The Madonna of the Rosary in Maltese art

Abstract

In this paper I have focused my attention on the artistic development of paintings of the Rosary Madonna found in the Maltese islands. I have attempted to trace their stylistic and iconographic roots and their relation to Maltese art. I have treated the majority of rosary altar paintings with the omission of an insignificant number which I did not find to be relevant, either because artistically they were of very little merit or because the style they portrayed was already represented in the examples covered. I have studied the entire period in which rosary paintings were executed locally, commencing with the sixteenth century to the present, with the objective of giving a complete view of the paintings of the Rosary Madonna. Since the subject of the rosary Madonna has been consistently portrayed in Maltese art over these five centuries, it provides an ideal mirror of the development of sacred art in Malta My research involved a personal examination of all paintings included in the dissertation and a thorough perusal of related secondary sources. Primary sources include the pastoral visitation of Bishop Alpheran de Bussan and some parish archival documents. In the latter several lacunae were found and disorganisation within the archives presented logistical problems.