D’Arena’s four-painting cycle Passion of Christ at Ta’ ĠieŻu oratory restored
As the liturgical calendar reaches its climactic moment of Holy Week, where the mystery of the Passion, death and resurrection of Christ is celebrated by all Christians, it seemed more than proper to focus on a recent process of conservation and restoration by PrevArti Co. Ltd, on a cycle of paintings that depict the salient moments celebrated during these days.
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, The Flagellation, The Crowning with Thorns and The Falling with the Cross – this is the cycle of four lateral paintings of the Passion of Christ produced in 1702 by Maltese baroque artist Giuseppe d’Arena (c. 1643-1719) for the Oratory of the Crucifix, annexed to the Franciscan church of Santa Maria di Gesù (Ta’ Ġieżu) in Valletta. The paintings were restored in 2023-24 by PrevArti Co. Ltd, as part of a larger initiative taken by the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Crucifix, reinstalled just in time for the Holy Week liturgical celebrations.
The cycle starts with the Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, representing the kneeling figure of Christ dressed in a red tunic and blue mantle with a group of three sleeping apostles behind him and an angel on the right presenting him with a chalice. This is the iconography by which this scene of the Passion is traditionally depicted; it is a literal interpretation of Christ’s words: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). At the bottom right of the painting is the coat of arms of the patron, possibly belonging to the Testaferrata de Noto family.
The cycle proceeds in an anticlockwise direction, the next painting being The Flagellation, depicting Christ being whipped and beaten by four men; the element of suffering is softened by d’Arena’s harmonic use of compositional symmetry.
Next in the narrative is The Crowning with Thorns, the painting that greets you upon entering the oratory, depicting Christ using the iconography of the Ecce Homo. Although this work is of d’Arena’s pure invention, the composition and palette used are still very comparable to Mattia Preti’s earlier 1680s large quadro riportato of the same theme at the
Oratory of the Decollato at St John’s CoCathedral, Valletta, also recently restored by PrevArti Co. Ltd, along with the other two paintings by Preti. The Crowning is also the only known signed painting by d’Arena with the inscription reading ‘Èx Charitate Ioseph De Arena’, evidence that he produced it out of his own charity to the archconfraternity.
D’Arena’s narrative ends with the painting representing The Falling with the Cross, wherein Christ makes his way up the Golgotha aided by two men. Interestingly, Christ does not wear the crown of thorns placed upon his head in the previous scene, suggesting that this painting was perhaps executed prior to The Crowning. The cycle culminates with Gio. Nicola Buhagiar’s (1698-1752) later titular altarpiece, representing The Virgin of Sorrows, painted in c. 1730s, also restored by PrevArti Co. Ltd, concurrently alongside the four d’Arenas.
The cycle of paintings, although well known as some of the best in d’Arena’s oeuvre at the turn of the 18th century, especially the esteemed The Crowning, were found to be in a rather neglected state and in a very poor state of preservation, greatly hindering a proper appreciation of his work.
At PrevArti’s laboratory at the Mosta Technopark, the paintings were more properly examined. Some of the strainer supports had become too weakened and deteriorated to be retained and were thus replaced by newly constructed expandable stretchers during the restoration process. The canvas supports had lost their appropriate tension, causing deformations and sagging. Several tears and punctures were also observed, some of which had been repaired during previous interventions by attaching fabric patches at the backs of the paintings or even black tape at the front.
The paintings underwent preliminary non-invasive diagnostic tests to better understand the state of all the layers making up the painting. These included the use of raking light, ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF), infrared reflectography (IRR) and X-radiography. It was observed that the paint layers experienced craquelure throughout as well as several lacunae (losses), flaking, lifting and cupping, the severity of which was visually accentuated using raking light.
The chromatic and tonal brilliance of the works was greatly hindered by the severely oxidised and darkened varnish layer which fluoresced under UVF. Accumulated superficial and embedded dust and dirt, as well as previously executed retouching, covered and modified the appearance of the original work.
Out of the four paintings, the first from the cycle, the Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, had suffered most particularly. It is known that the artwork had fallen at some point during its history, contributing to great losses in the paint layer. The painting suffered from near complete repainting on top of most of d’Arena’s original work, producing a jarring contrast in comparison to the other three paintings that only had some previous retouching in specific areas. X-rays and IRR were carried out to be able to see beyond the unoriginal
surface paint layer and thus determine how much of the original was still present beneath the surface, while also assessing the extent of the losses. Luckily, through these scientific analyses, d’Arena’s recognisable physiognomies in the faces of Christ and the angel particularly became clearly visible. These results showed that despite the almost complete overpainting, most of the original work still survived beneath the surface, thus making it worth uncovering in an attempt to re-establish a higher degree of authenticity.
“The artwork had fallen at some point during its history, contributing to great losses in the paint layer
Based on these findings, the decision was taken to design a cleaning procedure wherein the overpaint was carefully removed using a combination of mechanical and chemical methods, with scalpel blades and the appropriate solvents, to uncover the original paint layer. During this process, however, it was discovered that larger portions of the original paint layer did not survive, particularly at the right edge where the angel is located, resulting in the loss of some drapery folds.
Although most of the previous overpaint was removed, the decision was taken to retain some of the less easily removable areas since it is likely, as determined through cleaning tests, that the original does not fully survive underneath. These retained unoriginal areas consist of the trees and the blue mantle of Christ. This decision was taken to reduce the amount of new reinterpretation that would have had to be carried out during the later process of aesthetic reintegration of losses.
The conservation and restoration of the four paintings consisted of several procedures designed specifically for the individual needs of each painting. Structural repairs to the canvasses consisted of the removal of the previously applied fabric patches and tape, the consolidation of the canvas supports to improve their structural integrity, repairs of tears and losses by means of individually attaching bridging threads and canvas inlays, and the application of lining or strip lining.
The structural intervention on the paint layers consisted of the consolidation of flaking and detaching paint by administering consolidating adhesive between the paint and underlying structures by means of a syringe mounted with a needle. The aesthetic intervention consisted of the cleaning of the deteriorated varnish layers, dust and dirt, and previous retouching using the appropriate solvents, revealing d’Arena’s true hues and tonalities and the vibrance of Christ’s flesh tones in particular, and the infilling of losses with gesso and their aesthetic reintegration using reversible techniques that re-establish compositional harmony but are easily identifiable when examined up close. Finally, protective coats of semigloss varnish were applied to enhance the paintings’ hues.
Acknowledgements
PrevArti Co. Ltd is grateful for the trust shown in its team by the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Crucifix to conduct this conservation and restoration. The project would not have been possible without the generosity of a number of sponsors, namely Malta Arts Council and APS Bank for the titular painting by Gio Nicola Buhagiar and d’Arena’s Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Malta Arts Council for also sponsoring d’Arena’s Crowning of Christ with Thorns, and Momentum Consult Ltd for d’Arena’s Flagellation of Christ and Christ Carrying of the Cross.