Exhibitions, Stories

After 16 Years of Restoration St John’s Co-Cathedral’s Majestic 17th Century Tapestry to be Exhibited in Malta

Posted on by artNews

By The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation

The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation is delighted to announce that The Set of Tapestries will be exhibited at St John’s Co-Cathedral after an extensive restoration process that lasted 16 years at De Wit Laboratories in Belgium. The last time they were displayed was during  Pope St John Paul II’s visit to Malta in 1990. 

The set of tapestries was commissioned by Grand Master Ramon y Perellos upon his election  in 1697. The set consists of 29 pieces depicting the Triumph of the Roman Catholic Church,  scenes from the life of Christ and the twelve apostles. The majority of the tapestries were based on drawings by the renowned artist Peter Paul Rubens and woven in Brussels by the weaver Judocus De Vos, their intricate design woven from wool and pure silk make them a true masterpiece of European art. 

Pope St John Paul II’s visit to Malta in 1990 | Courtesy of DOI Malta

The restoration process was complex and very time consuming because over time their condition deteriorated causing several open seams and loss of the silk threads. The project was carried out by a team of experts at De Wit Royal Manufacturers in Belgium. The tapestries were carefully cleaned and repaired, and the original colours and designs were restored to their former glory. The restoration process was funded by the St John’s Co Cathedral Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of this unique UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The tapestries, which will be hung in the Main Nave of the St John’s Co-Cathedral, will be displayed between 5 May and 24 June 2023. This is a rare opportunity for visitors to see these magnificent artifacts and appreciate their beauty, historical and religious significance. The exhibition, which will attract art enthusiasts from all over the world, will undoubtedly be a highlight of the cultural calendar in Malta. We look forward to welcoming visitors to the St John’s Co-Cathedral to experience this unique cultural event. 

The Nave of St John’s Co-Cathedral | Photo by Boguslaw Garbacz

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Stories

First exhibition dedicated to the painter Juan de Pareja opens at the Met

Posted on by artNews

First exhibition dedicated to the painter Juan de Pareja opens at the Met

From April 3 to July 16, 2023, the Metropolitan Museum presents “Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter”, an exhibition focusing on the life and artistic achievements of the painter Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608–1670)

Source: Metropolitan Museum · Image: Juan de Pareja (Spanish, ca. 1608–1670). The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1661. Oil on canvas, 88 1/2 in. x 10 ft. 8 in. (225 x 325 cm). Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (P001041). Photo: © Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado

Largely known today as the subject of The Met’s iconic portrait by Diego Velázquez, Pareja was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for more than two decades before becoming an artist in his own right. This presentation is the first to tell his story and examine the role of enslaved artisanal labor and a multiracial society in the art and material culture of Spain’s so-called “Golden Age.” The presentation brings together approximately 40 paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts objects, as well as an array of books and historic documents, from The Met’s holdings and other collections in the United States and Europe.

In this exhibition, representations of Spain’s Black and Morisco populations in works by Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Velázquez join works that chart the ubiquity of enslaved labor across media, from sculpture to silver. The Met’s portrait, executed by Velázquez in Rome in 1650, is contextualized by his other portraits from this period and the original manumission document whereby Pareja was freed upon return to Madrid. The exhibition culminates in the first gathering of Pareja’s rarely seen paintings, some of enormous scale, which engage with the canons of Western art while reverberating throughout the African diaspora.

Harlem Renaissance collector and scholar Arturo Schomburg was vital to the recovery of Pareja’s work and serves as a thread connecting 17th-century Spain with 20th-century New York, providing a lens through which to view the multiple histories that have been written about Pareja. Schomburg’s collecting and writing are highlighted through a core group of loans from The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in Upper Manhattan will present a dossier exhibition, In Search of Juan de Pareja: From Arturo Schomburg to Jas Knight, that explores recent interests and responses to Pareja as an artist, a sitter, a person, and a symbol. It will feature the contemporary practice of the painter Jas Knight, who, through The Met’s Copyist Program, is creating a copy of Velazquez’s portrait of Pareja. A video documenting Knight’s process will be available on The Met’s website.

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