Although today Malta’s two official languages are Maltese (a language whose writing system was only codified at the beginning of the 20th century) and English (which the inhabitants speak with a very strong accent, sometimes difficult to understand), Italian remains a language spoken by a large part of the archipelago’s population. This is logical, given Malta’s long historical ties to Sicily and the Italian peninsula, particularly under the influence of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was mainly Italian artists or locals trained in Italy who were active there. Valletta, but also other smaller towns, are so deeply marked by Italian art that one sometimes has the impression of being in Italy.
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- 1. Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Saint Jerome, 1607-1608
Oil on canvas - 117 x 157 cm
Valletta, Saint John’s Co-Cathedral
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The Co-Cathedral of Saint John in Valletta is undoubtedly the most important site in Malta’s heritage [1] and also the place where this influence is most evident. Firstly, of course, thanks to the two paintings by Caravaggio. This is all the more true given that the successive monographic exhibitions, which ultimately endanger his works as they are constantly being transported around the world, are always deprived of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, a painting that is too large and too fragile to travel, and even Saint Jerome, which they only lend on extremely rare occasions (ill. 1).
The latter painting has changed location several times. Commissioned by a Knight of Malta, Ippolito Malaspina, it was transferred after his death to the co-cathedral, in the chapel of the Italian language; it was in the Cathedral Museum when it was stolen in 1984 and recovered four years later. As the museum is currently closed for renovation, the work is on display in a special room accessed from the side of the Oratory.
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- 2. Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Saint Jerome, 1606
Oil on canvas - 112 x 157 cm
Rome, Galleria Borghese
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Saint Jerome is a frequent subject in Caravaggio’s paintings, but only three [2] versions by Caravaggio himself are known: the one painted for Scipione Borghese in 1606, now in the Galleria Borghese (ill. 2), and this one, which is only slightly later. If, as Sybille Ebert-Schifferer notes in her recent monograph, "the comparison [...] speaks volumes about the painter’s evolution", and if his attitude seems strongly inspired by the Hellenistic sculpture, The Dying Gaul, what is most striking is the absence of a halo. The Saint depicted translating the Bible is replaced by an old man meditating on his impending death, whose identity is revealed only by the cardinal’s hat hanging on the left.
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- 3. The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in its location
in the Oratory of the Co-Cathedral in Valletta
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, commissioned by Alof de Wignacourt, is located on the high altar of this Oratory at the back of the first chapel on the right, in its original location (ill. 3). It is the artist’s largest canvas, completed a year after his arrival in Malta and inaugurated in July 1608, in the absence of the painter who had to flee again, this time to Sicily, implicated in a new criminal case (this time it was a simple brawl, without loss of life).
The atmosphere of the painting is not very different from that of The Calling of Saint Matthew in Saint Louis des Français, painted eight years earlier. At first glance, it is difficult to determine whether the scene is indoors or outdoors. The light suggests the former, but the doorway on the left and the barred window on the right (reminiscent of the window in The Calling, with its shutters curiously open towards the interior of the room) suggest that the scene is set in a courtyard.
Unlike the Roman painting, in frieze form, the action of the Beheading is concentrated in a quarter of the painting, far removed from the horror of the void evident in some of the artist’s early works.
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- 4. Michelangelo Merisi, dit le Caravage ou Caravaggio (1571-1610)
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, 1608
Oil on canvas - 361 x 520 cm
Valletta, Saint John’s Co-Cathedral
Photo: Wikimedia (public domain) - See the image in its page
We could not fail to mention these Caravaggio paintings, which alone would justify a visit to Malta. But it would be unfair to overlook all the other treasures of this co-cathedral, which cannot be summed up in these two paintings.
Although Caravaggio spent a year in Malta, he produced very few works. On the other hand, Mattia Preti, one of the great Italian painters of the Seicento, is present throughout the island, particularly in this building, where he decorated the entire vault and left numerous paintings. We will see this in our next article.