Francesco Zahra: An intimate look at his small works

An exhibition, Francesco Zahra (1710-1773): An intimate look at his small works, celebrating the artist’s works, is currently being held at the Carmelite Priory in Mdina and runs until December 5.

The exhibition is open to the public between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. against the usual museum entrance fee. Obelisk Auctions has partnered to promote Maltese heritage through this exhibition.

The old masters exhibition is celebrating the 300th year anniversary of Francesco Zahra’s birth, seeking to shed more light on the extraordinary range of the artist’s output. Zahra was Malta’s most important native painter of the mid-18th century and his style wonderfully captured the spirit of the late Baroque.

He was extremely prolific and handled the brush with fascinating ease thus forming a prolific oeuvre which fills the churches and private houses of Malta. The exhibition is featuring a number of works from churches and the public sector although the vast majority is from private collections which sets a platform for further investigation into Zahra’s stylistic technique. The exhibition is being further complemented with a major publication on the artist written by Keith Sciberras with contributions from Jessica Borg, photography by Joe. P. Borg, and published by Midseabooks.