Dr Keith Sciberras opens the series of cultural lectures for 2007 organised by Din l-Art Helwa with a talk about the Oratory of the Decollato in St John’s Cathedral and the Confraternità della Misericordia.

When Caravaggio entered the Conventual Church of St John for the first time in July 1607, he would have noticed to his right, beyond the first bay on the side, a large portal that led into a long hall that was nearing completion. This was the Oratory of the Decollato, where the Confraternità della Misericordia (also known as the Compagnia or Società della Misericordia) congregated. Here, too, the artist would one year later paint the greatest masterpiece of his Maltese phase, the monumental altar painting of the ‘Beheading of St John the Baptist’, also known as the Decollato.

The Oratory has been the subject of a number of studies but its early history, as well as that of the Confraternità della Misericordia, and the early context for Caravaggio’s picture need further consideration. This lecture aims to do so by providing new documents and interpreting others published elsewhere. It will discuss the dire financial straits of a Confraternity, which struggled to complete its Oratory yet had its altar adorned by Caravaggio’s largest painting. It will also discuss how, oddly, the Oratory did not become the exclusive property of the Confraternity.

Dr Sciberras lectures in History of Art at the University of Malta. His main area of specialisation is Baroque Art and he has published extensively on the subject. He is Senior Fellow in European Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The lecture will take place on Thursday 11 January at 6pm at Din l-Art Helwa offices in the Judge Caruana Curran Hall, 133 Melita Street, Valletta. Admission is free and attendees are advised to be seated by 5.45 pm.