Hundreds of small murals adorn the Main Guard building, which is currently undergoing conservation and restoration

“For some must watch, while others sleep, so runs the world away.”

Some soldier, on some long-forgotten day, wrote this line – quoted (not quite accurately) from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet – under a sizeable painting on one of the walls of the Main Guard, in Valletta. It is unlikely that we will ever know who he was but with that verse he undoubtedly summed up the essence of the watchful function of a building that has a thousand stories to tell through the paintings he and his colleagues left behind on those walls.

The Main Guard building, now under Heritage Malta’s wing, together with the Grandmaster’s Palace opposite in St George’s Square, was probably built in the early 17th century by Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt to serve as quarters for the palace guards. For more than 350 years, until the early 1970s, the building continued to perform the same function, so much so that the British rulers named it Main Guard, as we still know it to this day. Under British rule, however, the building’s façade was altered with a portico in an academic neoclassical style, as can be seen to date.

It was also during the British rule that the hundreds of small murals to which this article is dedicated were painted. Most of them are located in the former Officers’ Mess, that is, the hall where British soldiers, whose job was to guard the palace,  would eat and rest while waiting for the next shift to start. One of the soldiers’ pastimes was to paint pictures on the walls.

As Anthony Spagnol, senior conservator at Heritage Malta, explained, these paintings add up to more than 300. Some of them were discovered only recently while conservation and restoration work is under way. And there are certainly others that remain hidden for various reasons that are mentioned hereunder.

Anthony Spagnol, senior conservator at Heritage Malta.

Not all the paintings are dated and not all are signed but historical documentation dates the first murals back to 1814. Next to several of the paintings there is a number, indicating that there was a time when the murals were catalogued. However, various numbers are missing and the catalogue itself has never been found.

A number of pictures appear to have been made by the same hand − either because they are signed or because they bear similar characteristics. What is certain is that different media were used to produce the paintings − from pencil to ink to watercolours, gouache and oil.

But what do these murals depict, you might wonder? A tour around the hall introduces us to a wide array of works, each expressing an emotion, a memory or an event. We meet women draped in the traditional għonnella and some worldlier ones whose poses and clothes verge on the seductive; and then on to priests and bishops; soldiers in parades and in street fights; tongue-in-cheek scenes that might be described as caricatures; military badges and uniforms; a large scene of the River Nile dated 1884-5; a smiling demon with a naughty twinkle in his eye; and, on the fireplace chimney, someone painted an allegory of time, depicting an old man holding a sickle whose tip used to point to a clock – a real one that used to hang on this wall – and to the Shakespearean quote mentioned earlier.

One of the marching soldiers scenes captured on the Main Guard walls.

We meet women draped in the traditional għonnella and some worldlier ones whose poses and clothes verge on the seductive

This mixture of real and painted objects is found repeatedly. There is, for instance, a painting of a military rifle ‘hanging’ by the fireplace, another painting showing a coat suspended from a real hook and a large mural depicting two flags whose painted poles are attached to fragments of the original brackets, as further explained below.

The walls of two small rooms adjoining the Officers’ Mess are decorated with human skeletons, including one wearing a monk’s habit and another one lying creepily at the back of a cupboard. The visitor gets a slight forewarning of this deathly theme before actually going through the doorway leading from the Officers’ Mess to the two adjoining rooms as there are two other skeletons painted on each side of the doorway. The reason for these somewhat morbidly themed paintings is still unknown.

Another painting recounts a true-life story still to be unfolded in more detail. It decorates the narrow stairway used by the soldiers to descend directly to St George’s Square from the Officer’s Mess in time for their shift. The scene depicts an accident where a soldier, hurrying down the stairs, lost his footing and tumbled down, seriously injuring himself or even losing his life.

Another mural, showing a priest and a lady clad in the traditional Maltese għonnella.

As Spagnol explained, the paintings can be divided into three main categories: scenes linked to military life, those depicting everyday life as experienced by the soldiers and those that simply express the pleasure of painting. The latter are scenes that were copied from pictures and lithographs. Ongoing research on the Main Guard paintings, aided by experts on the subject, is shedding light on the original images that caught the soldiers’ fancy enough for them to paint copies on the walls of the Officers’ Mess. Publications from which the images may have been copied include The Graphic and The Illustrated London News.

The last murals to be produced date back to 1972 when Adrian Strickland painted two sizeable flags as a permanent reminder of the real pair that were mounted on the wall with brackets, fragments of which still remain in place. Strickland respected the other pictures already painted on the wall, painting the flags in such a way as to appear emerging from beneath the previous works.

So far, the value of the Main Guard paintings appears to be historic rather than artistic. As Spagnol noted, to date, there is no indication that the murals were painted by prominent artists. However, all those who left their mark on the walls clearly had potential and an inclination towards sketching and painting.

One should also keep in mind that we are the only ones considering these paintings from a historical point of view. Those who painted them did not regard them in the same way, so much so that older pictures were often painted over to make space for new ones, in a bid to document one’s presence. Conservation ethics in this case require that, unless the paintings on the outer layer can also be saved, there should be no attempt to reveal what is hidden in the layers beneath. In other words, all the paintings are regarded as having equal importance and one is not saved at another’s expense.

An example of neutral integration.

The work currently under way on the Main Guard paintings involves conservation as well as restoration. While conservation is halting deterioration through processes that vary according to the state of preservation of each painting, restoration focuses on the manner in which the paintings will be presented to the public, taking great care not to falsify or reinterpret the subject. This means that if, for instance, part of a painting is missing, the restorer will not recreate the missing part, not even if there is available documentation detailing what the original painting looked like. Instead, a process known as ‘neutral integration’ is carried out, clearly indicating the difference between what the original artist painted and what the restorer’s intervention entailed.

A close look at the conservators and restorers working keenly on these murals makes one appreciate their passion and accuracy, guided by rigorous scientific and historical research conducted on each of these works. Among other aspects, the painting technique is studied, a scientific investigation is carried out with the help of special lighting that reveals previous restoration interventions and every step is documented. As Spagnol explained, every intervention varies from one painting to another so that each is given the best possible treatment. It is absolutely not the case of a one-size-fits-all approach.

It should also be noted that certain interventions of previous restoration projects cannot be removed due to the possibility of further damage to the paintings. The last major restoration intervention was probably the one executed by Emvin Cremona in the years 1944-45, as evidenced by a small wooden plaque hanging on a wall in the Officers’ Mess.

Heritage Malta’s ultimate aim is that works at the Main Guard continue at the same pace as the extensive Grandmaster’s Palace project. Once works are completed, the palace will be enjoyed in all its splendour while the Main Guard will serve as an interpretation centre for all Heritage Malta sites in the capital city.

One of the conservators at work.

Daniela Attard Bezzina is communications executive at Heritage Malta.