Art collecting in Malta (1600-c.1850)

Abstract

The following is a study on Art Collecting in Malta from the 1600 till c.1850, taking into consideration mainly paintings. A concise study on the subject was still lacking, thus this study tries to give a synoptic overview through various case studies and samples. Some of the Major Art collections, even though small when compared to other important ones formed in the courts abroad, have been traced and so were the patronage patterns and provenance of some of the paintings collected during the period under discussion. The Knights of St. John were sons of nobleman from around Europe, some of which were also related to great art collectors abroad. After Valletta was built, there was an influx of travelers, noblemen, merchants and artists who must have also brought into Malta influences and works of art. By the 1600's, artists were painting not only for church or palace walls but also on portable boards or canvases, which could eventually be traded. The international buying and selling of paintings had become highly popular by the 1 J1h century. It is known, for example, from the published letters sent by Mattia Preti (1613- 1699) to Don Antonio Ruffo, an important and well known art collector from Messina, that the Treasury of the Order of St. John in Malta was selling paintings then attributed to some of the great masters of the time. Paintings attributed to Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Tintoretto and Veronese were being sold from the Treasury, thus indicating that their paintings had earlier on belonged to other art collectors in Malta.