Filippo Paladini : his activities in Malta

Abstract

The artistic activity of Filippo Paladini in Malta has to be seen against a precise historical background. Once the military-political crisis provoked by the Turkish invasion of 1565 was - with great difficulty - overcome, the Council of the Knights of St John was faced with a momentous decision: whether to remain or abandon the Maltese islands, granted to them as a feudal holding by the Emperor Charles V in 1530. After days of dramatic debate, the irrevocable decision was taken: they determined to stay. This implied that they had to be strategically entrenched to meet any future renewal of the Ottoman offensive capabilities and therefore they committed themselves to the construction of a citta' fortezza, on the Sceberras heights that dominated and overlooked both the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett harbour. Priority was given to the inner girth of massive fortifications, since the exigencies of immediate defence were paramount. Thus, within a brief period of five years there emerged - out of nowhere - the inner fortifications of Valletta, complete with a landward ditch and a larger, reconstructed, Fort St Elmo on its eastern extremity. Only then, within the enclosed space, began to emerge the first constructions, the churches, auberges and palaces. With the next Grand Master, the Provencal Hugues de Loubenx De Verdalle, ruling between 1582 and 1595, we enter upon a period of more intensive artistic embellishment, once the Knights' Council had ensured a superior defensive stance than that of the pre-1565 days. In fact, it was in the course of Grand Master Verdalle's rule that Filippo Paladini appeared in Malta, either in 1587 or, at the latest, early in 1588. Apart from the early Mannerist painter Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio, who died in Messina in 1543, Filippo Paladini emerges as the next most accomplished painter active in the South Mediterranean area, which he only reached on account of some tragic circumstances in his life.