The visitation of Mary, its churches, altars and paintings on the islands of Malta

Abstract

This Thesis threats the subject of the Marian devotion dedicated to the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elisabeth, as recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, from an art historical point, and mainly focuses on its aesthetical representation on the islands of Malta. It discusses the origins of the tradition of the Visitation of Mary, from an art historical perspective both in the Eastern and Western tradition, whilst taking into consideration the Maltese and Mediterranean socio, historical and cultural contexts between Malta and Sicily and its iconographical theological meaning. Through the analysis and research carried, this thesis’s main purpose is to try to identify the earliest known churches dedicated to it and give a critical analysis of those Visitation churches still in existence. From a troglodytic church recorded in the 1575 to the high vernacular architecture of the early seventeenth century maltese From a troglodytic church to the high vernacular architecture of the early 17th century towns. towns. This thesis also gives a statistical evaluation of its significance as a Marian Devotion on the islands, mainly through the analysis of Mgr Pietrus Dusina’s 1575 report Achille Ferres of 1866 and Vincent Borg’s 1985 research on Marian Devotion’s Visitation. Its secondary purpose is to identify and give a critical analysis of the selection of paintings dedicated to the Visitation on the islands of Malta and through these aesthetic representations tries to capture the art historical context developing on the islands of Malta and Gozo. From the vernacular expression in art to the flair of Mattia Preti’s baroque idiom and from the 18th century anti-baroque ideologies interpreted of Nazarene Giuseppe Hyzler to the ‘anti-classicism’ ideologies of the twentieth century artist Emvin Cremona and his contemporary Mario Caffaro-Rore’s spiritual interpretation of this Marian devotion. This thesis covers the architecture of churches, altars and paintings dedicated to the Visitation throughout Malta’s known art history till the twentieth century. Due to the extent of this wide focus compared to the word parameters set, it hence opts to try to bring together all known studies about each topic and work of art as part of its discussion. For example, a major church such as a the Parish Church of Gharb Gozo, could be studied much further, considering the amount of art existing there, instead this thesis focuses of the history of the building of the church, the façade and its titular.