The artistic heritage of Gozo : a study of patronage patterns in a small island community

Abstract

The miniature size of Gozo with the consequential financial, social and cultural limitations of an isolated, and often impoverished, community of farmers and herdsmen, sailors and fisherman do not, prima facie, seem to give much scope to the study of patterns of artistic patronage. The wealth of buildings and works of art that the island posses comes, therefore, as a surprise to both social anthropologist and art historian. The natural temptation is to seek the answer to this perplexing situation in the cultivated aesthetic values of an enlightened government and ecclesiastical establishment which realised the political, and religious, advantages of a sound cultural programme. This, however, is only partially correct, and without, in any way, detracting from the importance of state and church support for the visual arts, it is important to emphasis that impressive churches were also built and valuable works of art commissioned as a result of humbler patronage patterns that were often of the collective type and sometimes came from quite unexpected quarters. This paper will focus on the artistic heritage of Gozo in terms of paintings but it should be stressed that the Gozitan artistic patrimony includes also sculpture and architecture.