Revisiting Antonello Gagini’s 1504 Madonna and Child

Abstract

Malta’s connection with Renaissance art is largely associated with two Sicilian workshops that had familial connections with the Quattrocento masters Domenico Gagini (c.1420–92) and Antonello da Messina (c.1430–79). These artists and their followers cultivated a Renaissance sensibility that was disseminated throughout Sicily, Calabria and also Malta, due to the numerous commissions that they undertook. Malta’s association with the Gagini family dates back to 1474, when the Mdina Cathedral acquired a holy water stoup from the Palermo workshop of Domenico Gagini. An association with Antonello da Messina’s brother-in-law, Pietro Cuminella, dates to 1477, when he was carrying out works in Mdina’s Cathedral. Several other Maltese commissions reached Domenico’s workshop and his son Antonello Gagini (1478–1536), and Antonello da Messina’s nephews, Antonio de Saliba (c.1466/7–c.1535) and Salvo d’Antonio (act. 1493–1526). The last known instance dates to 1534–5, when the Knights commissioned from Antonello Gagini the full-length figure of Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464–1534), today in the Crypt of the Grand Masters in St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. [Excerpt]