Dr Theresa Vella will deliver a public lecture titled "The Magistral Court of the Order of St John: From Rhodes to Malta." The lecture will be held at Palazzo Santa Sofia - Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum, Mdina on Wednesday 8 June 2016 at 18:30hrs. The lecture is organised by the International Institute for Baroque Studies in collaboration with Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum.

The Baroque splendour and magnificence of the Magistral Palace of the Order of St John in Valletta owes its beginnings to the Order’s engagement with artistic patronage during its time in the Eastern Mediterranean Island of Rhodes between 1310 and 1523. Dr Theresa Vella will present instances whereby Grand Masters in Rhodes harnessed the visual arts in the manner of princes in Early Renaissance European courts, and revived the practice with the establishment of the Order’s magistral court in Malta.

Dr Theresa Vella is an art historian and curatorial consultant who lectures on Baroque Painting and Sculpture with the International Institute of Baroque Studies, University of Malta.  Her research interests lie in the history of art collecting and patronage, as well as landscape art, in the Baroque Age.