Treasures of Malta - Easter 2024

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to collect and disseminate information, and to assist with research into the culture and historic heritage of Malta ~ to organize in Malta and overseas, independently or with others, exhibitions, seminars and other activities with the aim of promoting and spreading knowledge of the cultural heritage of Malta ~ to produce publications, catalogues, books, documents and other material that reflect the aim of our Foundation.

FONDAZZJONI PATRIMONJU MALTI

2 Editorial 10

Prosper Mérimée’s Visits to Malta

Through a series of journal notes, reports, and correspondence, Carmen Depasquale parses the detailed and often humorous impressions of a renowned French man of letters on his two visits to Malta

20

The Earliest Known Set of Photographs of Ħa ġ ar Qim

Anton Bugeja tells the story behind the earliest known collection of photographs of Ħaġar Qim

33

Cracking the Code: Restoration and Discoveries at St Paul’s Anglican ProCathedral, Valletta

Charlene Jo Darmanin, Guillaume Dreyfuss, Charles Sciberras, Elena Zammit, Nigel Degaetano, Elena Bajada, Konrad Buhagiar

42

The Hand Behind the Refectory Paintings at Casa Manresa, Floriana: A Possible Identification of Leonetti

Mark Sammut Sassi proposes a conjecture about the identity of the artist behind the enigmatic signature on the painted refectory ceiling of the former Jesuit retreat house in Floriana

52

A Father of Modern Maltese Drama: Francis Ebejer (1925–1993)

Paul Xuereb

60

A Lifetime of Dedication:

An outstanding collection of historic cameras in Ż ejtun (I)

Kevin Casha

(Courtesy of the Formosa Gauci Family Collection, Malta / Photo: Lisa Attard)

65

My Favourite Object

Klaus Vella Bardon

70

Experiencing Palazzo de la Salle’s Sala dei Cavalieri as a Simulacrum

Toni Sant takes the High Baroque setting of the Sala dei Cavalieri as a case study for elaborating ideas on imagined realities and simulation in relation to historical fact

78

Giuseppe Briffa (1901–1987): An Insight into his Depictions of the Female Nude

Nadette Xuereb reproposes the intimate, private portrayals of the female form as a testament of a Maltese twentieth-century artist teetering between the allure of modernism and the grip of tradition

87

The Cover

Caroline Tonna

88

Exhibition Focus

Caroline Tonna and Francesca

Balzan guide us through some of the twists, turns, and revelations while working on the forthcoming exhibition at Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum

90 Bookshelf

Jonathan Farrugia

Cecilia Xuereb

94

Unknown designer, A stomacher in hand-embroidered silk, 25 x 39 cm, c.1760.

Prosper Mérimée’s Visits to Malta

Fig. 1

Medal of Prosper Merimee, by Pierre Jean David d’Angers, Bronze, brown patina, hollow cast, 11.4cm (diameter), 1828. A similar portrait illustration feautured on the cover of the volumes Correspondance Générale by Prosper Mérimée, published by le Divan, Paris, 1941–1964.

(Courtesy of The Met Museum, Gift of Samuel P. Avery, 1898)

Through a series of journal notes, reports, and correspondence, Carmen Depasquale parses the detailed and often humorous impressions of a renowned French man of letters on his two visits to Malta

The name of Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870) evokes the writer and the Inspector General of Historical Monuments who saved for posterity many old buildings and monuments from destruction all over France. As a writer, he is perhaps best remembered for his short stories, Mateo Falcone, Colomba, and especially, Carmen, the subject of Georges Bizet’s eponymous opera. Mérimée is also a dramatist; a collection of his plays is entitled Le théâtre de Clara Gazul. He is also the author of a historical novel, La Chronique du temps de Charles IX. His correspondence includes Lettres à une inconnue (‘Letters to an unknown girl’), published posthumously. An indefatigable traveller, his Notes de voyages describe his travels all over France.

Professor Carmen Depasquale, a former Head of the Department of French at the University of Malta, obtained her doctorate from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) with distinction. Her main areas of interest include works on French Knights of Malta, French travel literature on Malta, and French writers of Maltese origin. She has authored books and numerous articles in peerreviewed journals, read papers at conferences, given public lectures in Malta and abroad, and has been a guest lecturer at several European universities. She is a member of several academic societies. She was awarded the distinction of Ofcier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques in recognition of her contribution towards French culture.

Fallen megaliths within an apse at Ħaġar Qim.

(Courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University

/ Source: Horblit TypPh Album 50)

The Earliest Known Set of Photographs of Ħa ġ ar Qim

Anton Bugeja tells the story behind the earliest known collection of photographs of Ħaġ ar Qim

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the unsurpassed accuracy of the photograph when compared to the artist’s painting was soon realised by those interested in ancient sites and remains. Soon after the daguerreotype, the calotype negative, and the salt print made practical photography possible after the 1830s, photographers travelled to the Mediterranean and the Levant to document long-known or newly cleared archaeological remains.1

Even though photography was introduced early in Malta by Horace Vernet and Frederic Goupil-Fesquet (1841) and found early practitioners in Francesco Galea and Leandro Preziosi,2 the use of photography for local archaeology was only slowly adopted. Only a photograph of a party taking place at Ħaġ ar Qim reveals definite interest of photographers in Maltese archaeology since 1860.3 For this reason, a landmark development came through the role played by the Society of Archaeology, History and Natural Sciences of Malta which, in 1868, produced an album containing photographs of Mnajdra, Borġ in-Nadur, a Phoenician inscription, and statuettes from Ħaġ ar Qim.4

Dr Anton Bugeja, a family doctor by profession, has a keen interest in the history of Maltese archaeology and has written about the subject in various articles and books. He has been active in archaeologyrelated NGOs for the past twenty-five years.

Fig. 1

Subsidiary building 2

Main building

Subsidiary building 3

Fig. 7

General plan of Ħaġar Qim, with indication of different areas and spaces of the main building as described in Evans (1971), Plan 18A (adapted by M. Anastasi).

‘Sphynx-shaped [sic] carved stone’

Tallest megalith

Façade

The Hand Behind the Refectory Paintings at Casa Manresa, Floriana A Possible Identification of Leonetti

Mark Sammut Sassi proposes a conjecture about the identity of the artist behind the enigmatic signature on the painted refectory ceiling of the former Jesuit retreat house in Floriana

The ceiling of the refectory of Casa Manresa, in Floriana, is adorned with works signed ‘Leonetti.P.’. That ‘P.’ could be ‘Pasquale’,1 as some have opined, or Pittore 2 It could also, and most probably, be Pinxit, 3 the Latin term for ‘he [or she] painted [it]’. Yet, pinxit is not the only term painters use; fecit is also often used, meaning ‘he [or she] made [it]’.

Are pinxit and fecit synonyms?

The answer is more or less (since there are no hard and fast rules4) in the negative. Whereas fecit would imply that the painter is the creator of the work, pinxit would imply that the work has been reproduced in a different medium, such as an engraving.

If indeed that ‘P.’ does mean pinxit, then it might yield two clues: (1) the work could have been reproduced as an engraving or from an engraving; (2) pinxit might mean that the author is somehow also involved in the art of engraving.5

Dr Mark Sammut Sassi studied Law and Translation Studies at the University of Malta, Historical Studies at Oxford University, Legal Theory and History at the University of London, and Historical Sociology at the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies, a member of the Soċjetà Storika ta’ Malta, Società italiana di storia del diritto, European Society for Comparative Legal History, and European Society for History of Law. He has published on legal history, history, and politics.

Fig. 1

Detail showing the inscription ‘Leonetti.P.’ on the vault of the refectory of Casa Manresa.

(Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Malta / Photo: Ian Noel Pace)

A Father of Modern Maltese Drama

Francis Ebejer (1925–1993)

Paul Xuereb

Francis Ebejer was one of a small number of authors who dominated the world of literature in Malta in the latter half of the twentieth century. Above all, he was the man who made Maltese theatre new and compelling. Contemporaries like Ġużè Chetcuti and Ġużè Diacono produced works of acceptable quality, but Ebejer went beyond familiar realism. His plays were notable for their skilfully written dialogues, featuring scenes of striking symbolism and combining music and choreography. He is remembered by many for his vivid explorations of a Malta in danger of forgetting its cultural roots. It was theatre that made audiences think, refect, and appreciate its power. When he died, still in his sixties in 1993, I had described him as the father of modern Maltese drama.

He was born in 1925 in the village of Dingli, which he loved all his life and where he is buried and honoured with a public bronze statue made by his friend, the sculptor Anton Agius (Fig. 2). Dingli also features prominently in what is probably his best novel in English, In the Eye of the Sun. He was certainly infuenced by his father, Joseph, a prominent and early member of L-Għaqda tal-Malti, who taught him to love and use his native language. Like several other Maltese who lived their formative years in colonial times, he also loved English, which he spoke and ofen wrote with distinction.

