Martyrdom of St Catherine, 1607-1615, St Catherine parish church museum, Żejtun.

The Martyrdom of St Catherine painting at the museum of St Catherine parish church, Żejtun, is a piece of exceptional importance for Malta’s artistic history. The fact that it is the work of several artists, which may be verified in the qualitative differences of the various parts of the painting, suggests that followers of the master on the island at that time rallied around the work, making it a key painting of Caravaggism in Malta.

Its attribution is, in fact, controversial. According to researcher Roberta Lapucci, it was started by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who left it unfinished as a sketch, due to his sudden escape from Malta. On the basis of X-rays conducted under Lapucci’s supervision at Saci laboratory, Florence, from September 2006 to April 2008, she does not rule out the possibility that it may have been the first version of the Beheading of the Baptist, commissioned by Confraternity of Mercy which may have asked the artist for a horizontal painting with the Baptist’s head not yet cut off.

Martyrdom of St Catherine, detail (executioner).

But the undisciplined artistic genius decided nevertheless to paint the work his own way, proposing a vertical format, similar to that of previous Neapolitan works, and cutting off the saint’s head. Moreover, this way of working was typical of Caravaggio, who had often realised paintings in technical and stylistic continuity with previous ones, so that each painting was the natural evolution of a particular theme or stylistic phase. The work may have therefore been rejected and continued by his followers, who adapted it as the Martyrdom of St Catherine, probably upon a request of members of the same confraternity.

Most art critics recognise Mario Minniti’s hand in the painting. In particular, Nicole Huter justifies the participation of the painter from Syracuse on the basis of some analogies with Miracle at Nain in Messina and Mocking of Christ in Mdina: the position of the painting’s figures and their physiognomical likenesses, in particular of the young woman at the centre of the Żejtun painting, at the back, with the one at the far right of Sicilian work; orange light effects often recurring in his paintings; the use of soft contours for faces; semi-shadows on necks; the use of matt light for armour, that are different from Caravaggio’s, which are characterised by a great care to reflection effects.

Some parts of the Martyrdom are of a higher quality than others, suggesting the involvement of an artist of high calibre

David Stone has proposed the intervention of Bartolomeo Garagona, justifying it for the use of indigo pigments, typical in the production of painter, who was experienced in getting them from Spanish merchant ships from New World.

St Sebastian Tended by Irene, detail (head of Irene).

John Cauchi instead recognised Giovanni Giulio Cassarino’s hand in it, considering the painting similar in style and pictorial quality to St Sebastian Tended by Irene at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, and affirming at the same time that the work showed similarities with Minniti’s art, even if he did not give elaborate in this regard.

In my opinion, the hand of Cassarino is irrefutable, considering the clear similarities of the executioner in the Martyrdom with the bald-headed man crouching at the foot of the Apostle in St Paul Bitten by a Viper at the church of St Paul’s Shipwreck, St Paul’s Bay, and comparing the draperies of the three figures on the far right of the picture at Żejtun with the ones of the other works attributed to the artist.

The comparisons are particularly evident with St Sebastian, signed by Cassarino, as Cauchi noted; in fact, the same type of simplified drapery, with large parallel folds, on the clothes wrapped around the martyr, the old woman and the hangman, may be also seen in the saint’s and Irene’s in the painting at Valletta.

Penitent Magdalen by Giovanni Cassarino, 1625-1630, Wignacourt Museum, Rabat, detail (head of Magdalen).

St Catherine’s face, although made to look ugly to represent cruel death, is similar to Irene’s and Magdalen’s in the eponymous work at Wignacourt Museum, Rabat, leading to the conclusion that the painter had used the same model for all three works.

The way the executioner is holding the sword in the Żejtun painting, and the shape of his hands, are identical to those of the man at the foot of the apostle in the painting at St Paul’s Bay. Moreover, the use of a light with characteristic amber tones is similar to that glowing on the complexions of the scantily dressed figures in St Paul Bitten by a Viper and in St Sebastian.

