Artist
Antonio Schranz, the second son of Anton and Elizabeth, was born in Mahón on the Balearic island of Menorca. He spent his early years in Mahón. His mother left Mahón for Malta and arrived on 17 July 1818 with her children, amongst whom Antonio, then 17. Antonio lived with his parents in Strada della Città in Floriana.
Following his father’s example, Antonio became a painter like his brother John (Giovanni) and Joseph (Giuseppe). In a travel-guidebook published between 1843-1847 in Malta, he is recorded as a landscape and marine painter. Nothing is known about his education.
Antonio juggled with identity and nationality, and as a polyglot, this was very easy for him. Antonio spoke German, Italian, Maltese and Spanish, (his mother tongue), Greek and uncommonly good English. Born of a Spanish mother and bred in Menorca, he understandably often declared himself Spanish, as in an 1823 return to Malta. Indeed, years after arriving in Malta, the Schranzes kept seeing themselves as Spanish – except Anton the elder, affectionately known as il-Ġermaniż. At times, Antonio declared he was English, as in October 1842, returning from Alexandria on HMS Phoenix with Castlereagh. On other occasions he declared himself Maltese, as in February 1841, returning from Trieste on the Gloria.
Most surprising is Antonio’s 21st April 1836 Ariadne departure for Smyrna and Constantinople: he declared himself ‘Antonio Schranz of Gibraltar’ – with a passport this time, n.180, issued 19 April. For three intriguing years he accompanied different travellers through deserts and vast, troubled territories in North Africa and the Near East, producing works which feature in auction catalogues, collections and museums, returning only in December 1839, when his father was dying. According to John Schranz, this is his only journey with departure and arrival fully registered – truly he was a Maverick.
In Malta Antonio was overshadowed by his brother Giovanni, the best known of Anton Schranz’s sons. The lithographic work-shop ‘Schranz Brothers’ located in the Schranzes’ family studio in Valletta, at n.6 Saint Ursola Street, was probably a joint business enterprise of Antonio and Giovanni only, while their brother Giuseppe lived and worked in Constantinople and ran his own business from there. The album ‘Twelve views of Malta drawn from Nature and published by Schranz Brothers, Malta 1843’ is a good example of the workmanship of the Schranz Brothers.
Robert Pashley, a distinguished Cambridge scholar was accompanied by Antonio, scouring that island for nine months in a vast research enterprise. Antonio’s masses of drawings record Pashley’s finds in lithographs and woodcuts. Pashley reached Malta on the Beacon on 11 December 1833 and left on the Hind on 5 February 1834, ‘accompanied by Signor Antonio Schranz, a native of Spain, domiciled with his family in Malta’.
Antonio’s linguistic abilities are reported by Lord Lindsay of Bibliotheca Lindesiana fame. On an eight-month long tour through Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Lindsay met Antonio at Damascus on 4 June 1837, with two friends, John Pell and a ‘Mr Alewyn’. In his book Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land (Henry Colburn, 1837) Lindsay describes them as ‘most agreeable, enlightened companions’, ‘a German artist’, ‘an Oxford man’ and ‘a Dutchman [who] speaks English perfectly and enjoys Shakespeare.’ Having heard of fighting in Palmyra, Antonio’s party gave up going there, as they had no Arab escort – indispensable, if one wished to remain alive. Palmyra being Lindsay’s destination, he invited them to join his well armed caravan. They spent six weeks together.
After the armed conflicts concerning Syria had come to an end between 1838 and 1840, Antonio set out again with Lord Castlereagh, heading for Egypt, the Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. In the preface to ‘Journey to Damascus’, Castlereagh writes: ‘The plates are selected from among numerous drawings by one of my companions, Mr A. Schranz from Malta’. Castlereagh and his companions left Malta for Egypt on 26 November 1841 and returned on 13 September 1842. Antonio returned to Malta from Alexandria on 5 October 1842. The drawings Antonio made for Viscount Castlereagh’s book are dated 1843 and were drawn in Malta from sketches done on the spot. A number of these original sketches are in the Searight collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Antonio Schranz’s favourite techniques were drawing, watercolour painting, and lithography. He was the first – indeed, the only – Schranz to use photography as a new medium for topographic views. ‘Antonio Schranz (1801-after 1863)’ is how his name appears in print, because until recently his date and place of death were unknown.
Antonio was one of the world’s earliest photographers – he opened his photographic studio in Cairo around 1848/1849 – the first studio to be opened in Cairo, a good ten years before anybody else opened a photographic studio there. He also had another photographic studio – in Malta, in number 6 St. Ursola Street, Valletta. In 1858, he had an important photographic commission. He accompanied his friend, Antonin Proust, on a research journey to the famous Orthodox monastic enclave on Mount Athos in Northern Greece. Proust, who later became France’s first minister for culture, eventually published a travelogue on their journey. Published in Paris, it is illustrated with woodcuts and engravings made from Antonio’s photographs.
His estate amounted to £1433.2s.0d, liquid assets being £892.12s.0d. His oils, watercolours, photographs and sketches were valued at £375, the house with its garden, £100, photographic equipment, £35, a cupboard with valuable glassware, £5, and a bookcase with many books, £3. Antonio’s house is described in the probate as being on Pyramids Road, Cairo, minutes away from the Great Sphinx of Giza. The value today of his 1865 estate works out at about one and a half million Euros.
Antonio appointed his sisters Margherita and Elisabetta testamentary executives; his son and sole heir, Telesforo, was only 16 when Antonio died.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.