Alessandro Cosma
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Arriving in Malta in 1660, Mattia Preti progressively become the official painter of the Knights of St. John, and changed radically their very way of understanding and using the images. From this point of view, the scenes of martyrdom represent a privileged field of investigation: for the members of the Order, in fact, this particular images are not only the result of specific devotions, but the representation of something that can be really experienced by the knights and that often summarize their aspirations and hopes.
New documents and — for the first time — the reading of these paintings in the context in which they were produced and in relation with the history of their patrons will clarify the extraordinary and often unique iconographies used by Mattia Preti and, moreover, provide new grounds for establishing their chronology.
The paper will then address the following topics:
• The works made by Preti for the Langue of Italy, his first reference point on the island, offering a comparative reading of two paintings dedicated to St. Catherine, one made for the Church of the Langue and one for their Chapel in St. John Cathedral. The analysis will unveil the devotional project promoted by the Langue in relation to the relic of the saint, and define a new, more reliable, chronology for the paintings.
• The two lunettes in the Chapel of the Langue of Aragon dedicated to the martyrdom of St. Stephen. Starting from some new documents and from the results of the recent restoration, a new reading of the paintings can now include them in the original commission by Grand Master Martin de Redin (1657–1660) related to his — failed — project of crusade.
• The unknown role played by the two Grand Masters Raphael (1660–1663) and Nicolas Cotoner (1663–1680) in guiding the choice of subjects for the paintings in the Chapel of St. James, a prelude to the great celebration of their role in the history of the Order painted by Preti in the vault of the cathedral and, above all, in the Allegory of the Order on the counterfacade.