According to the late art historian Vincenzo Bonello, the painting Madonna and Child with the Young Baptist by Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), which is part of the MUŻA collection, once had an exquisite frame carrying Queen Christina of Sweden’s (1626-1689) coat-of-arms (La Madonna nell’arte, 1949).

This has also been noted by Theresa M. Vella in her publication The Paintings of the Order of St John in Malta: Hospitaller Art Collections and Patronage from the Late Fifteenth Century to the Eighteenth Century (2012), suggesting that the painting might have been a gift to the Order in the 17th century.

The frame vanished after the end of World War II and has yet to be located. It also seems unknown when or how the painting and its frame arrived in Malta. But would it be possible to establish a connection between the frame and the Swedish diplomat Mathias Palbitzki, who visited Malta in the late 1640s?

Palbitzki (1623-1677) was of Polish-German ancestry and was recognised as a Swedish nobleman in the 1640s. He was brought to Queen Christina’s court for the first time in 1642 and quickly rose through the ranks. He was eventually assigned to diplomatic missions.

Palbitzki was also responsible for buying art and contracting Italian artists, who were asked to work for the queen in Stockholm. During Palbitzki’s first audience with the queen, he immediately aroused her interest with his plans for a lengthy journey across Europe. She made the choice to fund it.

He left Stockholm around Easter 1645 with the intention of visiting numerous European destinations. Bad weather delayed Palbitzki’s departure from Sicily and it wasn’t until the end of 1646 that he eventually made it to Malta. He was accompanied by Ludewichs von Harberstein, a knight, on this leg of the journey.

There is no indication in Palbitzki’s diary of how long he stayed in Malta on his first visit but, by December 19, they had set ship for Alexandria. After many failed attempts to reach the Red Sea and Constantinople, the expedition was redirected to Greece due to the strong easterly winds that forced them to drift away.

The first Swede to unite the scholar’s and the artist’s love for antiquity

We know, however, that he spent nearly three weeks in Malta on the way back to Sweden. And after they set sail from Malta for the second time, the diary says that the wind blew them to ‘Pantalaria’ (most likely the island known today as Pantelleria) instead of Livorno. They were then captured by Turkish pirates but they managed to get away: they escaped after their vessel ran aground near Marsala.

After a strenuous walk on the beach from Marsala to Trapani, Palbitzki finally set off for Marettimo and onwards to Sweden. He returned to Stockholm in October 1648.

Palbitzki was a well-educated diplomat and officer, as well as an accomplished artist and art historian and, as noted by his biographer Wilhelm Nisser in 1931, he was “the first Swede to unite the scholar’s and the artist’s love for antiquity”.

He also travelled to Florence and Rome, where he purchased an ancient statue collection and engaged two skilled artists, sculptor Nicolas Cordier and medal engraver Eric Parise. A letter, written by Palbitzki in 1666 to the Swedish statesman Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, deals with a treatise on art that he wanted to write and may have even completed. It has been referred to as the “first Swedish art theory draught” (Nisser, 1934).

In one of Palbitzki’s sketchbooks at the National Museum of Fine Arts, in Stockholm there is a depiction of St Antonio a Malta. The artwork portrays San Anton Palace, which was built around 1625 by Grand Master Antoine de Paule and completed in the years that followed.

St Antonio a Malta, an artwork portraying San Anton Palace against a backdrop of mountains, found in one of Mathias Palbitzki’s sketchbooks at the National Museum of Fine Arts, in Stockholm

The palace in the drawing is situated in the middle of a beautiful park. In the foreground, Palbitzki sketched an exact copy of the grounds that surround San Anton Palace, replete with big ponds and fountains. Behind it stands the palace, which has had its architecture meticulously recreated. On the other hand, the mountainous scenery in the background is a freely placed decorative component, which was a common artistic practice at the time. The aim was probably to give the scene more depth.

Other Scandinavian travellers visited San Anton Palace over the years. Naturalist Peter Forsskål’s (1732–1763) descriptions are very precise, as would be expected of a scientist in the spirit of Linneaus. He is, however, not impressed and he concludes: “These establishments were expensive but a promenade paved with unyielding stone is not the same as a stroll in a garden, in my opinion.”

Forsskål was more enthusiastic about Malta’s rich fossil deposits and flora, of which he compiled extensive lists. 

Quite the opposite image of the palace is presented by the Swedish poet and physician Herman Sätherberg (1812–1897), who visited the islands in 1844.  “We arrived at the palace along an avenue of oranges perfumed with blooms and gleaming with golden fruit. We had every reason to be pleased with our visit. It was a pleasure in and of itself to wander through this beaming estate, each element bearing a particular imprint that was unlike anything I had before seen in this manner.”

Palbitzki was apparently also taken with the palace, as St Antonio a Malta appears to be the only (preserved) sketch he drew during his journeys to Malta – and he visited it at least twice.

Over the course of 30 years, Queen Christina, who abdicated the throne in 1654 and relocated to Rome the following year, accumulated one of the most significant art collections in Rome.

In her correspondence with Cardinal Decio Azzolino, there are references to a work by Maratta, which he had sent her for viewing. She later contracted Maratta to act as her agent and procure a piece for her collection.

Maratta even persuaded her not to sell an antique marble,  Castor and Pollux ensemble, but,  due to a number of hereditary successions, it eventually ended up among the possessions of King Philip V of Spain. For sure, there were connections between Queen Christina and Maratta; whether Palbitzki ever was involved in the transfer of the ­ has not – yet – been possible to ascertain.

Cecilia Lindhé is a Swedish researcher who is working on two book-length studies relating to Malta: one about travellers from Scandinavia to Malta and the other about the Gollcher family and consular connections between Sweden and Malta.