Drawing Meaning to Drawings A Sketch by Francesco Zahra (1710–1773)

Roger De Gaetano

One of the most prolific Maltese artists in Malta during the eighteenth century was undoubtedly Francesco Vincenzo Zahra, born in Senglea on 15 December 1710. Considering the reasonable volume of paintings executed by him, on the contrary, fewer are the drawings certified or attributed to him. Relying on those drawings published as autograph works,1 one finds that he used chalk or pen and ink mingled with coloured chalks, and often included applications of fine wash.

The drawing (Fig. 1) depicting the transition of the corpse of St Catherine to Mount Sinai, published here for the first time, reveals a technique typical of a mid-eighteenth-century North Italian hand, possibly Genoese. This preparatory drawing, executed in pen and ink, enriched with touches of strong red chalk, is indeed by Francesco Zahra and is related to his successful painted representation executed for one of the chapels within the parish church of Żurrieq, dedicated to the same saint (Fig. 2). For this church, Zahra was also commissioned a painting depicting St Catherine’s martyrdom— commissions which, I believe, were affected around the 1750s. The cult of St Catherine of Alexandria was widely spread throughout the Maltese Islands, indeed, since the early fourteenth century, with several churches dedicated to her.2

The handling in the drawing is swift, non-academic, and highly motivating. If one wishes to consider the level of draughtsmanship of this master one must delve into the expediency and seriousness of his style exemplified in this remarkable sheet. It demonstrates his freedom from his tutor, Gian Nicola Buhagiar (1698–1752). In this preparatory sketch he crystallises his primo pensiero in an unprecedented way, probably beyond his own expectations. Features, such as the elegant, pointed feet, free handling of locks, and sparks of ink, occupy the sheet with an exquisite flair. The richness does not only rest on Zahra’s handling but also on the composition in which figures entwine in tender and friendly postures, till then unseen locally amongst Maltese masters and his contemporaries. This drawing speaks of the final episode of the saint’s dramatic life. She is also generally well represented in known iconography disputing the elders.3 Her destiny was centred on her refusal to denounce Christianity and was subsequently put to death by the pagan Roman Emperor Maximinius in the early fourth century. In the painted version of the drawing (Fig. 2), St Catherine ascends in purity wearing the finest of clothes enriched in a queen’s ermine, which Zahra definitely absorbed from Preti’s rendition of the saint in the main altarpiece painted for the same church. Like Preti, his aim was to represent her in glory enhancing his idea by adding a putto carrying a crown above her head. The folds of drapery on the saint’s knee are somewhat identical to Preti’s model, together with the colour of her cloak. Zahra’s angel, holding St Catherine’s body, recalls the angel in Preti’s work, again to the right of the saint, but this time pointing to her everlasting glory. Zahra is, indeed, incessantly indebted to the Calabrian master.4

The featured drawing contains rapid decisive short strokes lashed in ink around all the figures, including their locks of hair, similarly found in two other drawings reproduced here (Figs 3-4). Zahra’s style is lavish and the evidence of new drawings allows us to further understand his artistic process. In the drawing (Fig. 1), the master made use of a sanguine background to create volume, whilst in that portraying St Vincent Ferrier (Fig. 4), he attained this effect with fierce hatching in ink. In both sketches, the main subjects are treated in an equal manner, built with an economy of strokes which does not, however, obscure the masterly hand that made them.

In the sketch (Fig. 1), Zahra outlined a framework to group his figures in secured distances, although he increased the number of putti in the final painting by three to create the necessary symmetry. The pentimenti of the angel’s feet (far right), visible in the drawing, was the result of an afterthought created in chalk, indicating the painter’s freedom to alter and experiment to his satisfaction. In the finished oil painting, the saint’s body is positioned to the right, while in the drawing she is more upright—a compositional feature which, in my view, is more effective in the latter. In both works angels carefully lift the martyr’s body with immense pride and glory to her final burial shrine: Mount Sinai. In the sketch, the Maltese master references this climax by including details such as the outline of the mountains.

