The paintings in the churches of Senglea

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to collect the most important paintings found in the churches of Senglea: Parish Church, Church of Porto Salvo otherwise known as that of St. Phillip Neri and the small church of St. Julian. As preliminary information to begin this collection of paintings one had to have an overall view of the area of the Three Cities, focusing on the city of Senglea. The City of Senglea is introduced with a short history followed by the history of each of the churches. Since the paintings in each church vary in the date of execution and sometimes we also find the same artist working for two churches, the most appropriate way to present the research was to place the paintings in a chronological order. So that one could follow the development of art in Malta and, in certain cases, the development of an artist who was commissioned more then once in the same church or within the churches of Senglea. Therefore the chapters are divided according to centuries: 16th and 17th century, 18th century and finally 19th and 20th century paintings. Before discussing the paintings within each chapter it was best to introduce the century by comparing the art in Europe, mainly in Italy, with that of Malta with references to the painters and paintings, which adorned the churches of Senglea. This short introduction outlines the main trends and styles present at that time in Malta and how much art in Malta was keeping the pace with the high Arts of the Italian mainland. This will help the reader understand the influences brought from the foreign artists, such as Caravaggio and Mattia Preti in the 17th century, Tommaso Minardi in the 19th century as well as many others, which were of such great contribution to the development of the art in Malta. The conclusion sums up the most important works in the city of Senglea and the paintings are compared with other churches in the Island. The aim was to have gathered information of the paintings of Senglea, however due to the word limit it was quite impossible to fit all the works found in the all the churches of Senglea. Therefore in the Appendix there is a list of works, which include both the paintings mentioned in the text and those lesser important which are not mentioned but still housed under one of the Senglean churches.