Muża, the National Art Museum, has launched its first exhibition in the series Your Muża - a series of outreach and accessibility efforts where works from the national art collection will be temporarily loaned to different localities that bear relevance to a commemorative event, a special theme or an artist that is represented in the said collection. The current exhibition, dedicated to Francesco Zahra, is being held at the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix in Senglea and will run until 22 May.

Zahra died 250 years ago, in August 1773. Considered as one of the foremost Maltese artists of the 18th century, he was born, baptized, raised and artistically mentored in Senglea. Works from the national collection, directly and indirectly related to Zahra, have thus been taken out of the museum and brought temporarily to a locality bearing intimate ties with this artist's life and times. The community of Senglea can now celebrate the talents and successes of this Baroque painter from the comfort of their own hometown.

The Oratory of the Holy Crucifix was chosen as the venue of the exhibition because the impressive stone carving and statuary adorning the walls are the work of Zahra's father, Pietro Paolo, while four paintings that make up a cycle about the passion of Christ, also at the Oratory, are by Zahra himself.

Artefacts on display at the exhibition - titled Your Muża: Celebrating Francesco Zahra - include a painting by Gian Nicola Buhagiar, who was Zahra's teacher; coins dating to the time of the Order of St John in Malta; a painting by Antoine Favray, who admired and briefly collaborated with Zahra; the artist's baptismal record; a painting by Zahra that is usually on display at the Archbishop's Curia; commission records of the Oratory's sculptures and paintings and Zahra's self-portrait, showing him in his mid-40s at the peak of his artistic career.

Speaking at a press conference marking the launch of the exhibition, Mario Cutajar, Heritage Malta's chairman, pointed out that Muża is the National Community Art Museum and should therefore always be close to the people. The main aim of this exhibition, and of the ensuing ones, is in fact to enable Muża to bring art from the national collection, along with other works, nearer to the community in order to better understand who we are as a nation.

Bernadine Scicluna, principal curator at Muża, said that the Cottonera area gave birth to several families of artists, including highly talented marble-cutters, sculptors and craftsmen. It was in this culturally rich context that Zahra was born and raised, and lived until he got married and moved elsewhere. Through his works, which may be admired in many churches across Malta and Gozo, Zahra managed to diffuse the Baroque style that had been introduced locally in the 17th century, thanks to Mattia Preti's presence and strong influence, Scicluna said.

Rev. Canon Fr Robin Camilleri, archpriest of the Senglea parish, said that it is difficult to find a local parish church that does not bear a work of art by Zahra or his father Pietro Paolo, since they complemented each other in their projects. It is a pleasure for the Basilica's administration to be closely collaborating with Heritage Malta in acknowledging Zahra, a worthy human legacy of the Senglea parish. Through this exhibition, the public has the opportunity to get to know Zahra and discover his art up close in his native city, the archpriest concluded.

In connection with this exhibition, Professor Keith Sciberras, head of the Department of Art and Art History within the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta, will be giving a talk on Wednesday, 10 May at 7pm at the Collegiate Basilica of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Senglea. The talk, to be delivered in Maltese, will provide a brief background about Zahra and his importance in 18th-century Maltese art and will place in context the works at the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix as well as the exhibition itself.

The opening hours of the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix are from 7 to 11.30am and from 4.15 to 6.30pm

A booklet about the exhibition may be accessed on https://issuu.com/heritagemt/docs/ Muza_hdejk_niccelebraw_lil_francesco_zahra_issue