If you are in search of a broad array of religious paintings by Francesco Zahra (1710-1773) under one roof, Għaxaq is your direction, its parish church your final destination. Executed at different times, more or less between 1741 and 1768, five altarpieces, two choir laterals, one side-altar lateral and one small devotional painting by this Senglean-born artist adorn the parish church of the Assumption of Our Lady. Our focus will be on the St Joseph, its recent conservation and restoration having permitted a renewed acquaintance with an accomplished Francesco Zahra who breathed his last 250 years ago.

Context

Domenico Vella, ‘per devotione’, financed the St Joseph, which had been installed in its altar in 1750. This is verified by the inscription at the foot of the canvas as well as on its verso. In Horatio C. R. Vella’s (ed.) Ħal Għaxaq u Niesu, published by Għaxaq local council in 2006, we learn that the year 1750 was not only witness to the unveiling of Zahra’s altarpiece but also saw its grand close by the foundation of the Confraternity of St Joseph in December.

In Għaxaq, the veneration for St Joseph has a very long history, even preceding 1626, the year in which the town was granted parochial status. This honourable upgrade warranted the enlargement of the then existing parish church which by 1655 was only partially completed as additional construction works continued till 1733. This was the year in which the foundation stone of the third and current parish church was laid.

Magister Architectus Sebastiano Saliba was employed to design this brand new edifice in a fully-fledged Baroque style. Born in Luqa in 1709, Saliba was the son-in-law of the aforementioned benefactor, Domenico Vella, whose daughter, Grazzja, he married in October 1739.

Description and iconography

The 17th-century predecessor to Zahra’s 1750 painting which represented the Holy Family on its Flight into Egypt was accompanied by a lateral of the Guardian Angel. The presence of this latter painting arises from the huge reverence it enjoyed in close connection with that held for St Joseph. It is no surprise then that Zahra includes and bestows the Guardian Angel with such prominence in his composition, while ensuring not to overshadow the pious St Joseph who occupies centre stage. He is the main protagonist who presents, with such tender cherish, the brightly lit hallowed Baby Jesus whose unblemished skin contrasts his stepfather’s weathered hands.

Conservation director/founder Amy Sciberras during cleaning of the aged varnish layer. Photo: Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration

Squatting on one leg, the Guardian Angel gently invites his charge’s attention to the elderly bearded foster-father of Jesus. We too are drawn in by the indicating finger of the Guardian Angel whose diagonal posture and position at the bottom right-hand corner act as the visual stepping stones into the painting. The flower-sprouted rod, held by the Christ Child, symbolically relates to Joseph of Nazareth’s destiny as the earthly father of the Son of God and the one divinely chosen to betroth the Virgin Mary. Proof of Joseph’s exceptional calling was established by his miraculously blossomed walking stick, the only one among those of the other suitors of the expectant Mary, who had gathered before the High Priest of the Temple, according to the priest, theologian and historian, St Jerome. Apart from this attribute, the superbly rendered still life of carpenter’s tools, no doubt a golden opportunity for Zahra to flaunt his confident handling of the oil medium, recalls Joseph’s profession as a woodworker.

Detail showing the whitish discolouration that was present in both the varnish and paint layers. Photo: Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration

Leafing through her book, the seated Virgin Mary on the left completes the loose pyramidal arrangement of this holy gathering in the illuminated foreground. Aside from the signature blue and red colours of her mantle, emblematic of her heavenly royalty, and of her dress in reference to her devoted motherhood and love, the lilies right by Mary’s left hand represent her chastity. The slightly damaged truncated column raised on a high plinth, on the extreme left, is as much a mark of human construction as the richly foliaged tree in the distance is a result of nature’s creation. They momentarily clamp and catapult our view into an imaginary landscape ending with hills in the far distance.

Yet this peaceful terrain is overpowered by a celestial vision of God the Father, whose divine paternity is conveyed by the typical long white hair and beard, whose triangular halo signifies the mystery of the Trinity, and whose cosmic omnipotence is represented by the large orb symbolising the world. Winged cherubs, spiralling clouds and transparent-yellow rays characteristically enhance this heavenly sphere.

A closer look

Notwithstanding the absence of overseas training, Zahra was initially artistically raised in the very busy family bottega run by his father, Pietro Paolo Zahra (1685-1747), who ranked among the most formidable stone ‘scalpellini’ of the early 18th century. Through closely assisting his paternal ‘capo mastro’ on many an ambitious commission for numerous churches all over the island, Zahra garnered the fundamentals of design, visual education and accumulated an enormous repertoire of pictorial elements. These served as models for his own canvases after the budding Zahra dropped the chisel in favour of the brush upon discovering his desire to carve out a future in painting. Case in point is the celestial ensemble and, more especially, the elegant adulating angel in the St Joseph composition for which Zahra surely derived inspiration from the many ‘angeli adoranti’ and spectacular ‘gloria’ displays of his father’s altar reredoses.

Zahra was on the cusp of his 40s when he executed this altarpiece, by then singing the praises of his already prolific career of two decades. By then, he had also decidedly unfettered himself from the rather peculiar brand of Baroque assimilated from Gian Nicola Buhagiar (1698-1752), his tutor from the 1720s. In his 2010 authoritative publication on Francesco Zahra, Keith Sciberras expounds on how the artist, when embarking on his maturity phase, shed his former master’s tendency to feverishly overcrowd his compositions. This he did in preference of a fluid, orchestrated whole. Gestures, tacit diagonals, unfurling clouds, mellifluous drapery folds bridge, intersect and overlap, as testified by the St Joseph, to weave an easily legible narrative in a fresh painterly fashion. Founded on sound drawing skills, the brushwork has a crisp and fluent quality to it, giving shape and form to the figures that have been assigned with elegant stature.

