To commemorate the eighth centenary of the death of St Dominic, Gozitan artist Manuel Farrugia was commissioned by the Dominicans of Vittoriosa, Malta, to produce an altarpiece depicting The Glory of St Dominic for the altar of St Dominic in the Church of the Annunciation.

The result is a thematically rich painting that incorporates various elements that relate it to the history of this ancient Dominican foundation and the jubilee being commemorated by the order this year.

The new The Glory of St Dominic altarpiece by Gozitan artist Manuel Farrugia. Photo: Mark Micallef Perconte

In the centre, shrouded in rays of bright white rays, is the radiant figure of St Dominic gloriously being carried into heaven. The angelic face of St Dominic is modelled on the vero volto, a scientific 3D reconstruction of St Dominic’s countenance, kept in the Basilica di San Domenico in Bologna.

On his right-hand side, St Catherine of Alexandria stands elegantly watching the founder of the Order of Preachers, and kneeling right below her, St Mary Magdalene gracefully holds an alabaster vase of perfume. These two saints were chosen by St Dominic himself as patrons of his order.

The Church venerates St Catherine as patroness of philosophers, a token of the Dominican charism of study and dialogue with current philosophical and ideological trends for the purpose of evangelisation.

St Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, was the first to announce the resurrection of Christ to his disciples, earning her the title of ‘Apostle of the Apostles’, having been the first to proclaim the good news. This reminds the preacher of his role to eagerly spread the Gospel everywhere.

However, the presence of the two women saints evokes the apparition of Our Lady to a Dominican friar in Soriano in 1530. In a vision, he saw the Blessed Virgin who, along with Catherine of Alexandria and Mary Magdalene, gave him the famous image of St Dominic, known thereafter as ‘of Soriano’. This motif harkens to the ancient altarpiece that used to hang above the altar of St Dominic in the church that was sadly lost in 1941, during the German blitz of World War II.

On the left-hand side, Popes Honorius III and Gregory IX stand looking upwards to St Dominic, vested in medieval pontifical vestments. Pope Honorius III holds in his hand the bull entitled Religiosam Vitam, by which he approved the Order of Preachers in 1216, while Gregory IX displays the bull of the opening of the cause for canonisation, where according to Dominic’s hagiographer Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Pope Gregory IX wrote: “It is without doubt that he was brought into the glory of the apostles”. This motif recalls the 800th anniversary from the foundation of the order celebrated in 2016, and that of his death being commemorated this year.

At the bottom right, one finds various symbols relating to St Dominic. An angel holds open a book with the Gospel according to Matthew, which Dominic carried with him everywhere. A white lily lies gracefully on top of the book, a sign of Dominic’s purity.

Finally, a dog with a lit torch in its mouth, laying its front legs on the world, is reminiscent of the dream that St Dominic’s mother had during her childbearing months in which she saw herself being delivered of a dog with a lit torch in its mouth, setting the world on fire, a prognostication of Dominic’s eventual missionary zeal.