Malta has lost out on a legacy of church art by most of our country’s 20^th century masters of modernism. The insularity and the penchant of the church authorities to favour a safe narrative and sugary style in its places of worship meant that seminal artists such as Josef Kalleya (1898-1998), Carmelo Mangion (1905-1997), Antoine Camilleri (1922-2005) and Frank Portelli (1922-2004) were rarely in contention to secure ecclesiastical-art commissions.

The famous crucifixion by Giorgio Preca (1909-1984), originally commissioned by a Stella Maris church parishioner after World War II, did not garner the favour of the other parishioners of the Sliema church. After the death of the patron in the 1950s, the parish clamoured to have it removed as an altarpiece in one of its side altars and banish it to relative anonymity at a Żejtun wayside chapel.

Restoration works being carried out.

Appeals to authorities by Preca’s fellow artist friends, which included Kalleya, Camilleri and Portelli themselves, to at least have the masterpiece, indeed an icon of Maltese modernism, transferred to a more auspicious location where the general public could admire it, fell on deaf ears.

To date, there has been no change in its fate; one option could be its transfer to MUŻA from where it could be enjoyed by a wider audience. Thankfully, last November, Heritage Malta purchased, through an auction, an important bozzetto of this work that used to form part of an important private collection of Maltese modern art.

A close-up of the face of the saint.

Camilleri’s luck as regards success at securing church commissions can be counted on two fingers, his two stained glass windows at the St Nicholas of Tolentino church in Tarxien. The passage of time had exacted its toll and the two windows were in a state of deterioration, with the danger that they would be lost unless a restoration intervention would be carried out urgently.

Thankfully, one of the windows, that depicts St Nicholas of Tolentino, has been restored recently.

Antoine Camilleri's 'Cosmic Christ' stained-glass window.

The second one, The Cosmic Christ, is earmarked for imminent restoration; the process will kick off after the Easter festivities. The iconography of this piece is typical of Camilleri, one that can be witnessed on many occasions across the artist’s oeuvre.

The two restored Camilleri windows will in the future surely justify the trip to Tarxien so that they can be admired in all their glory as among the few, finest examples of Maltese 20^th-century modernist church art.

Restoration works were overseen by Perit Ivana Farrugia and carried out by restorer Frank Chetcuti.