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Lot Essay
This impressive painting is a hitherto unrecorded altarpiece by Mattia Preti, most likely executed in the early 1670s, following the artist’s relocation to Malta. The work’s imposing scale and iconography indicate that it must have been an altarpiece destined for a Dominican church or commissioned by an individual with a particular devotion to the Dominican Order, one of the four great mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Saint Dominic in 1215.
Three Dominican saints dominate the lower half of the composition: at left, dressed in a white habit and with a sprig of white lilies at his feet, stands the fourteenth-century friar and preacher Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419). Canonised in 1455, Saint Vincent travelled widely throughout England, France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, drawing great crowds with his sermons. Here, he holds a scroll inscribed with the opening words of a passage in the Book of Revelation (14:7): ‘Timete Deum et date illi onorem quia venit’ (‘Fear God, and give glory to him’). With his left hand he indicates a dove hovering in the sky above, symbolising the Holy Spirit’s call to preach the Gospel. Next to Saint Vincent Ferrer, seated on a stone block, is the thirteenth-century saint Peter Martyr (1205-1252). He looks heavenwards while tracing the words ‘CREDO DEO’ (‘I believe in God’) in his own blood on the page of an open book; a reference to the words he is traditionally thought to have written on the ground after being fatally stabbed on the road to Milan. Saint Peter is shown already assassinated: a palm frond (symbol of his martyrdom) lies at his feet, the hilt of a sword protrudes from his chest and, though the cleaver that is normally shown embedded in his skull is absent here, blood stains the inner lining of his hood. Over the white tunic Saint Peter Martyr wears a black cappa, a long cape worn for warmth whilst travelling, from which the Dominicans got the name ‘Black Friars’. The third figure, who wears a black capuce (a bust-length cape) over a white habit, is Saint Raymond of Peñafort (c. 1175-1275). A Catalonian friar who studied law in Barcelona and Bologna, Raymond joined the order quite late in life and became the patron saint of canon lawyers. He is frequently shown holding a large golden key, an attribute that appears in the immediate foreground of this picture and with which he is portrayed in his tomb effigy in Barcelona Cathedral. According to Dominican iconography, Raymond’s key ‘signifies the binding and loosing power’ of the Sacrament of Penance, referring to his office as ‘Special Minister of the Sacrament of Penance’ (see C.M. Daley, ‘Some Dominican Iconography’, Dominicana, XIV, no. 4, 1929, p. 311). Saint Raymond of Peñafort was instrumental in founding the Mercedarian friars and was only canonised in 1601. The introduction of the saint’s feast day into the calendar (23 January until 1969; 7 January thereafter) in 1671 might even have been a catalyst for the commission of this work, since it works well with Preti’s virtuoso painting technique at this time.
Born in Calabria, Preti spent the early part of his career in Rome and worked in Naples during the 1650s. He moved definitively to Malta in 1661 and spent the last four decades of his life there, painting for clients both on the island and abroad. During his long career, Preti developed a unique style that combined Caravaggio’s naturalism with the grandeur and theatricality of Renaissance Venice, inspired particularly by Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese.
Painting at speed and with great assurance, Preti was accustomed to working on a large scale, both in fresco and in oil paint. Characteristic of the artist are the figures, their animated gestures and the monumentality with which they are imbued. The picture's chromatic range has been pared back and Preti has set his protagonists against an empty sky, doubtless to increase legibility from a distance. The picture was evidently intended to be seen from a low viewpoint, as the foreshortened step and book (lower left and right, respectively) demonstrate. The style of the painting may be compared to Preti’s works of the late 1660s, following the completion of his magnum opus – the vaulted ceiling in St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (adjacent to the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato containing Caravaggio’s Beheading of Saint John the Baptist). The paint handling is similar to that of Saint Andrew (1666-67; Parish Church of Saint Catherine, Żurrieq), in which a monumental draped figure is silhouetted against a cloudy sky: Andrew’s left hand can be directly compared to that of Raymond (see K. Sciberras, Mattia Preti: The Triumphant Manner, with a catalogue of his works in Malta, Valletta, 2012, pp. 182-3, 254-5, no. 52). Preti demonstrates complete mastery of the oil medium: dabs of white paint are used to mark out highlights, unblended red brushstrokes define facial features (eyes, tips of noses, ears and lips) and he frequently uses the preparation ground for mid-tones. The painting style of this altarpiece points to a date of execution in the late 1660s or very early 1670s, if the introduction of Raymond’s saint’s day in 1671 was indeed an instigating factor for the picture’s creation.
The original circumstances surrounding the commission of this work are unknown. Given the Dominican iconography, it seems likely that it was painted for a Dominican church. Although there is no documentary evidence placing the picture in the Basilica of Saint Dominic (or Our Lady of Porto Salvo) in Valletta, the church was closed in 1780 and subsequently rebuilt, reopening only in 1815. In the intervening period it seems that the church sold a number of works, including Alessandro Turchi’s Flight into Egypt, purchased in Malta by an English gentleman and now in Manchester Art Gallery (J. Gash, ‘Painting and Sculpture in Early Modern Malta’, in Hospitaller Malta 1530-1798: Studies on Early Modern Malta and the Order of St John of Jerusalem, V. Mallia-Milanesi, ed., Malta, 1993, pp. 549-51). Since the picture does not appear to be recorded in Malta in any of the early sources, it may have been destined for abroad. Although Preti produced a large number of pictures for the Maltese market, he continued to fulfil commissions for clients elsewhere and many of his canvases were shipped off the island, particularly after 1670 (Sciberras, op. cit., 2012, p. 57).
