Artist and Philantopist
Raffaele Caruana Dingli was born in Floriana, the son of Dr Luigi Caruana Dingli* and Adedoata née Falzon. Caruana Dingli was deeply devout and a good family man. He painted with ease in both oils and watercolour, while he also produced design work and papier-mache figurines and restored works of art.
Caruana Dingli’s artistic works show meticulous and painstaking attention to the minutest detail. It is not known at what age Raffaele started to paint and under whose tutorship but he was a pupil of the noted Neapolitan painter Girolamo Gianni (1837-1895) who lived for a time at n.6 Strada Fiano (Ordnance Street) Valletta, which was Caruana Dingli’s property.
In Gianni’s paintings the colour schemes match local marine and landscape views and his talent must have influenced Caruana Dingli in his composition, style, and choice of colour. These characteristics are amply illustrated to discerning art connoisseurs. His fine renderings of the sea’s motion and swell give his marine paintings a unique attractiveness and reflect his keen sense of observation.
Raffaele was of independent means and he was not a commercial artist. He painted mainly marine and animal subjects as well as still-lifes. With only a few exceptions his paintings are held by his family and friends.
Caruana Dingli contributed to the embellishment of the Mosta parish church. His artistic works at Mosta include, among others, the design of the magnificent chiselled oil lamp which is suspended from the centre of the dome on occasions marking important religious festivities. He also designed the graceful gold embroidered baldakkin and the large banners of the confraternities. These were all manufactured by the firm of Tanfani in Rome. The fine marble setting of the floor of the presbytery and of the choir of the church was made to his design.
Raffaele married Eleonora, daughter of the Noble Salvatore Mallia Tabone, 3rd Marquis of Fiddien and Antonia Galea on 7 September 1886, and they settled in Mosta. They had four children.
Caruana Dingli died at his residence n. 101, Main Street, Mosta and was buried in the crypt under the floor of Mosta dome in the tomb donated to his family in grateful recognition of the many services he had rendered to the Rotunda.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.