Qormi’s Zahra Painting Restored and Revaluated

Parallel Existences. The Notarial Archives. A Photographer’s Inspiration, 2018

The sculptural oeuvre of Pietro Paolo Zahra (1685-1747), one of eighteenth-century Malta’s most important scalpellini, attains the soul and spirit evoked by Roman Baroque sculpture in the Eternal City. Rome was always a major source of inspiration and a point of reference for Maltese artists, and consequently the analysis of the international context of Roman Baroque sculpture and its subsequent extensive spread is indispensable for understanding the circumstances which conditioned Zahra’s corpus of works, many of them documented in contracts at the Notarial Archives, and others attributed on grounds of stylistic analysis. Generated and enabled by several catalysts including the Order of St John’s deep- seated admiration for the Eternal City, Rome’s influential authority reached far beyond the state's official artistic programme into the local bottega. This in itself, and its modus operandi, were similar to workshops on the Continent. In Malta, the Roman Baroque style was amalgamated with regional features to create a distinct Maltese Late Baroque style which reaches its pinnacle in Zahra’s design and sculpture for the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix at Senglea.

Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino, 2006

A Painting by Ulisse Ciocchi from the Archbishops’ Collection in Kroměříž, 2019

The painting of Christ as the Good Shepherd among Angels from the chateau in Kroměříž was purchased in 1901 from an antiques dealer in Rome, Othmar Schmidt, by the Olomouc Archbishop Theodor Kohn, who was trying to enlarge the painting collection of the Olomouc Archbishops with new acquisitions. The painting soon lost its original attribution to Parmigianino, under whose name it was purchased in Rome, and until now it has been listed as the work of a Venetian-Dutch painter. In this article we have a new attribution of the painting to the Tuscan artist Ulisse Ciocchi (circa 1570–1631), a pupil and colleague of Bernardino Poccetti (1548–1612). The wooden panel is painted on both sides. The front depicts the Resurrected Christ as the Good Shepherd, surrounded on each side by a trio of beautifully clothed Angels playing various musical instruments. Within the framework of Ciocchi’s work we can find a parallel on the iconographic side to this quite uniquely formed theme, situated in a landscape that is northern in tone. The same scene, although treated differently, was created by the painter using the mural technique in the years 1613–1614 in the former Dominican Convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli in Florence. At the request of six Sisters of the Order he painted in 1614 a picture for the main altar of Saint James Baptising Josiah shortly before his Execution. The six lilies along the lower edge are a reference to the six nuns who financed the painting on the occasion of their consecration. In the case of the Kroměříž painting the question arises of whether the painting does not contain some analogous hidden symbolism. The six women who had decided to dedicate their lives to Christ would, under his pastoral guidance, just like the Angels, emanate beautiful music, i.e. spread the faith, just as pure lilies give out a beautiful scent. Christ would then, figuratively speaking, accompany the novices through their spiritual life as the Good Shepherd. On the reverse side of the panel Ulisse Ciocchi depicted the family coat of arms of a so-far unidentified member of the Birago family. With regard to the dimensions of the panel and the fact that the scenes on the front and back are depicted in reverse, it may be assumed that the painting formed the lid of some keyboard instrument or possibly of some kind of chest.

The art of native Maltese artists underwent a vigorous rebirth in the course of the 17th Century thanks to direct contacts with a number of worthy continental artists - a slow but accelerating process culminating in the excited flourish of mid-18th Century Late Baroque. This study provides the essential researched biography of the native Maltese protagonists of this phenomenon: Gio Nicola Buhagiar and Francesco Zahra.

unpublished M.A. dissertation, Department of History of Art, University of Malta, 2017