Afer spending a year in Libya as an English-Italian interpreter for the British forces in that country, he did what many other aspiring authors ofen did at the time; he became a head teacher in government schools afer having spent a couple of years in a training college in England. He achieved distinction for his work in primary schools and eventually became a greatly liked and admired head teacher of the Żurrieq Primary School.

He was much less fortunate in his marriage. Tough from it issued a daughter and a son, the marriage broke down, leading to his wife’s departure for Great Britain, taking the children with her without his permission. She never rejoined him. I ofen heard him speak of his great unhappiness caused by this ill-fated marriage—an unhappiness rendered acute when his son was killed in a trafc accident in England. Te author’s brother Walter, who was a Dominican friar and became a bishop in Brazil where he had gone as a missionary priest, was much loved and admired by Francis, who had once visited him in Brazil. I greatly believe he never completely lost his faith.1 His son’s tragic death, however, did shake his faith, leading him to write a now little-known three-act play, Vum-barala-zungaré, performed in 1973. Here, the Holy Trinity is depicted in an absurdist fashion, to the extent that the philosopher-priest Peter Serracino Inglott, who reviewed it in a long and very perceptive article, went on to describe it as blasphemous.

Ebejer once assured me that writing was, amongst other things, a form of therapy through which he could be relieved and escape from his personal unhappiness. At the beginning of his career Ebejer tried his hand at writing in two felds: fction and plays. He was encouraged to write novels in English when the BBC Overseas broadcast a short story by him. He then succeeded in having three novels published by English publishers: A Wreath for the Innocents (1958), Evil of the King Cockroach (1960), and, afer a gap, In the Eye of the Sun, which appeared in 1969. Tese three works, which were reviewed favourably in English papers like Te Times Literary Supplement, had a freshness and spontaneity not typical of his later English fction. Like some of the works he was to later write for the theatre, these three novels are highly evocative studies of a traditional Maltese society he then sadly saw was already vanishing. By 1993, the year of his death, Malta

Fig. 1 Portrait photograph of Francis Ebejer, in 1991. (Courtesy of the Ebejer Family Estate)

A Lifetime of Dedication

An outstanding collection of historic cameras in Ż ejtun (I)

Kevin Casha

In this two-part appraisal on photography in Malta and the technology that made it possible, Kevin Casha homes in on the collection of one of its leading twentiethcentury protagonists, Paul Vella.

It is amazing that on such a small island as Malta we have so many persons who, as a hobby, collect a wide plethora of items. However, collectors naturally differ. Most build up their collections in a relaxed manner, but others dedicate a whole life to their overriding passions. I can think of no better example of the latter than Paul Vella (b. 1952).

For a long time, I have been fascinated by early photographers and photography, marvelling at their many inventions and those of resourceful pioneers who have slowly but surely made it possible for photography to arrive where it is today. So many challenges had to be surmounted in order to make the creation of images possible. Being deeply involved in photography for the greater part of my life, I had started collecting vintage cameras, books, and equipment with the dream that one day a centre for photography would be established in Malta and an integral part of this would be a photography museum.

At one time, I was asking around whether there were any camera collectors on the island. I had gone to a few enthusiasts who had a number of cameras and equipment, but imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered Paul Vella! In such a small community like Malta, it was quite unbelievable how so much time had passed without ever having heard of him. In fact, I got to know Paul through a fellow photographer friend of mine, Gino Galea,

from Mosta. He had given me Paul’s contact and, through online media, I quickly managed to get in touch. It was the beginning of a great friendship between two like-minded and compatible persons. Paul immediately invited me over to see his collection … it was really like entering Aladdin’s cave! In a garage adjacent to his Żejtun residence, he had incredibly amassed over 2,400 cameras, all of them in working condition. In his able hands, what usually begins as a broken down, crippled piece of equipment, seemingly at the end of its life, is incredibly transformed and ends up as a prized, immaculately conditioned object forming part of his collection. One cannot but be amazed at how many cameras he has lovingly saved from oblivion for future generations to treasure and appreciate them in all their glory.