Cassarino took part in the Martyrdom after the works of Mannerist phase (Baptism of Christ, lunettes of the Baptist and the Circumcision of Baptist, all at St John’s Co-Cathedral), and this participation probably constituted his approach to the naturalism of Caravaggio. The artist therefore had to compare his work with those of more experienced painters than himself, but above all deal with strong themes, such as a violent death scene and the resulting psychological reactions that arise from it.

St Paul Bitten by a Viper by Giovanni Cassarino, detail (crouching man).

However, Cassarino’s paintings dealt with themes of healing, historical or devotional episodes that do not feature the fury, blood or the horror typical of works by Caravaggio. Paradoxically, Cassarino was responsible for the main scene of the picture, which immortalises, at the far right, the cold executioner, the lifeless martyr on the ground and the old woman in tears.

The artist did not deal with scenes so intensely dramatic any more, but he focused on devotional or historical aspects, complying with the will of the Order of the Knights of St John, of which he became the official court painter. However, he did not drop Caravaggio’s matrix, but rather became an interpreter of a Counter-Reformation naturalism.

It is interesting to observe that some parts of the Martyrdom are of a higher quality than others, suggesting the involvement of an artist of high calibre. One therefore cannot exclude the possible intervention by Bolognese painter Lionello Spada, a talented artist nicknamed ‘ape of Caravaggio’ for his extraordinary ability, since he stayed in Malta from 1609 to 1614, the period to which the painting can be dated.

In fact, the work was attributed to Spada for a long time before the recent studies. If it is accepted that the original sketch was by Caravaggio, the realisation of the painting had a long period of gestation, considering that the artist from Lombardy could not have started it before July 1607, and that it was certainly completed between 1614 and 1615; this is confirmed by the map that appears in the lower left-hand corner of the work, representing the Turkish raid on the eastern part of the island on July 6, 1614, and from the report of a pastoral visit the year after, in which Bishop Baldassarre Cagliares says that he saw the painting on the main altar of the parish church of St Catherine, considering it “recenter depicta” (freshly painted).

Burial of St Lucy by Caravaggio, 1608, St Lucy abbey church, Syracuse.

The compositive structure of the work is modelled on Burial of St Lucy, painted by Caravaggio in Syracuse from October to December 1608, immediately after his escape from Malta. This confirms the participation by Minniti in the Martyrdom, who probably introduced to Malta the schemes of the Caravag­gesque masterpiece; in fact, according to Francesco Susinno, Minniti himself asked for the commission of the Burial. Cassarino may have seen this work too, since he was a native of Avola, near Syracuse, and it is possible he regularly visited the latter town, considering that his family lived there, as certified in some documents in the archives of Avola cathedral.

Stylistic analysis of some parts of the Żejtun painting suggest that the hand of these two painters appears more evident than the others, which do not seem to belong to either of them and which can be therefore be the work of other artists.

A psychological portrait of human emotions in the face of death, a theme dealt with again and again in Merisi’s paintings

The figures, tightly arranged in front of a bare background, witness the cruel scene in the foreground, at the far right. The deed is accomplished: the executioner sheathes his heavy sword after cutting off St Catherine’s head, slumped to the ground.

St Sebastian Tended by Irene by Giovanni Cassarino, 1624, St John Co-cathedral, Valletta.

The witnesses express different emotions: at the hangman’s foot the old woman bursts into tears, consoled by a young man with a hat in the centre; meanwhile, the terrible tragedy arouses in the mother next to the executioner, a sudden instinct to protect her son, who she jealously holds tight, taking her eyes off the murder just committed, because she is struck by the young man’s thoughtful gesture to the old woman. Feelings of staid pity are expressed by the other figures that populate the picture.

This work not only shows the followers of Caravaggio continuing the master’s art from a merely technical aspect, it is also a daring attempt to investigate the most profound and restless components of Caravaggio’s style, carried out in a psychological portrait of human emotions in the face of death, a theme dealt with again and again in Merisi’s paintings.

Detail (drapery of St Sebastian).

Martyrdom of St Catherine, detail (drapery of St Catherine).