Stylistic considerations

Hanging above the sacristy entrance of Our Lady of Victory church in Valletta is the oil-on-canvas painting of St Jerome. Most likely dating to the late 17th century, this religious work has been ascribed to the bottega of Fra Mattia Preti (1613-1699), il Cavaliere Calabrese, whose nearly 40-year-presence in Malta led to a radical transformation in the local art scene through his introduction of the then novel Italian Baroque idiom.

During his permanent residence starting from the early 1660s, which would probably not have materialised were it not for the irresistible lure of the cosmopolitan Order of St John, Preti was kept extremely busy with many prestigious and ambitious commissions for Malta and overseas. In order to meet the tremendously high demand, he founded a thriving workshop, or bottega, which was already up and running by the early 1660s when he was fully immersed in his then major project of the vault painting cycle for St John’s Co-Cathedral.

Despite the fact that the artist of the St Jerome remains unknown, it is reasonable to assume that he emerged from Preti’s bottega, or tentatively but more plausibly from his circle. There are two reasons for this assumption: although the painting betrays stylistic borrowings from the Calabrese master, it is a watered-down version and of a rather laborious execution that omits Preti’s direct intervention.

It is a laterally inverted, close-enough version of an original work (c. 1670) in the State Open Air Museum, Oranienbaum, Russia, or perhaps of an autograph replica in a Maltese private collection, both paintings included in the extensive catalogue compiled by Keith Sciberras in his 2020 publication, Mattia Preti: Life and Works. Given the fact that the composition of the St Jerome at Our Lady of Victory church is a mirror image of the said original, its source might have been a print, indeed a very common practice among artists at the time.

As with the majority of bottega paintings, identifying any of the hands of Preti’s assistants, such as Gioacchino Loretta, Giovanni Battista Caloriti, Giuseppe Cianferlì or Demetrio Farrugia, invariably remains a challenging exercise, as corroborated by Sciberras in his 2020 comprehensive publication. In the case of the St Jerome, seeing that an educated guess of a possible candidate would be too risky to attempt, it is nonetheless prudent to propose that Preti’s supervision, if at all, is far more conceivable than any direct intervention on his part for the completion of this work.

Although the painting does not display the high level of accomplishment synonymous with a work actually worked upon by Preti and completed by his able bottega assistants or with a canvas which was overseen by the Calabrese himself, (a modus operandi of the workshop discussed at length by Sciberras), it nevertheless betrays certain confidence in the handling of the oil medium.

A good degree of sensitivity can be noted in the satisfactory blending of the various tonalities that form the deep red robe of the hermit saint, his thick beard and the prominent musculature of his semi-naked body. The slightly weakly drawn foreshortened left arm of St Jerome is immediately redeemed by the theatrical effect created by a divine light that introduces some chiaroscuro and sombreness which reflect the atmosphere of mystery conveyed by the overcast wooded and rocky landscape in the distance.

Iconography

St Jerome (or Eusebius Hieronymous Sophronius, c. 342/7-420), one of the four Latin fathers of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran Churches, is here portrayed as the repentant half-clothed anchorite, who after a long time travelling and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, retreated to the Syrian desert to lead an ascetic life for a few years (according to his hagiography). His partial nakedness, long grey hair and beard make up the saint’s appearance, typically worn out by the hostile wasteland existence he had subjected himself to.

Against the desert background, which artists tended to depict as a wooded wilderness as testified by this painting, St Jerome is identified by his iconographical attributes: the stone he holds in his left hand, the skull on which he places his right hand, the Bible, scroll, the crucifix and the trumpet, symbolic elements referred to in the 1996 revised edition of Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art published by The University Press, Cambridge.

During his time in the desert, St Jerome often experienced powerful sexual hallucinations and other temptations which he broke out of by punishingly beating his chest with a stone, a mortifying act he described in one of his letters and which artists added to their portrayal of this saint.

A man of extraordinary intellect, a historian, a theologian and a confessor, St Jerome is known for his ‘vulgate’ or translation into Latin of most of the Scriptures, which accounts for the presence of the thick Bible and rolled scroll in the painting, as they refer to his numerous commentaries and controversial writings on the Christian moral way of life.

Despite the fact that the artist remains unknown, it is reasonable to assume that he emerged from Preti’s bottega

The crucifix, which St Jerome adored, and the skull, as the ‘vanitas’ motif, refer to the saint’s profound meditations on the transience of the body and the renunciation of worldly pleasures to attain spiritual perfection. While alone in the desert, St Jerome was not short of revelatory visions during which he heard announcements of the Last Judgement, as symbolically featured by the trumpet above his head in this painting. Occupying centre-stage, St Jerome, whose cardinal status is implied by his red robe, listens intently to the word of God.

