It may seem, at first, a rather limited area of church embellishment, but the usually small paintings of the various stages of Christ’s passion, found in all churches, were often used as a test to ascertain the capabilities of various artists before they moved on to larger commissions.

Georgina Pavia delivered a lecture on this subject last week at the brand new, excellent but still not widely visited by either tourists or visitors Il-Hagar Museum, next to St George’s Basilica in Victoria.

The lecture was one of a series of lectures that the museum and Fondazzjoni Belt Victoria are holding on occasional Saturday mornings.

The Via Crucis was a mainly Franciscan creation: when a journey to Jerusalem became hazardous due to the Muslim conquest of Palestine, the Franciscans created a Via Dolorosa in their own churches as an alternative – just as St Francis, in his time, created the crib as an alternative to visiting Bethlehem.

Up until the 18th century, the Via Sacra tradition was mainly tied to the Franciscans and rather flexible in its format. The numbers of Stations of the Cross, as each episode from the Passion of Christ is called, varied between as few as seven and as many as 22. Then, in 1726, Pope Benedict XIII – followed by Pope Clement XII – set the number of stations at 14 and reinforced the link with the Franciscan Order, even though the Via Crucis would be in a church not run by the Franciscans.

The first Via Crucis to appear in Malta was in the Franciscan church of Ta Giezu in Rabat in 1727, followed by one four years later in the Franciscan church of Ta Giezu in Valletta. The custom then spread to other churches but usually retained the link with the Franciscans through a special permit or decree.

In the early days, especially, many of the cycles were painted by various artists. Sometimes, this would be done deliberately: for instance, the Naxxar cycle is painted by no fewer than eight artists. Sometimes there would be an accident – for instance a painting being set alight by nearby candles. And sometimes, the artistic frame would be given more importance than the painting itself.

The main artists of the 18th century are well represented among those who were commissioned to paint scenes for a Via Crucis.

Gian Nicola Buhagiar was one of the most prolific, with paintings attributed to him in the two Franciscan churches of Ta Giezu in Valletta and Rabat as well as in Zebbug parish church.

Another prolific artist was Francesco Zahra, with paintings attributed to him being found in Ta Giezu church in Valletta, Tarxien parish church, St George’s parish church in Qormi, the old parish church in Senglea and the parish church in Zurrieq.

Another prolific artist was Rocco Buhagiar in the late 18th century, but his cycle in the Floriana church was destroyed by WWII enemy action. Four paintings survive in the Naxxar cycle. The Via Crucis in the old church at Xewkija – which was unhappily demolished to make way for the new one with its huge dome – can be found in the still extant oratory on the side.

This was the heyday of Baroque art in Maltese churches and other artists worthy of note are Michele Busuttil and Giuseppe and Hermenegildus Grech. Later on, artists became influenced by new trends in Rome, where neoclassicism had replaced Baroque and Rococo, apart from the Nazarene movement which was to have a great influence in Malta through Giuseppe Hyzler and later Antonio Falson.

Sometimes churches sold off their Via Crucis cycle in order to obtain a new one. The example in Marsa Trinity parish church was acquired from the Dominican Congregation of Valletta in around 1930 and is clearly in the Nazarene idiom, perhaps the work of Raffaele Caruana.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Giuseppe Cali emerged as the best artist in Malta, well able to hold his own against imported Italian artists. Sometimes, imported art came in the form of prints mass-produced abroad. Later, a number of Italian artists arrived in Malta and were given commission, among them: Attilio Palombi (Kalkara parish church); Eliodoro Coccoli (St Gregory’s, Sliema); GB Conti (Zabbar – here the 14 stations were reproduced in a calendar for the Holy Year of 1950 and the same images were used for stamps by Jordan in 1966); and Carlo Pisi (St George’s, Victoria).

Then mass-produced cycles were imported (bronze for St Paul Shipwrecked in Valletta and Luqa); wood from the Ortisei area in Bolzano (in Birzebbuga, San Lawrenz, G?arg?ur, Burmarrad, Balluta and Marsaxlokk) and others by Italian artists (Gualtiero Luisi at Nadur, Giannino Castiglioni for St Paul’s, Rabat and Luciano Favet for Xag?ra.

In time, churches and procurators turned to favour Maltese cycles: Gianni Bonnici at Santa Lucija, St Sebastian’s in Qormi, the Immaculate Conception in Hamrun; Paul Camilleri Cauchi at Msida; Alfred Camilleri Cauchi at Marsascala and Austin Camilleri for Gozo Cathedral and the Shrine of Divine Mercy in San Pawl tat-Targa; Marco Cremona with his large, high-relief bronzes at St Julian’s and others for Tal-Ibragg and Mellieha; Antoine Paul Camilleri for Pembroke and lastly Richard England for the churches he built at Manikata and at Qawra.

Finally, it is interesting to note that neither St John’s co-Cathedral nor Mdina Cathedral have a Via Sacra, and while Gozo Cathedral does have one it is, as said earlier, a very recent one. Elsewhere in the world there are many cathedrals that have a Via Sacra, including Westminster Cathedral in London.