Art historian Keith Sciberras will deliver a public lecture on St Rose of Lima and a statuette of the saint by Melchiorre Cafà (1636-1667) recently acquired by Heritage Malta.

St Rose of Lima, who lived between 1586 and 1617, became the first female saint of the New World in April 1668. To mark the occasion, Cafà created a marble statue of the Dominican saint which was prominently displayed in the titular apse of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, directly in front of Bernini’s iconic ensemble in the basilica. 

He was meant to be the artistic protagonist at the saint’s beatification, but his untimely death seven months prior to the event tragically precluded his presence from the well-choreographed ephemeral spectacle commissioned by the Dominican Order.

The real protagonist, however, was his white marble statue. Following the beatification, the statue travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond, to finally mark the saint’s tomb in Lima, Peru, making Cafà’s work the first monumental statue of the Roman Baroque to travel so far from the Papal city.

Cafà also produced a number of smaller bronze versions of the statue, the most beautiful of which, made of gilt bronze and silver, was recently acquired by Heritage Malta. 

Prof. Sciberras will discuss the statuette within the context of Cafà’s other work and the wider framework of the Roman Baroque style.

The lecture is being held tomorrow at 6.30pm at MUŻA – the National Community Art Museum, Merchants Street, Valletta. It is being jointly organised by Heritage Malta and the University of Malta’s Department of Art and Art History.