The process of invention : nineteenth-century ornamental drawings for Malta

Abstract

THIS PAPER focuses on the production of ornamental drawings and known specimens produced for ecclesiastical artefacts and items of decorative art in nineteenth-century Malta.1 In the production of objets d’art and the decorative arts in general, perhaps more than in other artistic spheres, drawings play a fundamental role. First ideas for ornamental and decorative works eventually rendered in wood, silver, embroidery, stone, marble, bronze, glass and other media, are born as sketches on paper. They are subsequently developed as more coherent projects in greater detail on other folios, refined as fully fledged scaled-down drawings for discussion with patrons and clients, and enlarged as actual-scale drawings or cartoons from which models or final works are ultimately given shape. Drawings on paper are therefore of vital importance in any analysis of the decorative arts since they not only constitute the artist’s pure, original invention but also provide essential comparative material between the design and the finished work. They also constitute a very important component in the history of the work’s making. It is in the drawing that one can truly appreciate the inventive verve of the designer and the quality of his artistic output. [Excerpt]