This year’s annual festivities in honour of St Julian, which reach their climax today, gain special meaning with the inauguration on August 18 of the titular altarpiece of St Julian’s old parish church, known as Lapsi church, attributed to Messanese artist Antonio Catalano the Elder (c.1560-c.1606), following a large-scale restoration-conservation intervention supported by Arts Council Malta and the Restoration and Preservation Department.

Given the painting’s historical and artistic importance and its compromised state of preservation, St Julian’s parish and the Għaqda Dilettanti Knisja ta’ Lapsi, San Ġiljan, a voluntary organisation set up to care for the church and the works of art that adorn it, commissioned a holistic conservation and restoration project that was entrusted to Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration.

The existence of a titular painting in the church of the seaside and rural village of St Julian’s, then known as Qaliet Ġnien il-Fieres, is first documented in a report drawn up following a visit to the church, in the area known as ‘tal-kaletti’, as part of a wider pastoral visit conducted in the Birkirkara parish by Spanish Bishop Tommaso Gargallo in 1601. Gargallo, accompanied by parish priest Don Filippo Borg, makes reference to a beautiful and devout image above the main altar of the church: “In maiori est Jcona euisdem Sancti admodum decens et decora...”.

Documents relating to a subsequent pastoral visit by Bishop Baldassare Cagliares in 1616 clarify that this was a canvas painting, placed in a wooden gilt frame. The altarpiece included a coat of arms or armorial shield. Cagliares’s visit singles out the benefactor of this work of art: Fra Iohannes de Terracourt Commissarius de Thores e Ruel, a devotee of the hospitaller saint. At this time, the church was heavily frequented by devotees, as attested to by various silver ex-voto offerings made to St Julian, hung around the painting and documented in the report of Bishop Miguel Juan Balaguer de Camarasa’s pastoral visit of May 2, 1637.

On December 19, 1729, Bishop Alpheran De Bussan visited the church, which had been completely reconstructed from its foundations, and noted that the altarpiece, described as “antichissima”, was once again displayed in a reredos in the church choir, enclosed within a coloured wooden frame. The report confirms that the canvas was painted in 1596.

During analysis, it became clearly evident that the painting had been enlarged twice

In a study entitled Two Paintings for the Valletta Friary Churches: The Virgin of Porto Salvo and S. Maria di Gesú published in 2015, Mario Buhagiar attributed this altarpiece to Antonio Catalano the Elder. The professor refers to biographies of artists active in Malta Uomini Illustri di Malta by the erudite Capuchin friar Padre Pelagio, normally identified as Bartolomeo Mifsud (1707-1781), known to us through the heavily annotated transcription of Count Saverio Marchese. These biographies mention a painting of St Julian the Confessor that Catalano painted for the church of the saint in the seaside village of St Julian’s. His account refers to the fact that the bottom register of the painting included the following inscriptions: ‘Hoc Opus Devotionis Gratia Fratris Iohannes de Terracourt de Thores, et Ruel sumptibus factum’, and beneath it: ‘Antonius Catalanus me cumensis pincere 1596’.

Buhagiar is of the firm belief that this is the same painting that still hangs in the choir of St Julian’s old parish church, but that the inscriptions were lost as the painting was subject to many unhappy re-paintings, restorations and accretions. Catalano’s soft painterly style could still be felt in those parts that have escaped mutilation.

When St Julian’s became a vice-parish in 1849, preparations were under way for the dedication of the church to be changed to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The reasons behind this are unclear. This led to the inauguration of a new titular painting representing The Assumption of the Virgin with Saints Paul and Julian, by Antonio Falzon (1805-1865), donated by the procurator of the church and district medical officer Michele Parnis in 1855.

However, after a few years, it seems the locals had a change of heart and wished for their church to remain dedicated to St Julian the Confessor, the saint who had given his name to the locality and who had been invoked as their heavenly protector ever since the building of the church in the 16th century. The painting was back in the church choir, above the main altar, by the end of the 19th century.

Early photographs of the church show the titular painting as we know it today. However, modifications had definitely been made to it to fit in the new reredos designed for The Assumption painting. The following inscription was found during the restoration intervention: ‘Gius. Cefail Restaurò e modificò 21/8/94’. This necessarily means that Catalano’s St Julian was back in its reredos in August 1894, one year following the arrival of the titular statue of St Julian, the work of Carlo Darmanin.

Recent scientific investigations and discoveries

Catalano’s St Julian left the church once again in February 2022 to be taken for conservation treatments at the laboratory of Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration. The professional intervention was carried out over 16 months, addressing a very complex scenario.

During analysis, it became clearly evident that the painting had been enlarged twice. Raking-light investigations revealed that the central original part is rectangular in shape. It is hence possible that the painting was actually quadrangular prior to its first enlargement. The latter was done through a lining intervention, resulting in an additional semicircular area added to the very top, hence enlarging it for the first time.

It should be noted that painted imagery along the perimeter of the inner rectangular original composition – which imagery breaks abruptly –  suggests that the original painting was cut prior to its first enlargement, as was also denoted in the aforementioned essay by Buhagiar.

