The restoration of artworks in the prison chapel has been psychologically challenging for Fr Charles Vella, who has found himself shifting from conservator to confidante as inmates tell him their stories in the penitentiary setting.

Among the differences on the job, he has strict instructions to leave any chemicals and tools under lock and key when he is not around to avoid abuse.

“I was mentally and physically drained when I completed the first canvas painting,” Fr Vella said.

Fr Charles Vella working on the Transfiguration painting in jail.

And this has nothing to do with the fact that it was huge, measuring about five by four metres.

Working in a prison environment unconsciously takes its toll, Fr Vella admits, even though he is based in its chapel, where mass is said every morning and where he is now restoring a Neo-Romanesque fresco behind the altar and the ceiling.

Both the canvas painting and the frescoes are two of three works attributed to the 19th-century painter Enrico Casolani, known as one of the founders of the Nazarene period in Malta. But research is still ongoing to establish the artist.

Meanwhile, the job has not just been about restoration but also about interacting with “people who have problems with their personality and lives”, Fr Vella said.

During the restoration works, he has been in contact with prisoners who have shown interest in and appreciation of the art in the chapel, sharing a coffee and a cigarette with him as he lends a listening ear.

“Everyone makes mistakes – some are scary – but at the end of the day, I have men in front of me, with the fundamental need to get onto the straight and narrow.

“The building itself, dating back to Victorian times, is not meant to be a beautiful place, just like when you go to hospital,” Fr Vella continues about his work environment.

“Visiting is one thing, but walking through the divisions, surrounded by correctional officers, is quite another. There is not much laughter, as is the nature of a prison.”

A fresco at the chapel

A place for change

Work on the large canvas painting of the Transfiguration, which was in a very bad state, took four months and is now complete, while the restoration of the fresco is under way.

“The Transfiguration marks the changing from human to divine and even though, back in the 19th century, there was no talk of rehabilitation in prisons – the concept of which was purely punitive – from the Church’s philosophical perspective, there was already a hint that it was a place for reform and change,” Fr Vella points out.

The fresco depicts the resurrected Christ, surrounded by rays of light, welcoming and giving his blessing – and projecting the idea of forgiveness and acceptance, he explains.

The services of the prisoners, who are doing carpentry behind bars, have been used for the restoration work, and Fr Vella was so impressed with the “perfect” stretcher frame they created for the canvas that he intends to engage them for similar future jobs on condition that they charge market rates and that the money goes into their personal accounts. 

Fr Vella also plans to promote these carpenters to other conservators, who can commission their stretcher frames from them.

The artworks are important pieces of national patrimony, and wherever these are, they should be respected and restored, he said.

“This is not an indulgence but a need,” he insisted about the restoration project.

Apart from the spiritual message, they also have an educational value, and inmates have shown appreciation of their aesthetic aspect, independent of their message.

“Everyone loves to see beautiful things. Even if uncultured, the gift of beauty is fundamentally connected to the human spirit and soul.”

The gallows at the Corradino prison is the last surviving in the Mediterranean. Photo: Correctional Services Agency

Capital punishment room revived

The works are being funded by the Correctional Services Agency and include the rehabilitation of the gallows – the last surviving in the Mediterranean – in time for the 50th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Malta last Monday.

Last used in 1943, the room contains a “fully functional” wooden ‘stage’, with steps leading up to it on either side, and a

trapdoor.

Built by dockyard workers, they were left in the dark as to what they were doing so as not to put them off before it was pieced together.

Over the years, prisoners would coat it in diesel to avoid woodworm and it has remained undamaged.

A book by Ronald Bugeja, the first published by the prison, on the history of capital punishment, dating back to the Knights of the Order of St John, is also due to be launched in the coming weeks.

Although it could be considered macabre, the gallows remained part of history as are the cannons from the time of the knights, and while no one would be able to visit it, public interest was strong.

Other restoration projects, also carried out by the prison’s skilled industry, set up in 2018, include three of four towers that guard the 1855 prison.

The skilled inmates have been taught by correctional officers, who are qualified carpenters, and are building furniture for Wasteserv, the police department and the Ta’ Pinu Basilica’s upcoming retreat house.

In return, they receive pocket money – they are not allowed to work in prison and earn a salary – so they would not be a burden on their families for their daily needs.