Tumas Dingli : a study of his architectural works

Abstract

"As far as I know", Ernesto Rogers once wrote, "there are no child prodigies in the history of architecture. Ackermann, in a brilliant essay, remarked that Renaissance artists, with their rich and versatile plastic experience, turned to architecture after pursuing other activities. Even Brunelleschi began with sculpture; not to mention Palladio.... who first worked with a chisel''. Yet Tumas Dingli had designed his first - and in some ways his finest - parish church, that of St. Mary at Attard, by the time he was 22 years of age; within the space of three years, he had also designed those of Mosta, Naxxar and Birkirkara. Like Palladio,, he may have started as a sculptor. The finely-carved details which are part and parcel of his style, appear in some Maltese churches which were built before Attard, notably that of St. George at Qormi; and bills for stone carving carried out by a contemporary with the same name are still conserved in the Dominicans' archives at Rabat. Be that as it may, he developed into a fully-fledged architect at a remarkably early age, designing, besides the four churches already mentioned, those of Gharghur, Gudja and Zabbar, together with Bishop Cagliar,es' palace at Valletta, and the original main gate of Valletta, then known as Porta San Giorgio.