A peculiar hush descends on the cool, climate-controlled hall at MUŻA where two curators are eagerly pulling out shallow drawers to allow me a rare glimpse of their priceless contents. They must have been scrutinised by them dozens of times though this is the first time that I am being bestowed the privilege. Yet, all three of us are dumbstruck, overwhelmed by the emotion that only the soft rustle of centuries-old drawings on paper can evoke.

These works of art were recently in the news, following a grant of €87,000 by the Getty Foundation to Heritage Malta in order to develop an educational digital project about MUŻA’s collection of Old Master drawings. The grant forms part of ‘The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century’, an initiative of the Getty Foundation launched in 2018.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri's Il Guercino, charcoal with white chalk highlights on paper (1618-1620)

Since specialisation in the study of Old Master drawings is lacking in Malta, this project will act as an important stepping stone to bring much-needed expertise in the field dedicated to works on paper. MUŻA will be creating a new section of its website dedicated solely to its collection of Old Master drawings and carrying out related outreach. The section will include didactic content catering for different audiences, namely the public, children, students and academics.

The drawings, some 150 in all, date from the 15th to the 18th centuries, some of them featuring important names such as Pietro Perugino, Vittore Carpaccio, Giorgio Vasari, Federico Zuccaro, Giovanni Baglione, Guercino, Mattia Preti, François Boucher, Antoine Favray and Adrien Manglard. The artistic authorship of several others is yet to be determined, underpinning the need for further research.

Antoine Favray’s Drawing of a Standing Oriental Male Figure in a Turban, black and red chalk with white highlights on brownish paper (1749-1798)

As pointed out by Bernadine Scicluna and Krystle Attard Trevisan, lead curators of the Getty project at MUŻA, the drawings offer a myriad of different perspectives from which they can be studied. Their subject matter (there are portraits, landscapes, mythological figures, religious depictions and much more), the material and technique applied (the type of paper used and whether the image was drawn with chalk, charcoal, pencil, brush or otherwise), their provenance (some of them were acquired by Vincenzo Bonello on behalf of the National Museum in the 1930s, some were donated and others have an unclear origin), the schools and periods pertaining to each drawing and the use and function of the drawing (some drawings are quick sketches, others are very detailed studies in preparation of major commissioned works). All these are but the tip of the iceberg, enticingly beckoning academics and laypersons to delve into their bountiful depths.

Specialisation in the study of Old Master drawings is lacking

As the drawers are opened and closed, some drawings catch my attention more audaciously than their counterparts. Zuccaro’s Study for the Allegory of Summer, for instance. With pen and brown ink, brown wash and white highlights over graphite and traces of red chalk, this 16th-century drawing was intended as a study in preparation of the frescoes that were to adorn the artist’s own house in Florence, more specifically the room called Sala Terrena, once a ballroom.

And, indeed, one’s eyes truly dance when taking in this intricate drawing consisting of a merry crowd of people celebrating an abundant harvest, their sickles hung up on the branches, while others laze in the shade along with their animals. There are also incredibly detailed studies of the human figure, attesting to the artists’ knack for close observation and for reproducing on paper an astounding likeness of each contour, curve and muscle. Such figure studies include those by Carpaccio, Perugino and Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Guercino.

A good number of drawings are the creations of Preti and Favray, who made these islands their home for several years. Drawing of a Standing Oriental Male Figure in a Turban and A Study for a Portrait of a Grand Master, both by Favray, are doubtlessly worth a mention here as is Preti’s Study for the Head of Christ, the artist’s preparatory work for the figure of Christ in his painting The Baptism of Christ for the ceiling of St John’s Co-Cathedral.

Manglard’s The Shipwreck jumps out at you in all its tragic drama. Depicting a sinking vessel, its struggling survivors and some ruins, this seascape was the preparatory drawing for an etching by the artist published between 1753 and 1754.

Mattia Preti’s Study for the Head of Christ, red chalk on paper (1661-1666)

And if you never cease to be amazed by the fact that the Maltese Islands would now be utterly unrecognisable to someone who lived here a couple of centuries ago, you should surely have a good look at Favray’s drawing of a view of a once-quiet Msida showing the still extant Għajn tal-Ħasselin.

Some of the drawings bear a double treat, with images on both the front and back. One such instance is Preti’s Study of Fra Alerano Parpaglia, which has the Study of St John the Baptist’s Beheading on the reverse side. The latter drawing is a non-traditional representation of the subject, depicting the inanimate body of the saint thrown to the ground and portrayed from a foreshortened perspective. Of greatest interest, however, are the spatters of paint on both sides, possibly indicating the artist’s quick glances at the drawings, held at arm’s length, when he was later engrossed in the execution of the actual paintings.

Adrien Manglard's The Shipwreck, red chalk on paper (1752-1753)

As the drawings rest in the darkness of their cocooned spaces, reminiscing on the Old Masters who created them and the tales we wish they could tell, they await the time, in the near future, when the Getty Paper Project will bring them international visibility, safe in the knowledge that their makers would nod in approval.

This digital project is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through ‘The Paper Project’ initiative.

Daniela Attard Bezzina is principal officer, marketing and communications at Heritage Malta.