Eclecticism and the Baroque Revival in the Decorative Arts in Malta: The context for Abramo Gatt (1863-1944), is the title of the second volume in the scholarly series Studies in Central Mediterranean Decorative Arts, which has just been published by Midsea Books in collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. The book is largely authored by Dr Mark Sagona, Head of the Department of Art and Art History, and Architect Anthony Gatt, and also includes a study by British art historians Prof. Tessa Murdoch and Dr Roderick O'Donnell, and carries a foreword by Prof. Emeritus Mario Buhagiar. The extensive photographic documentation of the volume is produced by Abner Cassar. The book is part of the ongoing research project in the Department of Art and Art History led by Dr Sagona with a focus on the decorative arts in Malta within their international context, and has the aim of examining, documenting and contextualising the impressively rich and varied decorative arts production in the Maltese Islands.
The book focuses on one of the most remarkably rich episodes in the extraordinary and profuse story of the decorative arts in Malta: the years straddling the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and discusses the prevalence of Eclecticism and Baroque Revival currents during the height of British colonial domination. It celebrates the island's most gifted native designer of the fin-de-siècle, Abramo Gatt (1863-1944), on the eightieth anniversary of his death. There were several Maltese designers who reflected the European predilection for such design solutions, but the oeuvre of Gatt is surely the most emblematic of this fascinating era, and it brilliantly captures the design mood of the epoch, especially in the context of the ecclesiastical decorative arts.
The book synoptically considers the international and local context, highlighting main concepts and the leading designers and decorative practitioners in Malta at the turn of the twentieth century, but then zooms into the personality and works of Abramo Gatt, analysing his decorative and ornamental vocabulary. The main focus of the book is the contextualisation of Gatt as an artist, the analysis of the spirit which impacted the invention of his works, and the documentation of his life as an artist and designer. The third part of the book offers the first holistic and critical study of his oeuvre, with the catalogue of all the known works and drawings by the master, many of which published for the very first time, constituting the fourth and final part.
The book will be presented during a book launch event on Wednesday 16 October 2024 at 19:30 at the Oratory of the Onorati at the Jesuits’ Church, Valletta (entrance from Archbishop’s Street). The academic evening will include interventions by the authors together with Prof. Keith Sciberras and Dr Frederica Agius from the Department of Art and Art History.