The renaissance revival choir stalls and lectern at Mdina Cathedral : their Maltese and European decorative arts context (1870-1879)

Abstract

The choir stalls inaugurated on Christmas Eve of 1876 and their accompanying lectern inaugurated on the feast day of the Conversion of St. Paul of 1879 found in the Mdina Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Paul are the fulcrum of this study. The project which spanned over eight years, owes its beginnings to the initial idea of restoring the preceding late fifteenth-century stalls. This idea slowly turned into a complete replacement resulting in the production of the new stalls, albeit some parts from the old ones were incorporated. The stalls and lectern reflect the international artistic scene in the way they adopt the Renaissance Revival language for their production. Moreover, they stand as a clear testimony of the high levels of local craftsmanship traditions that were present in the Maltese Islands making them one of the most significant ecclesiastical decorative works of art to be produced locally in the second half of the nineteenth century. The main force behind their production was the erudite priest Canon Paolo Pullicino (1815-1890) who occupied the role of patron to this project, aiming at producing a successful and functional decorative work of art involving painter and designer Giuseppe Calleja (1828-1915) as well as Emmanuele Decelis (c.1826-1912), the finest wood-intarsia practitioner that the island had to offer.