Restoration work is moving ahead in Din l-Art Helwa’s project for the restoration of Our Lady of Victory Church as magnificent new images emerge after another period of treatment by the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. 

This season has seen the challenging segment depicting Alessio Erardi’s Presentation of the Infant Lord at the Temple almost completed. The paintings in this bay had suffered great damage from water infiltration and inappropriate varnish as well as displacement from the bomb blast that destroyed the neighbouring Opera House which made its ceiling slabs cave in, but come to rest.

The HSBC Malta Foundation has renewed its commitment towards Din l-Art Helwa with an additional €75,000 in financial support taking its sponsorship to €275,000 for the ongoing restoration of these unique ceiling paintings which are a testimony of the high baroque artistic talent of the Maltese artist, Alessio Erardi. This renewed commitment was announced by HSBC CEO Mark Watkinson during a visit to the Valletta church in the presence of Professor David Park, director of the Conservation of Wall Painting Department, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Renewed funding has also permitted the conservation of the later part of the ceiling constructed in 1751 in the reign of Grand Master Pinto which bears a decorative scheme believed to have been painted by Erardi’s follower Enrico Eynaud. The scheme over the entrance is currently being treated and carries three important coats of arms of those grand masters and members of the Order involved with the church: those of Grand Master Jean de Valette, who built the first church and paid for it personally, that of Grand Master Emanuel Pinto who commissioned the extension of the church and those of the Bali’ of Majorca, Gerolomas de Montelieu who defrayed the costs of the extension.

Din l-Art Helwa’s executive president Simone Mizzi said that HSBC’s substantial increase in funding ensures that conservation on Erardi’s scenes from the Life of the Virgin will be successfully and professionally concluded by 2015 coinciding, she hoped, with Din l-Art Helwa’s Golden Jubilee year. The University of Malta will also continue its Master of Science Course focussing on the Erardi Vault in the October semester. While stressing that the vault is a very important part of the conservation needed, Ms Mizzi reiterated that much else is still to be done on the ground floor and in the church annexe where Din l-Art Helwa’s project to display forgotten art treasures is to benefit from a European Regional Development grant for Sustainable Tourism.