Pope Francis recently received in audience some of the very best exponents of the contemporary art world in the Sistine Chapel; he was continuing a long tradition of the Church’s particular concern for artists on the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Vatican Museums’ collection of modern art. He reminded them that “neither art nor faith can leave things simply as they are: they change, transform, move and convert them”.

With this in mind, the Archdiocese of Malta could not leave the 250th anniversary of the death of one of Malta’s foremost baroque artists, Francesco Zahra, to pass unmarked.

Joining other initiatives in Senglea and Gozo earlier this year, the anniversary is being marked with an exhibition of paintings entitled Francesco Zahra at Casa Manresa. It is accompanied by a book that sets the works exhibited in the sacred context for which they were created, in Casa Manresa, which was founded in 1743 as a place of retreat by the Jesuits.

Forming an integral part of this exhibition is a good collection of documents from the Diocesan Archive illustrating Zahra’s life and work.

Conservation work on a painting by Zahra.

Two public events, with free attendance, will be organised around the exhibition, inside the Archbishop’s Curia: on Wednesday, October 18, at 7pm, a public talk about the exhibition of paintings and archives will be given by the author of this article, while the book Francesco Zahra at Casa Manresa will be reviewed by Alex Vella Gregory and Theresa Vella. 

On Tuesday, November 14, the author will introduce the ongoing restoration project on the paintings by Francesco Zahra, with presentations to be given by the painting conservators Amy Sciberras and Valentina Lupo.

Zahra’s works can be enjoyed in most of Malta’s baroque churches and so the present exhibition has focused on paintings from three cycles that this foremost Maltese artist painted for Casa Manresa.

Typical of a spiritual tradition that can be traced back to the medieval period, but hugely popularised by the Jesuits, the house was founded to provide a place for people to retire and reflect on their life in prayer, in preparation for a holy death. Everything in this place revolves around the ‘ars moriendi’.

This exhibition is bringing to light several newly restored works, as well as others which are undergoing conservation

Through this collection of paintings, which we can still enjoy seeing on those very walls for which Zahra created them, a very specific aim of sacred art can be seen, one which was mastered during the baroque age.

Sacred art in the West has always preserved a primarily didactic character – it has a formative purpose, or better still, a catechetical finality.

As Francis has reminded us, sacred art exists “to change, transform, and move the viewer”, leading one to reflect on higher things, or on that which is truly essential, the desire for eternity.

Another painting by Zahra undergoing conservation.

Conscious of this responsibility, the Jesuits masterfully applied the ‘compositio loci’, which is an inherent part of the method of the spiritual exercises devised by St Ignatius of Loyola’s and transformed into the sacred theatre of the baroque age. Zahra was fully imbued in this painterly tradition.  He masterfully draws the viewer into the sacred dramas which he is depicting.

In this place of retreat, surely acting under the direction of his Jesuit patrons, Zahra’s paintings, together with those of Antoine Favray, draw the retreatant into a sacred space. Art assists one’s process of conversion, in order to lift one’s heart to higher realities.

It is a privilege to still be able to enjoy Zahra’s Passion cycle, as well as his representations of St Calcedonius, and his masterly depiction of saints, on the walls of this house which now serves as the Archbishop’s Curia – in a sense the beating heart of the Church in Malta.

This exhibition is bringing to light several newly restored works, as well as others which are undergoing conservation.

Francesco Zahra at Casa Manresa, on display on the ground floor of the Archbishop’s Curia in Floriana, runs until December 2. It is open to the public from Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm, and on Saturday from 9am to noon. Entrance is free.