Conservation and restoration

The St Jerome had been removed for safekeeping from the Our Lady of Victory church and stored in Houlton Garage in Valletta. This information emerges from a report dated May 4, 1942, and endorsed by Sir Hannibal Scicluna, acting director of the museum in Valletta. Additionally, in the Museum Annual Report 1946-1947, St Jerome is included in the long list of works of art that had been damaged during World War II and restored.

Down the years, following this intervention, the painting suffered from further deterioration and damage, and Din l-Art Ħelwa, guardians of Our Lady of Victory church since 2011, recently entrusted the conservation of the painting to conservator-restorer Amy Sciberras and her team, which project was followed by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and made possible with the support of PwC.

Through extensive preliminary examination and docu-mentation using diverse non-invasive scientific means, it was possible to analyse the painting’s manufacturing technique and to identify the various forms of deterioration the painting was suffering. Multispectral imaging involving the use of raking light, ultraviolet fluorescence, infrared and false-colour infrared, also allowed the identification of past restoration interventions whereby Amy Sciberras and her team were able to distinguish between the original technique and later interventions. This information, obtained through non-invasive studies, was crucial in establishing treatments needed to restore the painting’s stability and integrity.

The oil painting had been executed on two adjoined, thin canvas pieces having an overlying reddish-brown gesso preparation layer, hence preparing the canvas support for receiving the artist’s brushstrokes. Throughout the centuries, the original canvas suffered significant tears and other deterioration phenomena which led to its relining by past restorers, such as the attachment of a new canvas support to the original. Nonetheless the painting continued to suffer further damage and deterioration, such that the past lining was no longer serving its purpose of reinforcing the original.

Prior to the latest conservation intervention, the painting was found in an unstable condition, exhibiting various tears, including in the relining canvas as well as detachment problems between its various strata manifested as liftings of the preparation and paint layers. The canvases had also sagged and exhibited various deformations which were further contributing to the detachment problems between the canvas supports and overlying layers.

First-aid consolidation treatments of areas of the paint and preparation layers, which were suffering from detachments and were in danger of being lost, were imperative and were carried out at Our Lady of Victory church prior to the painting being transported to the conservation laboratory. A conservation-grade consolidant was applied locally. The adhesive, applied at a low concentration, was able to penetrate to a certain extent the cracks and liftings of the paint layer, especially around lacunae. Tears were temporarily protected using Japanese paper.

Following first-aid interventions and scientific studies, treatments at the laboratory continued with the thinning down of the oxidised/yellowed varnish layer. The aesthetic qualities of the painting could not be truly and fully appreciated prior to treatments, as the original tonalities and hues applied by the artist were concealed by thick, aged varnishes.

Past retouchings were found both under the vanish layer and over it, indicating a second, seemingly more recent, retouching intervention. Most of the retouchings were concealing losses in the original paint layer, whereas others were covering parts of the original paint layer. White foreign drippings were also present on the paint layer.

Ultraviolet light was used to monitor the effectiveness of the cleaning agents tested, starting from the mildest agents. An organic solution was chosen for this delicate procedure. Most of the past retouchings were removed as well as they had altered in colour by time and had been applied on old, roughly applied infills (stuccature), which were addressed as well. The removal of overpaint and of old and roughly applied gesso infills, uncovered more of the original hues.

These interventions were followed by treatments of the verso in which the canvas painting was unmounted from its wooden strainer frame and the torn lining canvas was removed using aqueous poultices which facilitated this de-lining process. Following its removal, a very thick layer of organic glue was uncovered. Being of an organic nature, this was cleaned as well from the fibres of the original canvas, through the application of moisture in gel form. The removal of old organic glues was considered essential as these were contributing to tensions and could also lead to biodeterioration.

Uncovered cut threads from tears in the original canvas were carefully aligned under magnification and repaired. Lacunae were addressed as well and reinforced accordingly. As the original canvas was considerably oxidised, relining was considered to be the best option to reinforce it. The attachment of the original canvas to a new canvas support using contemporary methods and materials ensured full stabilisation of the painting.

This led to the final stages of the conservation project, which included integration of losses in the paint and preparation layers, whereby a compatible filler was applied. Infills were also textured according to the painting’s original surface texture and then chromatically integrated using reversible conservation colours, hence bestowing full legibility to this fine painting pertaining to Valletta’s first church.

Acknowledgements

Conservation director Amy Sciberras would like to thank the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage who followed the project from its initial phases, Bernadine Scicluna for her contribution, photographers Manuel Ciantar and Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito and all the team at Din l-Art Ħelwa – National Trust of Malta, for entrusting her with this important conservation work, in particular former executive president Simone Mizzi, with whom she worked closely during the restoration project of Our Lady of Victory church under the guardianship of Din l-Art Ħelwa since 2011. This conservation and restoration project was made possible thanks to the sponsors, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Malta.

Bernadine Scicluna is an art historian and principal curator at the Malta National Community Art Museum (MUŻA) Valletta. 

Conservator Amy Sciberras directs a team of conservators and has been entrusted with restoration projects of national and international importance. She may be contacted via website www.amysciberras.com.