Baroque painting in Malta [Book Review]

Abstract

This marvellous and huge tome provides a detailed survey of the ‘Baroque period’ in Malta. This period was marked by the realism and naturalism of Caravaggist painting, the ‘noble classicism’ of the Bolognese school, and the exuberance of the high and late Baroque periods. The period is the richest in Malta’s art history as far as ‘old paintings’ are concerned. The author, Keith Sciberras, a History of Art academic at the University of Malta with a growing international reputation for his work in the area (particularly his work on Melchiorr Cafa and Caravaggio) states that he has been researching the period for the past fifteen years. This period is represented on the island by fine works of art. The painters in question include quite a number who stamped their mark on the history of western European art. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is undoubtedly the towering figure here. Then we come across works by Guido Reni, Jusepe de Ribera (the Valenciano, known as ‘Lo Spagnoletto’, from the Borgias’ city of Xativa), Luca Giordano (‘Luca fa presto’), Giovanni Battista (Battistello) Caracciolo, Massimo Stanzione, Mattia Preti (il Cavalier Calabrese), the Dutch caravaggist Mathias Stom (or Stomer), Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) and Andrea Vaccaro. There are also lesser known figures on the international stage such as Mario Minniti (Caravaggio’s personal friend from Syracuse), the Florentine Filippo Paladini (he came here as a result of his having been sentenced to the galleys), Matteo Perez d'Aleccio, Giuseppe Arena and Stefano and Alessio Erardi. Conspicuously absent is Carlo Maratta or Maratti, as he is referred to elsewhere in the text. His beautiful pyramidal ‘Madonna and Child’ hangs at the National Museum of Fine Arts with an identical representation, without the intersecting point provided by the Holy Ghost, on display at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum.