A picture of the work of art, rarely if ever seen in Malta, has now appeared on Interpol’s website together with a number of other paintings by various artists, also stolen from Judge Bonello’s home. The theft must have taken place between 17 March and 5 April, the period in which the judge’s sister did not visit the residence..
San Giovannino al Fonte is dated circa 1607 and measures 100cm by 73cm. It depicts the figure of the young, boyish saint looking down at the water with a typical chiaroscuro background that is the hallmark of this great artist.
Further investigation of the entry on the painting on the Interpol site reveals that it has a collector’s mark ‘VB’on the back of the canvas. This is taken to refer to the initials of Vincenzo Bonello, former Director of Museums, father of Judge Giovanni Bonello and a renowned collector in his own right.
The painting is one of those that were actually painted in Malta by the artist. The others are St Jerome, The Beheading of St John the Baptist, Portrait of a Maltese Knight and Sleeping Cupid.
San Giovannino al Fonte was probably painted around 1608-9 and is similar in style to Sleeping Cupid.
Incidentally, a superb exhibition of digital reproductions of Caravaggio paintings will be exhibited at the Caraffa stores in Vittoriosa as from 1 May (see centre pages). ‘St John the Baptist at the Spring’ is one of the reproductions on display.
However there seems to be some doubts whether Caravaggio painted more than one picture of the ‘San Giovannino al Fonte’ as a specialised website on Caravaggio reproducing the same image, says it is in a private collection in Rome.
A further scrutiny of the Interpol website revealed that 11 other paintings were stolen from Judge Bonello’s residence.
A ‘Saint Joseph with the Child’, dating back to the 17th century and attributed to either Piazzetta or Benkovic, is described: ‘may have the mark VB on verso of canvas’. This photo is in black and white indicating that it had been photographed much earlier by the collector.
‘Saint Bruno’ attributed to De Mura or Francesco Solimena is also in black and white and has the same ‘VB’ description.
The local element did not escape the burglars attention either. The great Willie Apap’s ‘Seated Woman’ is also on the site, again meticulously annotated ‘VB’. The painting is firmly signed by the author with his trademark ‘W.Apap’ at the bottom right hand corner.
The similarly lauded Edward Caruana Dingli’s ‘Landscape with Red Foliage’ and ‘Torso of Man from Back’ are also among the missing pictures and are signed by the author.
Other paintings listed on the site are a self portrait by Arienzi and a striking ‘Portrait of Princess Dorothea Lievin’ by Lawrence dating from the 18th to the 19th century is quite priceless. Both are described as being marked ‘VB’.
The other paintings are ‘Woman in Faldetta’ by Allingham (19th century), ‘The Nativity’ by Van Honthorst (17th century) and Paladini’s (attrib), ‘The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine’ (17th century), which is listed in two versions.
Finally there is an interesting double sided painting by Edward Caruana Dingli. The front is ‘Country Folk’ and on the obverse there is a study for the portrait of Helen Buhagiar.
The former is clearly signed ‘E Caruana Dingli’ on the lower right hand side. It is evident the burglars knew what they were stealing as the haul is worth a king’s ransom.
Local police have imposed a news blackout on the contents of the theft from Judge Bonello’s residence citing that it would endanger the safety of the paintings if information was to be given on particular works of art.
Interpol has however decided to post the details of the theft on their website which is accessible at www.interpol.int .