Paul was born in Ż ejtun, on 19 July 1952. His father was George Vella, and his mother Consiglia née Formosa. The couple had seven children, five girls and two boys. His father had owned one of the main petrol stations on the Ż ejtun ‘tal-Barrani’ road. At that time, it was called the Esso Service Station. Paul’s early days mainly consisted of working around the station, dispensing fuel, greasing, tyre repair, and tinkering with vehicles. All that had to do with cars interested the young boy and, at fourteen years of age, he undertook the course of First Mechanic at the Technical Training Centre, then at Marsa.1

Prior to that, when he was just ten, he had obtained his first camera by collecting coupons in a Surf Gift Scheme.2 It was just a simple plastic Diana 120, but it was his first contact with camera equipment, and this gradually kindled his interest in photography. His uncle Anthony was also a keen photography hobbyist and, many a time, Paul would accompany him in the makeshift darkroom that his uncle had in Qormi, at the house of Paul’s grandmother. It was a small room situated on the roof and, although the young boy dabbled and experimented, the fascination soon wore

Fig. 1

A generic view of Paul Vella’s collection at his museum in Żejtun. (Courtesy of Paul Vella / Photo: Kevin Casha)

Experiencing Palazzo de la Salle’s Sala dei Cavalieri as a Simulacrum

Toni Sant takes the High Baroque setting of the Sala dei Cavalieri as a case study for elaborating ideas on imagined realities and simulation in relation to historical fact

We have become so reliant on reproduced images as an aspect of everyday life that we often overlook the real world that preceded these images. Reality itself often imitates the image. It is as if to say that we have gone beyond imitation, and the simulation has substituted indicators of real things for a new reality. Accepting this is to follow the ideas proposed by Jean Baudrillard. In his book, Simulation and Simulacra, he argues that ‘when the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning’.1 Extending this line of thought further, leads to discussing imagined memories, constructed from what we believe something is, or should be, rather than what it really is. This can also be applied to presumably High Baroque settings. Once such example is the Sala dei Cavalieri, situated in the northeast wing of Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta.

Toni Sant is the Director of Digital Curation Lab at MediaCity, United Kingdom, and Associate Professor in the School of Arts, Media, and Creative Technology at the University of Salford. Between 2014 and 2020, he was the Artistic Director of Spazju Kreattiv, Malta’s National Centre for Creativity. He has written widely about digital curation and media archaeology. He is also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media.

Fig. 1

Portrait of Fra' Enrico de la Salle, by Domenico Micallef, and its decorative setting at the Sala dei Cavalieri, Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta.

(Courtesy of the Malta Society of Arts / Photo: Alex Attard)

Giuseppe Briffa (1901–1987)

An Insight into his Depictions of the Female Nude

Nadette Xuereb reproposes the intimate, private portrayals of the female form as a testament of a Maltese twentieth-century artist teetering between the allure of modernism and the grip of tradition

Giuseppe Briffa (1901–1987) was a prominent Maltese artist who lived and worked in Malta during the twentieth century. He was one of the major protagonists of Maltese ecclesiastical art during this period. Yet, his private works have been somewhat overlooked over the years;1 his work merits more study, particularly his depiction of the nude.2

The majority of Briffa’s female nude depictions are situated either in private collections or within the reserve collection at MUŻ A, Valletta, making them rather inaccessible to the general public. This paper aims to shed light on the artist’s representations of the female nude, urging further examination of their execution and thematic elements.

Nadette Xuereb graduated with a B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in Art History from the University of Malta. Her specialised area of study is female patronage and gender issues in art, and has published on the topic. She has also participated in and chaired local conferences focusing on women in the arts and on Maltese cultural heritage, respectively. She is a former president of the History of Art and Fine Arts Students’ Association (HoASA) and is also a founding member of the group Pop & Art.

Fig. 1

(Detail) Giuseppe Briffa, Study of a Female Nude, 181 x 252mm, signed and dated, 1922.

(Private Collection, Malta / Photo: Greta Ellul Xuereb)

Curious Beauty

An alternative costume exhibition

Artistic direction by Caroline Tonna and Francesca Balzan

Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum, Mdina 14 April – 16 June 2024

Caroline Tonna and Francesca Balzan guide us through some of the twists, turns, and revelations while working on the forthcoming exhibition by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti at Palazzo Falson.

How did the idea for a fashion exhibition come about?

Michael Lowell, CEO and Creative Director of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (FPM), had the vision to put on a fashion exhibition with a difference and he invited us both—former curators of Palazzo Falson—to return to the museum and work together to bring this vision to life. FPM had, famously, organised a wonderful costume exhibition back in 1998. Since then, a new generation of art lovers has emerged, and we have been repeatedly asked to create an exhibition that focuses on fashion, dress, and costume.

