Frontier art history Malta : a case of 'betwixt and between'

Abstract

The Mediterranean island of Malta stands at the centre of networks, connections, and exchanges that have distinctively shaped its cultural identity. Malta’s history has, more often than not, been a case of ‘betwixt and between’ as diverse cultural influences left an impact on the island’s culture and art history. Malta’s cultural identity is guided by its geographic liminality, bridging with both sides of the African and European culture rift. It is also influenced by its political liminality which has shaped and defined its history as global empires sought to shape an essentially regional identity which was oftentimes Malta’s historic context. It stands to reason that Malta’s art history has many more connections, narratives, and chapters than might perhaps be acknowledged at present. An essentially European yardstick whose point of departure is the Italian supremacy of the Florentine Renaissance, to which Malta connects but very little, while the rethinking of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art in the twentieth century, has to date shaped established yardsticks.