In full command of the oil medium, revealed by sensitive passages of intense highlights and sober tonalities, Zahra employs his palette with admirable effortlessness. A warm pervading light bathes the leading actors as they emerge from the dusky background. Intense darkness has no room in this painting. Only soft shadows have a say and, indeed, they are visually quite telling of Zahra’s level of artistic achievement.

Tell-tale signs of the lessons that Zahra drew from Mattia Preti (1613-1699), whose impact on Malta’s 17th- and 18th-century art scene was tremendous, can be detected in the polished theatricality that holds sway in the St Joseph. The half-kneeling Guardian Angel is a pale but discernable descendant of many of Preti’s similarly posed figures. Even the seated St Joseph hints at distant borrowings from the Calabrian artist. Judging from the somewhat curtailed expression of emotion in the St Joseph, Zahra may have also embraced, perhaps still superficially, the more temperate mode of Baroque imported by the French artist Antoine Favray (1706-1798) who, by 1750, had been in Malta for six years.

Zahra’s own personal experience too was a precious resource to rely on. The commission of the Holy Family with St Isidore and St Nicholas of Tolentino, completed in 1743 for St Paul parish church in Rabat, seems to have yielded a lesson or two. The Rabat altarpiece’s reading Madonna reappears in the Għaxaq work, the idea of a tranquil landscape re-features as an apt setting and the ushering role of St Isidore is bequeathed to the Guardian Angel in the painting under discussion. Since the Rabat project, Zahra’s artistic growth had continued to steadily tread on a more ambitious path that Għaxaq’s St Joseph indeed testifies. It is sure evidence of Zahra in his prime, having secured a firm foothold in the Maltese Baroque artistic scenario.

State of conservation and recent treatments

Until recently, before being entrusted to Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration for conservation treatments, this chef-d’oeuvre which we enjoy today, could not be properly admired and studied due to the various forms of decay which it exhibited.

Further details taken during cleaning treatments. Photo: Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration

Its lack of readability was the result of a combination of different factors. Whitish discolouration was found both within the upper layer of non-original, yellowed varnish and also in the paint layer itself. Such discolouration was mainly located along the painting’s perimeter, corresponding mostly with the wooden strainer beneath. Hence, this phenomenon could possibly be linked to the retention of high humidity levels, and the creation of a microclimate where the strainer frame was in contact with the canvas from the back. The presence of a microclimate was probably further worsened by the presence of dirt pockets that were found in between the old strainer and the back of the canvas. However, further studies need to be conducted vis-à-vis this hypothesis.

Details illustrating the state of the paint layer prior to treatments. Photo: Manuel Ciantar/Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito o.b.o. Amy Sciberras Conservators

Additionally, beneath the varnish, and particularly towards the upper half of the painting, numerous past retouchings had altered in colour and were overlapping the original paint. The lower half of the painting also had countless wax drippings on the oxidised varnish, which were nearly completely concealing the date at the base as well as the carpenter tools, which are a significant part of the iconography of St Joseph.

Whereas the canvas support was in an overall acceptable condition and still rather flexible, a few textile patches were however concealing minor lacunae. Its tacking margins were also quite frail. Thus, following initial diagnostics permitting a thorough study of the painting, a conservation programme was formulated by Amy Sciberras Conservators where these past and inadequate interventions were removed. The oxidised varnish, past retouchings and wax drippings were all cleaned, each using specific treatments, revealing Zahra’s exquisite palette.

During the final stages of chromatic integration. Photo: Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration

The entire surface and stratigraphy was also stabilised through the application of a consolidant, applied both from the front and verso. Losses in the canvas were inlaid and reinforced, while through the application of strips of canvas around the painting’s perimeter, the tacking margins were strengthened, allowing the painting to be re-stretched onto a newly manufactured and stable stretcher frame. The old strainer was found to be too fragile due to a past insect infestation. In this way, this enabled the preservation of the inscription at the back of the canvas, which reads “Per Devotione e a’ spesa di Pron Domenico Vella 1750”.

Inscription at the back of the canvas that confirms the benefactor’s name, Domenico Vella. Photo: Manuel Ciantar And Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito o.b.o. Amy Sciberras Conservators

Past interventions that were found at the back of the canvas support and which were concealing lacunae. Photo: Manuel Ciantar And Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito o.b.o. Amy Sciberras Conservators

The final phase then involved integrating losses in the upper layers of the painting, that is the ground and paint layers. The aforementioned discolouration of the paint layer was also addressed during this phase where a final protective coating was then applied. Thus, through these interventions, Għaxaq parish church and the Maltese community at large have regained an outstanding piece by the renowned Francesco Zahra.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to the parish church of the Assumption in Għaxaq, in particular parish priest Rev. Fr Andrew Schembri; Fratellanza San Gużepp Għaxaq AD 1750; and the Curia’s administrative secretary Michael Pace Ross for entrusting Amy Sciberras Conservators – Fine Arts Restoration with this project; and to photographers Manuel Ciantar and Suzanne Ciantar Ferrito. The project was made possible by the Rural Development Programme for Malta 2014-2020.

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.

Bernadine Scicluna is an art historian. To contact her, e-mail bscicluna70@gmail.com.