Author Description

The twenty essays in this collection represent a selection of studies on the Knights of St John and the art history of early modern Malta that the author, Head of the Department of the History of Art with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta, published between 1964 and 2007. Contents: Preface; List of Plates; Frivolous and Vainglorious Grand Master de Paul; Hughes de Loubens de Verdalle, Cardinal and Grand Master; The Miraculous Image of the Madonna of Philermos and its Uniqueness to the Knight Hospitallers of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta; The Treasure of Relics and Reliquaries of the Knight Hospitallers in Malta; The Treasure of the Knight Hospitallers in 1530: Reflections and Art Historical Considerations; Church Art and Architecture in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries - A Focus on Some of Malta's Lesser Known Artistic Heritage; The Baroque Art of the Maltese Islands; Two Signed Paintings by Giulio Cassarino; The Beheading of St Catherine at Zejtun, Malta - A Maltese-Sicilian Caravaggist Painting; Paintings in Gozo - Patronage in a Small Island Community; Images of Death in Early Modern Paintings in Malta; Malta's Art Historical Contacts with France 1530-1798; The Auberge d'Aragon - An Art Historical Appreciation; The Ceiling of the Church of the Virgin of Victory, Valletta - Its Significance to the History of Maltese Baroque Painting; The Paintings of Francesco Vincenzo Zahra (1710-1773 - A Critical Appreciation; The Church of St James in Merchants Street, Valletta: An Art Historical Appreciation; Niccolò Nasoni between Malta and Portugal; Antonio Pippi - A Forgotten Quadraturista; The Cathedral City of Mdina: A Case Study of Baroque Triumphal Revivalism in the Central Mediterranean Island Principality of the Knights of The Hospital of St John; The Portuguese Socio-Artistic Imprint on Eighteenth Century Malta: The Baroque Triumphalism of Don Antonio Manoel de Vilhena and Don Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca; General Bibliography.