We are grateful to Prof. Keith Sciberras for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and for confirming that this important, as yet unrecorded altarpiece by Mattia Preti was painted during the artist’s residence in Malta.
Three Dominican saints dominate the lower half of the composition: at left, dressed in a white habit and with a sprig of white lilies at his feet, stands the fourteenth-century friar and preacher Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419). Canonised in 1455, Saint Vincent travelled widely throughout England, France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, drawing great crowds with his sermons. Here, he holds a scroll inscribed with the opening words of a passage in the Book of Revelation (14:7): ‘Timete Deum et date illi onorem quia venit’ (‘Fear God, and give glory to him’). With his left hand he indicates a dove hovering in the sky above, symbolising the Holy Spirit’s call to preach the Gospel. Next to Saint Vincent Ferrer, seated on a stone block, is the thirteenth-century saint Peter Martyr (1205-1252). He looks heavenwards while tracing the words ‘CREDO DEO’ (‘I believe in God’) in his own blood on the page of an open book; a reference to the words he is traditionally thought to have written on the ground after being fatally stabbed on the road to Milan. Saint Peter is shown already assassinated: a palm frond (symbol of his martyrdom) lies at his feet, the hilt of a sword protrudes from his chest and, though the cleaver that is normally shown embedded in his skull is absent here, blood stains the inner lining of his hood. Over the white tunic Saint Peter Martyr wears a black cappa, a long cape worn for warmth whilst travelling, from which the Dominicans got the name ‘Black Friars’. The third figure, who wears a black capuce (a bust-length cape) over a white habit, is Saint Raymond of Peñafort (c. 1175-1275). A Catalonian friar who studied law in Barcelona and Bologna, Raymond joined the order quite late in life and became the patron saint of canon lawyers. He is frequently shown holding a large golden key, an attribute that appears in the immediate foreground of this picture and with which he is portrayed in his tomb effigy in Barcelona Cathedral. According to Dominican iconography, Raymond’s key ‘signifies the binding and loosing power’ of the Sacrament of Penance, referring to his office as ‘Special Minister of the Sacrament of Penance’ (see C.M. Daley, ‘Some Dominican Iconography’, Dominicana, XIV, no. 4, 1929, p. 311). Saint Raymond of Peñafort was instrumental in founding the Mercedarian friars and was only canonised in 1601. The introduction of the saint’s feast day into the calendar (23 January until 1969; 7 January thereafter) in 1671 might even have been a catalyst for the commission of this work, since it works well with Preti’s virtuoso painting technique at this time.
Born in Calabria, Preti spent the early part of his career in Rome and worked in Naples during the 1650s. He moved definitively to Malta in 1661 and spent the last four decades of his life there, painting for clients both on the island and abroad. During his long career, Preti developed a unique style that combined Caravaggio’s naturalism with the grandeur and theatricality of Renaissance Venice, inspired particularly by Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese.
Painting at speed and with great assurance, Preti was accustomed to working on a large scale, both in fresco and in oil paint. Characteristic of the artist are the figures, their animated gestures and the monumentality with which they are imbued. The picture's chromatic range has been pared back and Preti has set his protagonists against an empty sky, doubtless to increase legibility from a distance. The picture was evidently intended to be seen from a low viewpoint, as the foreshortened step and book (lower left and right, respectively) demonstrate. The style of the painting may be compared to Preti’s works of the late 1660s, following the completion of his magnum opus – the vaulted ceiling in St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (adjacent to the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato containing Caravaggio’s Beheading of Saint John the Baptist). The paint handling is similar to that of Saint Andrew (1666-67; Parish Church of Saint Catherine, Żurrieq), in which a monumental draped figure is silhouetted against a cloudy sky: Andrew’s left hand can be directly compared to that of Raymond (see K. Sciberras, Mattia Preti: The Triumphant Manner, with a catalogue of his works in Malta, Valletta, 2012, pp. 182-3, 254-5, no. 52). Preti demonstrates complete mastery of the oil medium: dabs of white paint are used to mark out highlights, unblended red brushstrokes define facial features (eyes, tips of noses, ears and lips) and he frequently uses the preparation ground for mid-tones. The painting style of this altarpiece points to a date of execution in the late 1660s or very early 1670s, if the introduction of Raymond’s saint’s day in 1671 was indeed an instigating factor for the picture’s creation.
The original circumstances surrounding the commission of this work are unknown. Given the Dominican iconography, it seems likely that it was painted for a Dominican church. Although there is no documentary evidence placing the picture in the Basilica of Saint Dominic (or Our Lady of Porto Salvo) in Valletta, the church was closed in 1780 and subsequently rebuilt, reopening only in 1815. In the intervening period it seems that the church sold a number of works, including Alessandro Turchi’s Flight into Egypt, purchased in Malta by an English gentleman and now in Manchester Art Gallery (J. Gash, ‘Painting and Sculpture in Early Modern Malta’, in Hospitaller Malta 1530-1798: Studies on Early Modern Malta and the Order of St John of Jerusalem, V. Mallia-Milanesi, ed., Malta, 1993, pp. 549-51). Since the picture does not appear to be recorded in Malta in any of the early sources, it may have been destined for abroad. Although Preti produced a large number of pictures for the Maltese market, he continued to fulfil commissions for clients elsewhere and many of his canvases were shipped off the island, particularly after 1670 (Sciberras, op. cit., 2012, p. 57).
We are grateful to Prof. Keith Sciberras for his assistance in cataloguing this lot and for confirming that this important, as yet unrecorded altarpiece by Mattia Preti was painted during the artist’s residence in Malta.