In fact, it is also very plausible that the two inscriptions ‘Hoc Opus Devotionis Gratia Fratris Johannes de Terracourt de Thores, et Ruel sumptibus factum’ and another beneath it ‘Antonius Catalanus me cumensis pincere 1596’, mentioned in a historic document by the Capuchin Friar, Padre Pelagio, in his book of biographies Uomini Illustri di Malta, were lost when the original painting was seemingly cropped before its first enlargement. Indeed, the most recent X-radiography studies did not reveal any inscriptions.

In a later intervention, the painting was once again enlarged, this time all along its perimeter, therefore broadening and lengthening the painting, while keeping the same shape having a semicircular top.

Through multispectral imaging, which was also carried out on the painting’s verso, it became apparent the painting was enlarged by first manufacturing a stretcher frame having the desired dimensions (i.e. larger than the painting at the time); stretching a new lining canvas onto this newly manufactured frame and then attaching the painting to the centre of the stretched lining canvas. In fact, ultraviolet fluorescence investigations of the verso showed a fluorescence only on the central part of the verso, where the once-smaller painting was attached.

Then, it seems that past restorers simply extended the paint layer by painting on the remainder of the lining canvas that was not concealed by the attached painting. In doing so, they also overlapped onto the original to blend in the tonalities. As previously indicated, this last intervention/enlargement seems to have been made by Giuseppe Cefail in 1894.

It is important to note that this same technique was also seemingly used for enlarging the painting for the first time, meaning that the current overall picture composition is spread over three levels of canvas, namely the cropped rectangular original canvas; the first lining canvas protruding from the top where past restorers extended the background over the semicircular piece of lining canvas; and the second lining by Cefail protruding from under the first lining all around the already enlarged painting.

To chromatically amalgamate the added parts, certain details from the original were concealed and others added, resulting in a change of the original iconography and composition of the painting, as was discovered during the latest conservation treatments. Later additions carried out by past restorers seem to be the angel at the top of the painting on the semicircular part, and the deer next to St Julian, which in fact overlap on the extended parts of the painting.

Furthermore, during cleaning, it also became evident that one thin varnish layer had been applied over the angel and the deer, as opposed to the original parts, which had several layers of aged varnish, retouchings and overpaint.

Among the original details that had been covered to seemingly amalgamate such enlargements/additions with the rest of the painting, we find two birds next to the original tree branches and a dog located next to St Julian. These iconographic features were completely concealed by past overpaint and emerged during the current conservation and cleaning treatments by Amy Sciberras Conservators.

Conservation and restoration

Since the paint layer forming the entire composition that we see today is divided over three different planes, namely the original canvas, the first lining and the second, a delining procedure (i.e. the removal of past lining canvases to uncover the original one) could not be carried out.

Hence, tears and lacunae in the original had to be addressed from the front. In fact, tears allowed access (from the front) to further open such areas, namely to partially detach the original from the lining canvases in order (a) to remove textile patches that were found in between the original canvas and the linings (causing deformations) and (b) to repair and close tears and lacunae. This was indeed a very delicate procedure.

As the original was partially detached from the linings around tears, it became evident that past restorers had addressed such canvas damage through the application of patches, and this was done following the first lining. Since such patches were not properly applied and were partly folded and sandwiched between the two linings, it was necessary to partially detach the past linings in such areas, remove the textile patches and reattach the past linings once again. Most importantly, this allowed Amy Sciberras Conservators to treat canvas deterioration without removing the past linings, thus avoiding losing the later additions that were painted directly onto the lining canvases.

Ultimately, a consolidant was applied to the verso, and due to the latest lining canvas being considerably oxidised and frail, relining was considered to be the best option to reinforce it.

The very last phase of the project was no simpler than the rest, as this involved integrating the vibrant original hues, that had emerged during cleaning treatments, with the later darker additions. The added parts of the composition were considerably darker, as most probably the painting’s varnish had already yellowed by the time the additions were executed. In this final phase, losses were integrated, hence reinstating full legibility to the titular painting of St Julian, which can now once again be relished at Lapsi church.

Acknowledgments

Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration thanks Għaqda Dilettanti Knisja Lapsi, San Ġiljan for entrusting them with this prestigious project; photographers Manuel Ciantar and Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito; Triton NDT Ltd for the radiography; the Malta Arts Council and the Restoration and Preservation Department for making this project possible through the Restoration Funding Scheme.

Amy Sciberras directs a team of conservators and has been entrusted with restoration projects of national and international importance. She may be contacted via www.amysciberras.com or e-mail info@amysciberras.com.

Niki Papagiorcopulo co-founded a voluntary organisation Għaqda Dilettanti Knisja Lapsi, San Ġiljan to raise funds to conserve and restore Lapsi church and the works of art that adorn it. Those interested in supporting the work being undertaken may contact the committee via www.lapsi.org or e-mail knisjalapsi@gmail.com.