The sketch (abozzo) of one of four lunette paintings for St George’s Basilica in Victoria has been placed on the altar of St Michael for public viewing. The paintings will feature ‘Acts of Mercy’ and the first painting is ‘Burying the Dead’.

The four paintings – the prisoner, the dead, the foreigner and creation – are to be inaugurated during the novena of St George in July.

Parishioners are being asked to contribute towards the new paintings for the lunettes of two small cupolas on either side of the main door of the basilica. Eventually, there will be eight paintings in all, four on each side.

During the past year St George’s parish initiated several activities that feature Christ in the person of the poor.

To actuate these acts of mercy, the parish management came out with the idea of the paintings. Each painting will show “not what we did, but what God did for us… how He meets us in the person of the poor, the lonely and the weak”.

Young artist Manuel Farrugia, of Victoria, has been commissioned to do the paintings.

The technique used by Farrugia is called marouflage, a method of attaching a canvas to a wall through adhesion, accomplished by coating the surface with white lead mixed with oil.