Malta, Fr Michael Bugeja, Delegate of the Jesuit Province, Kurt Farrugia, Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, Vincent Borg, Mayor of Floriana, and other distinguished guests and friends of Din l-Art Ħelwa.

The restoration was led by Dr Giuseppe Mantella, with the collaboration of art historian Professor Sante Guido, and with the diagnostic assistance of Dr Sebastiano D’Amico from the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta.

Sarria Church was rebuilt by the Order of St John on the site of an older, smaller chapel, as a thanksgiving for the end of the plague of 1675–76 that had killed thousands of people. The new and bigger church was reputedly built to Mattia Preti’s design, which makes it the only known architectural work by Mattia Preti. The chapel was built to accommodate seven paintings by Mattia Preti, commissioned by Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner, dedicated to saints associated with protection from the plague.

The inauguration event was addressed by Fr Lino Scerri, Rector of Sarria Church, and was concluded with a blessing from Cardinal Grech. Dr Giuseppe Mantella made a presentation outlining the story of the restoration project, which was launched in 2010 when, during the restoration of the St Sebastian painting, it was noticed that the titular painting dedicated to the Immaculate Conception was suffering from delamination of its layers of paint.

Left: Fr Lino Scerri presents Cardinal Grech with a souvenir. Above: Lunette representing the Apotheosis of the Order of St John and the painting of St Nicholas of Bari. Below: The restored paintings of St Rosalia and St Michael the Archangel.

Above: Professor Alex Torpiano, Executive President of Din l-Art Ħelwa. Dr Mantella explained that the paintings had been previously restored on various occasions, but had suffered most damage when, as a precaution during the Second World War, they were rolled up and stored for safe-keeping. The rolling and eventual unrolling had caused severe damage to the paint layers of most of the paintings. New diagnostic technologies were used to carefully map the paintings with the worst damage.

Professor Alex Torpiano, Executive President of Din l-Art Ħelwa, highlighted the fact that the restored paintings were being inaugurated at the end of another pandemic, and a couple of days after the 57th anniversary of the foundation of Din l-Art Ħelwa.

He thanked the sponsors that had supported the project, namely, the Malta International Airport Foundation which sponsored the restoration of the painting of St Sebastian, Shireburn Software Ltd, for the titular painting of the Immaculate Conception, MAPFRE’ MSV Life for the painting of St Roque, the Rotary Clubs of Palermo and of Malta, who sponsored the restoration of St Rosalia, Sparkasse Bank Malta Ltd which sponsored the restoration of St Nicholas of Bari and of the lunette depicting the Archangel Michael, and an anonymous sponsor who supported the restoration of the Apotheosis of the Order of St John. Vassallo Builders assisted with the scaffolding and restoration of the dome of the church. Professor Torpiano thanked everyone who helped and contributed to this project and reiterated Din l-Art Ħelwa’s commitment to continue to work in favour of the protection of the cultural heritage of Malta and Gozo. n