Mixing Renaissance with Baroque

Juan Ameen on the last minute push for Maltese Euro coins:

..The top five choices were the Baptism of Christ, Malta’s coat of arms, Fort St Angelo, Mnajdra Temples and the map of Malta...The Akkademja tal-Malti is circulating an e-mail encouraging people to have national poet Dun Karm on the euro coins...By choosing Dun Karm for the Maltese euro, the Maltese are giving a clear signal that they want to be seen as citizens who think, have their own culture and literature and are not simply as inhabitants of a tourist island..

Art expert and university lecturer Dr Keith Sciberras was surprised at the two of the three options put forward classified as Renaissance Malta for the face of the Maltese euro. “I was surprised when I first saw them under this label and thought they had made a mistake,” he said. “As, art-historically speaking, the two items are baroque.” The three choices are the Baptism of Christ in St John’s Co-Cathedral, the portico of the Auberge de Castille and Fort St Angelo.

The statue of the Baptism of Christ is the one of the fullest expression of Baroque sculpture in Malta and dates to 1700, he explained. “The Auberge de Castille is one of Malta’s finest examples of Late Baroque expression dating to the mid-18th Century.” On the other hand, Fort St Angelo has a far more complicated history, probably dating back to the classical period. However it started taking shape as a fort in the medieval period.” It underwent several successive interventions of military engineering and finally took its present shape in the mid-17 century.”..

Dr Sciberras said he was irritated when he saw the picture of the Baptism of Christ used for the publicity campaign. “The statue was restored to its full glory in 2000, yet the photo used and seen by all was taken pre-restoration. The gilt Gloria behind the statue does not show up in the dark picture and all its present restored beauty is lost. Images of such importance should be up-to-date!”...