Society fashion in Malta: Photography of Leandro Preziosi, 1830-1869

by Caroline Tonna

Published by FPM

Since its foundation 30 years ago, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (FPM) has been signally successful in making the general public aware of the innumerable objects of artistic or historical value existing in public and private collections in this country, both through exhibitions, periodicals and book publications.

Giovanni Bonello, from the beginning a leading figure in FPM, has seen, among other things, that the foundation gives importance to making known photographs of Malta and the Maltese taken by both Maltese and foreign photographers in this country. Since the year 2000 FPM has issued publications of importance in this field, starting off with the leading British expert on photographic history, Margaret Harmer’s pioneering work, Photographers of Malta, 1840-1990 (2000) and Bonello’s own attractive series of six volumes, Nostalgias of Malta, consisting of the photos produced by a whole series of photographers, a series drawn from the author’s large collection.

The latest FPM publication relating to photography in Malta is by Caroline Tonna.

As its title indicates, the book is not only about the photographs made by Leandro Preziosi but also about the strong light they throw on dress fashions in Malta among the better-off people who could afford not only to buy good and often fashionable clothes but also to pay a leading photographer to create images of them.

The largish choice of photographs, all of them portraits, show that Preziosi, though one of the early photographers in our country, made his name through the elegance he brought to his compositions, both in bringing out the clothing his subjects were wearing but also in his portraiture of faces. The portraits have, to quote from Giovanni Bonello’s lucid foreword, “near-classical austerity”, and Tonna tells us of the debt Preziosi owed to the compositional skill of his famous French contemporary, Camille Silvy.

It is probable that Leandro inherited some of the genes that made his brother Amadeo such an accomplished and best-selling painter. Leandro, born in 1830, made annual visits between 1851 and 1854 to Amadeo, who had established himself as a professional artist and was eventually to die in Istanbul. Leandro’s early days as a painter soon gave place to his becoming a photographer.

Possibly this change came as a result of his meeting the British engraver and photographer James Robertson whom, according to Margaret Harker, he also assisted in his photographic work and from whom he learned photographic technique. The author has much information about the way Leandro helped his brother, possibly even by photographing Amadeo’s paintings.

The book is not only about the photographs made by Leandro Preziosi but also about the strong light they throw on dress fashion in Malta among the better-off people

By 1854, Leandro had established himself as a professional, starting either in Cospicua, where the Preziosi family lived, or else in Floriana, where he had his first studio, later moving to Valletta. His father being the fourth Count Preziosi, Leandro must have been on easy terms with the best families, the wealthy people who could afford to have themselves photographed by him.

He spent very good money on purchasing photographic equipment and giving his studio important accessories like a well-equipped room where his sitters could dress and undress in comfort. He seemed to care little for providing his sitters with handsome backdrops and tended to use an antique chair as a prop and also used devices to help sitters keep their head or figure steady. His studio was furnished with large, glazed apertures that made up to some extent for the lack of artificial lighting.

What he cared for above all was to ensure that the lighting was suitable and that the exposures would bring out details of fabrics such as the transparency of light muslins, for instance. The book points out many instances where the nature of the fabric is made almost tangible, and fine points of costume design are made visible through Leandro’s photographic skill.

The author emphasises this skill when photographing the large shawls made of Maltese lace, especially the black lace ones that sometimes defy the skills of photographers even today. These shawls were certainly fine objects that gave dignity and more to their wearers, some of the intricate designs also including designs of Maltese crosses.

Leandro Preziosi self-portrait c.1858, private collection. Photo: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti/Facebook.com

He was always careful to bring out the bonnets and hats worn by women, such as in a portrait of a woman wearing a fashionable spoon bonnet. There is even one photograph showing a stylish woman wearing a faldetta, but apparently a fashionable half one.  Tonna does not explain why the word faldetta, which on one page she says was a skirt, eventually came to mean a very Maltese type of female headgear. In the diary he kept during his three-month stay in Malta in 1845-1846, Sir Richard Bourke describes this headgear as an “onella” (our “għonnella”) but, apparently, foreigners called this headgear faldetta.

An earlier visitor to Malta, Sarah Austin, an author and intellectual who was married to the John Austin, who was one of the two Royal Commissioners in Malta in 1836-1838, was keen on helping the Maltese produce goods and sell them, so one of the things she did was to write to many friends in England, urging them to buy Maltese-made lace, silk garments and mittens.

It seems that Queen Victoria herself as a result ordered “8 dozen pairs long and dozen pairs short mitts” and also a scarf. This ties up nicely with what Tonna says about the making of clothing in Malta at the time when Leandro was making his photographs.

It was a shame that Leandro died when only 39 years of age, leaving behind him his wealthy wife Lucrezia whose photographs by her husband appear in this very handsome book, and two sons. His photo business was continued by his chief assistant, Giuseppe Lorenzo Formosa.

This is a book likely to capture readers interested in the society of Malta in mid-Victorian times and will certainly delight all those who leaf through it, looking and studying Leandro’s many photos, as well as a few by other photographers such as Camille Silvy.