Artist

Maria Ana, the second child of Anton and Isabella Schranz was born in Ciutadella in 1797. Her baptism and confirmation records provide an insight into the family’s Menorcan standing: her baptismal godmother was a relative of the newly appointed Bishop of Menorca while her confirmation godmother was the Bishop’s sister. 

On 4 September 1827, Maria Ana married Giovanni Quintana, who published books and ran a salon for authors to discuss literature. In November 1828 she gave birth to their first child, Angelica, also an artist. Her first motherhood did not curtail Maria Ana’s artistic calling; instead, we learn she was an artist from a Malta Government Gazette advertisement she placed two years later, in August 1830. In that advertisement, she gives her studio’s address: 340 S.da San Paolo, Valletta. That prime location – one door away from Strickland House – was a stone’s throw away from the Schranz residences and studio(s) in S.da S. Ursola. Her advertisement also says she offered ‘lessons in drawing to young ladies’, adding that she painted ‘miniature likenesses’. 

A book her husband wrote and published in 1840, Guida dell’ Isola di Malta e le sue dipendenze, indicates however that her situation had by then changed.

The book – a surprisingly broad-range picture of 1840 Malta, town-by-town and village by village – is very interesting and highly detailed. It gives, for example, a bilingual list, in Italian and Maltese, of over 150 names of fish caught and sold for culinary purposes at that time. It discusses the arts and many practicing artists, naturally including Giovanni and Antonio Schranz (Anton had died some months before, while Giuseppe had settled in Istanbul around 1835). Quintana does not however mention his wife as being an artist…by then she had given birth to five more children. As so often unfortunately happens, she must have given up painting.

Maria Ana died at her residence, 6, S.da Santa Venera, Msida, on 8 July 1884 aged 88. Her obituary (Malta, 9 July 1884) describes her as “dedicata al lavoro, alla famiglia, all’arte – ecco la sintesi della vita della defunta signora”.

It is a pity that no works by her have as yet been conclusively identified – surely, many miniature portraits by her must be languishing unattributed in family collections.  

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.