This fascination with fashion appears to be universal. In recent years, we have seen exhibitions that have attractive and original displays, intertwining historic pieces with contemporary designs in all the leading centres of fashion, suffice to mention the epochmaking Alexander Mc Queen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and then at the V&A Museum in London, others in Paris at the Palais Galliera and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs …

Everyone relates to fashion in one way or another and it is appreciated more when it is presented as an art form. The visitor is transported to the past through the intricate designs and styles of past eras, evoking nostalgia and new experiences.

You call this show ‘an alternative fashion exhibition’. What is alternative about it? Our exhibition is playful and whimsical—it celebrates the joie de vivre of Olof Gollcher who was the last owner and resident of Palazzo Falson (until 1962). He held a deep interest in Maltese heritage, art, and research. We have built the concept of the exhibition around Gollcher’s creative spirit and eye for beauty.

Previous temporary exhibitions, focused mainly on the decorative arts, were more contained in the so-called Orientation Room of the museum, but this exhibition is larger. It sprawls around the entire palazzo,

creating contemporary art in assemblages of historic objects. The artefacts are displayed in unexpected ways against the backdrop of the richly decorated rooms of the museum. We are not dismantling the permanent display, which is a huge challenge, but this will enable the visitor to appreciate these artefacts while still having full access to the museum’s permanent collection.

It is an alternative fashion exhibition because it proposes new ways of showing antiques. We did not opt for a chronological approach but a thematic one, linked to the architecture and function of the existing rooms, and thus creating a dialogue with the richly decorated museum spaces in a quirky and fun way. The fact that we both served as curators of the museum, that both of us are art historians specialising in our respective areas of fashion and jewellery, and—perhaps most importantly—thoroughly enjoy working together, were very significant factors to build ideas for this exhibition.

Michael gave us the opportunity to be creative with the displays and the freedom to explore, experiment, and learn how to transform the museum spaces into a whimsical and innovative exhibition display. Each installation was purposely designed to harmonise with the permanent setup to spark curiosity, engagement, and joy. We are showcasing over 200 items of fashion from various important public and private collections ranging from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, including bodices, waistcoats, period dresses, stomachers, bags, shoes, hats, gloves, corsets, and glasses. Ecclesiastical mitres also feature, highlighting luxury fashion in church vestments that are creatively displayed in the museum chapel.

What are some of the special artefacts to look out for in the exhibition?

Several! And some unexpected ones too. There are some exceptional antique pieces from the eighteenth century, many of which have never been on public display before. Indeed, most of the artefacts in the exhibition are discoveries made in various private collections paired with superb pieces from the national collection and those of the Cathedrals of Malta and Gozo. The exhibition showcases a variety of dress and accessories

from different periods to give a taste of the luxurious fabrics, glamorous styles, and adornments worn in Malta. The unifying element of the exhibition is the colour gold, frequently featured as gold metal thread in the period pieces and accessories. Gold, visually, runs through the exhibition as a leitmotif marking out the temporary exhibits from the permanent collection.

How did you confront the challenge of dealing with all these artefacts, both from the permanent display and those brought in specifically for the installation?

The strength of the exhibition is, of course, Palazzo Falson’s splendid interiors, which are chock-full of artefacts collected by Olof Gollcher representing a time span from ancient times till the twentieth century. This was simultaneously the greatest challenge as we opted not to dismantle anything of the museum’s interiors bar one or two small items of furniture. Other challenges focused on the technical aspect, for example adapting specific mounts for certain pieces such as female bodices and men’s waistcoats that had to be individually sized to fit a specific body shape and garment cut. We tested each display until we achieved the desired result, and, in most cases, we were using replica garments purposely made to avoid handling the original antique artefacts.

We also looked for sustainable solutions for our displays and we upcycled used carton boxes and other materials used in past exhibitions. We used conservation grade paper to hand sculpt mannequin heads and arms, as well as skirts and breeches to give an unusual added visual character to ornate bodices and waistcoats.

Finally, the state of these antique artefacts and how we had to respond to each object—all 200 of them—with great care and purpose-made storage and supports, indeed, posed quite a task. But there were joys, too!

The fun of creating together, handling precious old fabrics and beautiful examples of workmanship, and discovering new ways of showcasing these unique artefacts in a safe way. Our ultimate mission is to stimulate and inspire visitors to appreciate the craftsmanship of fashion creations and create awareness of our dress heritage and preservation of our patrimony.

Exhibition Focus