Joseph F. Grima

 

 

 

(3) Easter processional statues

The origins of the Easter processional statues certainly go back to at least 1640 at the church of the Franciscan Conventual Friars in Valletta but this procession was last held in c.1830. However, the present wood-carved statue, which is exhibited in the church for a week extending from Easter Sunday, dates to 1698 when it was imported from Rome.

The oldest documentary reference to a still-existent procession dates to 1714 at Senglea, though this does not mean that other similar manifestations did not exist before this date. It is popularly held that the oldest existent procession is the one at Valletta that traditionally dates back to the end of the 16th century though, unfortunately, this is not corroborated by any documentary proof. The statue itself is of unknown provenance though it is tentatively dated to the second half of the 17th century or the first decades of the 18th. In the 18th century, processions were also organised at Cospicua, Vittoriosa, Naxxar, Rabat (without a statue that was later added in 1916) and Qormi (St George parish) with another two added at Qormi (St Sebastian Parish) in 1938 and at Paola in 1973. However, during the last four decades or so, from just eight Easter processions in 1973, the number has now risen to 25 - 15 in Malta and 10 in Gozo - to which one might add at least another 10 statues that are not taken out in a formal procession but are carried round in demonstrations accompanied by bands or simply exhibited in churches or band clubs.

Up till the end of the 19th century, there were only seven processional statues of The Risen Christ: two at Valletta, three at Cottonera and one each at Naxxar and Qormi. The two statues of Valletta and the vari (statues) of Cospicua and Vittoriosa were carved in wood. The Cospicua statue is a dynamic baroque Spanish carving, by an unknown sculptor, imported from Naples by Celestino Sacco in 1741 while the more restrained representation of The Risen Christ at Vittoriosa was carved by Salvatore Psaila in 1833 to replace another statue about which nothing is known. The Senglea statue (sculptor unknown) is interesting in that it is made of wood from the waist downward with the upper half fashioned in papier-mâché to make it lighter for the traditional hallelujah runs. The Qormi and Naxxar statues were manufactured in papier-mâché. With the exception of one of the Valletta statues that included two terrified soldiers with the figure of Jesus rising from the grave, the others were all single figures representing The Risen Christ. In 1891, Qormi (St George parish) added two terrified soldiers as well, by Vincenzo Cremona, thus making up a statuary group of three figures.

All the Easter statues (including the ones at Baħrija, Għargħur, Gżira, Mosta, Paola, Malta's Żebbuġ, Fontana, Għarb, Kerċem, Nadur, Qala, Victoria's Cathedral, Xagħra and Gozo's Żebbuġ) that saw the light of day in the 20th and 21st centuries are made of papier-mâché with the exception of the one at Victoria's parish of St George which was carved in wood by Alfred Camilleri Cauchi in 1997 to replace a papier-mâché effigy. The vast majority consists of just one figure, The Risen Christ, but a few have interesting variations: the former 1938 statue at Qormi by Carmelo Galea to designs by George Borg (St Sebastian parish) included two soldiers, the present statue by Xandru Mallia in 1946 (a new wooden effigy is on the way) at Naxxar includes an angel (but formerly included also two soldiers), the Rabat (Malta) statue by Agostino Camilleri in 1916 includes an angel and two soldiers, while the 2008 statuary at Xewkija by Alfred Camilleri Cauchi has also an angel but only one soldier.

The majority of these statues represent Christ in a white gilded sheet but here there are variations as well: the Vittoriosa and Rabat statues are draped in red which was also the colour of the Senglea drapery for many years until it was substituted by white in 1989. The Valletta and Qormi (St George parish) statues are draped in a golden sheet.

Each statue includes in one hand a symbol of victory over death, with the majority holding aloft a flag or banner. However, some of the statues hold a palm frond or in the case of Nadur, also a small cross. Others do not display any symbol at all. The graves also vary: from simple ones to carved sarcophagi from marbled tombs to overturned round tombstones. The flags or banners also vary with the majority showing a white cross on a red field and the others with the same colours but reversed. The former is, of course, the flag of the Order of St John, known in Malta as Il-Bandiera tar-Reliġjon, and it was introduced as some kind of compliment to the Order during whose rule these processions originated. Perhaps, it is amusing to note that, when British rule commenced over the Maltese islands, the Vittoriosa organisers decided to substitute the original flag with a palm frond to ensure that the sensibilities of the British occupiers would not be offended. However, by time, the flag of the Order was restored to the statue... and the British do not seem to have been offended at all.

 

(4)        Concluding remarks

I have been referring in general to a total of no less than 216 statues that are carried in procession, no small number when considering the size and population of the Maltese islands. I have not included those single statues that are exhibited every year in a number of churches where no Holy Week processions are held except that of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Friday preceding Good Friday, 68 in all. I would like here to state two points:

1)      When the restoration of a statue is deemed necessary, care must be taken to respect the work of the original sculptor/carver/statuary. Restoration should be just that: restoration and not change the physiognomy of the statue, as happened, for example, in the Easter statues of Senglea and Marsa.

2)      The artistic quality of the processional figures varies but the majority, apart from being sound from the artistic point of view, also manage to convey to the onlookers a profound sense of reverence and devotion. It is heartening to note that most of the inferior statues are being or have been replaced with new statues representing the same episodes. The "new" statues are certainly very good, some are excellent, from the technical point of view but I harbour serious doubts whether most of them convey the reverence and devotion which is expected from a processional statue as opposed to a street statue exhibited for a feast. In this respect, I think it would be better for our present statuaries to hark back to the purist line of thought and elements of the 19th century and even further back to the restrained baroque of the 18th as models for their output. Some of the "new" statuary groups are over dynamic in their postures and it would be better, in my personal view, if statuaries were to partly restrain their flamboyance and always keep in mind the real reason behind statues carried in Holy Week processions: devotion and reverence.

(concluded)

 

Dr Joseph F. Grima is a historian whose books include 'Il-Vari tal-Ġimgħa Mqaddsa fil-Gżejjer Maltin' (The Holy Week Statues in the Maltese Islands), published in 2012