Zahra possibly had access to Antoine Favray’s (1706–1798) sketches, especially if we are to maintain the hypothesis that he worked in his workshop.5 Favray’s favourite medium was chalk, however he also tackled sketches in pen and ink.6 The arrival in Malta of Antoine Favray, in 1744, after serving as a pensonnaire in Rome under the auspices of Jean-François de Troy, must have cautiously infuriated Zahra. Notwithstanding the French master’s presence, many ecclesiastical commissions still poured in Zahra’s favour, and his output did not cede. While Favray concentrated his efforts as a social portrait artist, Zahra sought to contest his French rival by pleasing his patrons with large ecclesiastical canvases which were not awarded to Favray, especially during the latter’s travels to the Orient from 1762 to 1771.7

It seems that Zahra’s inclination to sketch was minimal since few drawings exist.8 Is it possible that many did not survive?9 Surely, several sheets are scattered in countless drawers similar to those of his predecessors, such as Mattia Preti. If we were to consider St John’s CoCathedral alone, over 40 drawings were prepared by Preti! Or might there be another reason, given that drawings by Zahra’s first tutor, Gian Nicola Buhagiar (1698–1752),10 are also scarce?

In Zahra’s early career, around 1727, the prolific local master Pietro Paolo Troisi (1686–1743) was commissioned to design the Altar of Repose for the Mdina Cathedral. The project was never realised during Troisi’s life, but only completed faithfully by Zahra in 1747. 11 Drawings such as this sheet provided Zahra with a technical flair for semi-architectural studies with prominent figures, such as his study for the tombstone for Fra Gio Melchior Alpheran de Bussan.12 Another important Italian master who worked locally was Romano Carapecchia (1660/6–1738) who was responsible for designing colossal churches and palaces from 1707 to 1738. During his tenure, he produced numerous architectural studies of sheer beauty which might have also influenced Zahra’s hand.13

Roger De Gaetano researches seventeenth- to nineteenth-century masters with ties to Malta. In 1985, he organised an exhibition dedicated to Vincenzo D’Esposito, complemented by a brief catalogue. In 2009, he formed part of the exhibition committee of Salve Pater Paule, and in 2012 and 2013 he curated exhibitions of watercolours by Count Amadeo Preziosi and Nicolai Krasnov, both accompanied with catalogues. Presently, he is working on a catalogue raisonné on Antoine Favray.

Notes

1 ‘Francesco Zahra’, in Edward Sammut, ed., Guide to the Mdina Cathedral and Its Museum (Malta: Friends of the Cathedral Museum, 1986), 141-143, seven drawings; and in Keith Sciberras, Francesco Zahra 1710–1773: His Life and Art in Mid-18th-Century Malta (Malta: Midsea Books, 2010), 237, nine drawings.

2 For further reading, see Mario Buhagiar and Seraphim M. Zarb, St Catherine of Alexandria, her Churches, Paintings & Statues in the Maltese Islands (Malta: St Catherine Musical Society, Żurrieq, and Żejtun Parish Council, 1979).

3 Zahra executed this subject for the Żurrieq parish church. The subject is similarly depicted in the Chapel of the Langue of Italy, at St John’s Co-Cathedral. Although the lunettes are not by Mattia Preti, preparatory drawings for the lunettes by Preti are extant in a private collection.

4 For the Żurrieq parish church, Zahra executed a canvas representing The Martyrdom of St John the Baptist, whose composition was largely borrowed from Preti’s version at St John’s Co-Cathedral.

5 Antoine Favray considered Zahra as an accomplished artist ‘verso il quale il Favray mostrò particolare affetto’.

6 Published in ‘King George III with Allegories of Melita and Brittania by Gaetano Calleja (c.1760–1838)’, Treasures of Malta, Vol. 28 No.1 (Christmas 2021), 28-29. Other drawings in pen and ink are extant in a private collection.

7 Favray actually left Malta on 9/10 December 1761 and reached Constantinople on 19 January 1972.

8 A total of nine drawings have since been published so far, however, I am aware of over 21 sheets by this Maltese master.

9 Giuseppe and Vincenzo Pace inherited Zahra’s and Favray’s drawings. See Stephen Degiorgio and Emmanuel Fiorentino, Antoine Favray: A French Artist in Rome, Malta and Constantinople (Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2004), 235 n.19.

10 Drawings by Gian Nicola Buhagiar, Pasquale Buhagiar, Giuseppe d’Arena, and Stefano Erardi are preserved in a private collection.

11 The drawing is preserved in the Mdina Cathedral Museum.

12 The sketch is preserved in the Mdina Cathedral Museum.

13 I am aware of around 25 unpublished sketches by Carapecchia in one private collection.