This research aims to analyse the late Baroque sculptured altar reredoses of Pietro Paolo Zahra (1685-1747), one of the most important eighteenth century regional Baroque sculptors in Malta, and discuss their regional characteristics within the international context of Roman Baroque sculpture and its spread. The imprint of the Roman Baroque on Malta is the result of a set of conditions that enhanced the dissemination of the High Baroque from the Eternal City to regional areas, among them Malta, where it was amalgamated with tradition to create a Maltese Late Baroque style. This study has three main goals: the first is to identify and analyse the channels through which Pietro Paolo Zahra came into contact with the Roman Baroque style; the second is to analyse stylistic parallelism in the sculpture of other regional centres, and the third is to attribute new works to Pietro Paolo Zahra on the basis of style and to examine the workings of his workshop. The aims of the study are primarily reached through onsite research in Malta and a study visit to Sicily. Onsite research is complemented with archival research in several collections but chiefly in the Senglea Parish Archives, the Archives of the Archbishop’s Curia at Floriana, and the Notarial Archives in Valletta. Literature on Roman Baroque sculpture in Malta has focused almost exclusively on the patronage of the Order of St John while Maltese Late Baroque sculpture has been dispersedly discussed in previous dissertations. Archival research on Pietro Paolo Zahra has been conducted but the channels through which he was imprinted with the Roman Baroque idiom have never been evaluated. Furthermore, the altar reredoses of Pietro Paolo Zahra have never been analysed in the light of their regional characteristics and in direct comparison with Rome, the source, and other regional centres. Through the analysis of Pietro Paolo Zahra’s altar reredoses, this research synthesises Maltese art historical literature and fills a lacuna by improving understanding of the regional characteristics sculpture acquired from its ultimate sources. The most important contribution of this research is the shedding of light on the artistic links between Malta and Rome that enabled the dominant imprint of the Roman Baroque style on Maltese Late Baroque sculpture.

La raccolta di quadri degli arcivescovi di Olomouc conservata nel castello di Kroměříž è una delle più importanti della Repubblica Ceca e occupa una posizione di primo piano anche nel più ampio contesto europeo. Oltre a opere famose come Apollo a Marsia di Tiziano e il Doppio ritratto di Carlo I Stuart e di Enrichetta Maria di Anthonys van Dyck, acquistato a una delle aste organizzate dopo la morte di Carlo I, custodisce quadri di Paolo Veronese, Lucas Cranach, Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni e decine di altri. Nella collezione troviamo anche il quadro Davide con la testa di Golia, finora collocato in posizione poco visibile nella fila più alta della galleria del castello di Kroměříž e ritenuto una copia di pittore sconosciuto del quadro di Orazio Gentileschi della Galleria Spada a Roma. Ma non si tratta di una copia qualunque. Un vecchio inventario della collezione risalente al 1691 documenta il quadro come opera attribuibile ad Artemisia Gentileschi, figlia di Orazio, che aveva elaborato varie volte questo tema sotto l’influenza della famosa composizione paterna. La nuova attribuzione è stata confermata anche dal recente restauro, che ha rivelato pentimenti e varie modifiche d’autore. L’articolo fornisce tutti i dati relativi al quadro, nonché considerazioni sulle altre opere di Orazio e Artemisia sul tema di David. Obrazová sbírka olomouckých arcibiskupů přechovávaná na zámku v Kroměříži patří k nejvýznamnějším obrazovým sbírkám v České republice; přední místo zastává i v širším evropském kontextu. Kromě proslulých děl, jakými jsou Tizianův Apollo a Marsyas, Dvojportrét Karla I. Stuarta a Henrietty Marie od Anthonyse van Dycka, zakoupený v jedné z dražeb organizovaných po smrti Karla I., přechovává obrazy Paola Veroneseho, Lucase Cranacha, Annibala Carracciho, Guida Reniho a desítek dalších. Ve sbírce se nachází rovněž obraz David rozjímající nad Goliášovou hlavou, který byl dosud umístěn ve špatně viditelném nejvyšším patře panelové galerie kroměřížského zámku a pokládán za kopii neznámého malíře podle obrazu Orazia Gentileschiho z římské Galleria Spada. Není to však kopie zcela obyčejná. Starý inventář sbírky z roku 1691 obraz dokumentuje jako dílo z ruky Oraziovy dcery Artemisie Gentileschi, která toto téma zpracovávala pod vlivem otcovy slavné kompozice vícekrát. Nové připsání potvrdilo rovněž recentní restaurování, které odhalilo pentimenti a množství autorských změn. Článek přináší jak veškeré údaje o tomto obrazu, tak rovněž zamyšlení nad dalšími díly Orazia a Artemisie s tématem Davida.

Malta Map Society Journal, 2018

in Monika Springberg & Thomas Bauer (eds), Conflict and Coexistence. Proceedings of the 29th Congress of the UEAI, Münster 2018, pp. 253-279, 2022

The core of the present study is the use of Arabic lettering in Italian art for ornamental purposes. One of the main concerns is to rebut the concept of a mere invention of decorations composed by strokes resembling Arabic letters, operating a clear distinction between what concerns epigraphy and what does not. Undoubtedly, the most significant, comprehensive and faithful case of absorption of Arabic inscriptions into Italian art is represented by the paintings of Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano. The work of Cima is the most notable example of a faithful copy of Arabic texts in Italian paintings and, at same time, the ultimate expression of accuracy in copying Arabic inscriptions.