An  examination of 'Eclecticism and the Baroque Revival in the Decorative Arts in Malta: the context for Abramo Gatt (1863-1944)' which is the second volume in the scholarly series Studies in Central Mediterranean Decorative Arts by Dr Mark Sagona and Perit Anthony Gatt. Photos: Abner Cassar

This book has just been published by Midsea Books in collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. This series of publications has the overriding aim to provide an academic platform for the analysis and scholarly discussion of the decorative arts in the Maltese Islands within their larger Mediterranean and international context.  

The new book is largely authored by Dr Mark Sagona, Head of the Department of Art and Art History, who is a decorative arts specialist, and architect Anthony Gatt. The volume also includes a study by British art historians Professor Tessa Murdoch and Dr Roderick O'Donnell, and carries a foreword by Professor Emeritus Mario Buhagiar. The extensive and impressive photographic documentation of the volume is produced by Abner Cassar.

The new publication forms part of the ongoing research project in the Department of Art and Art History with a focus on the decorative arts in Malta within their international context, and has the aim of examining, documenting and contextualising the impressively rich and varied decorative arts production in the Maltese Islands. This research project has already unearthed a wealth of new material on material culture in Malta and is in the process of academically and critically evaluating the design story of the Maltese Islands in its many facets. A lot of this material is being published on an international stage, and has already appeared international academic journals, apart from being the subject of several international conferences. The subject has also been the focus on both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations which are opening up on different subjects related to the vast field of design and decoration.

Dissertations submitted in the Department of Art and Art History include studies on the production of marble in the nineteenth century, jewellery, fashion, church furniture, silver, liturgical objets d'art, the choir stalls at Mdina Cathedral, sacristy cabinets, marble ledger stones, and the decoration of Palazzo Parisio at Naxxar, to name a few.  This is gradually creating a much clearer picture of this astonishingly rich area of art-making, comprising works which generally fall into one of three categories: those which were designed and produced in Malta; those which were designed in Malta and produced abroad, especially in the case of works in silver and embroidery; and those works which were directly commissioned and imported from important European centres such as Rome, Paris and London, enriching considerably the Maltese artistic milieu.

The present volume focuses on one of the most remarkably rich episodes in the extraordinary and profuse story of the decorative arts in Malta: the years straddling the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  In what as been described as "the golden age of the decorative arts in Malta", the island was awash with designers and decorative practitioners of all kinds - wood and stone carvers, marble workers, cabinet-makers, joiners, silversmith, embroiderers (normally women), masters of marquetry and wood inlay, gilders, stuccoists - especially centred around the harbour area, both most especially in the three cities.  Since the time of the Knights of St John, the region had become synonymous with workshops of carvers, marble-workers and families of artists.

The freshly-published book discusses the prevalence of Eclecticism and Baroque Revival currents during the height of British colonial domination. Most especially, it celebrates the island's most gifted native designer of the fin-de-siècle, Cospicua-born Abramo Gatt (1863-1944), on the eightieth anniversary of his death. There were several Maltese designers who reflected the European predilection for such design solutions, but the oeuvre of Gatt is surely the most emblematic of this fascinating era, and it brilliantly captures the design mood of the epoch, especially in the context of the ecclesiastical decorative arts.  Gatt is a particularly fascinating figure because despite the fact that he is never known to have ventured abroad, he nonetheless came to absorb many characteristics which mark the international spirit of the period. This very likely occurred through pattern books, design manuals, catalogues of international firms and other printed material that was in circulation in Malta in this period. Gatt belongs to the tradition which had produced such notable designers like Giuseppe Hyzler, Nicola Zammit, Cesare Galdes and his son Giovanni, and Lazzaro Pisani; important marble-works like Giuseppe Darmanin and other members of the family; prolific wood carvers like the brothers Paolo and Calcedonio Bugeja; and silversmiths like the members of the Cannataci and Busuttil families.

The book considers how Malta in the late nineteenth century had considerably absorbed the international spirit of the decorative arts, and despite its peripheral location at the southernmost tip of Europe, several decorative arts commissions can be compared to contemporary international currents. The book synoptically discusses the international and local context, highlighting main concepts, the development of Eclecticism and the Baroque Revival across the European continent, and then moves on to evaluate the leading designers and decorative practitioners in Malta at the turn of the twentieth century.  It subsequently zooms into the personality and works of Abramo Gatt.  The book's main focus is the contexualisation of Gatt as an artist, the analysis of the spirit which impacted the invention of his works, and the documentation of his life as an artist and designer. 

Professor Emeritus Mario Buhagiar, who penned the foreword to the new volume, states that "this is a benchmark book which opens new horizons to the history of art in Malta by its seminal focus on the overlooked vibrant significance of the decorative arts which are customarily dismissed as inferior crafts to the high art of painting and sculpture.  It puts the record straight through an incisive analytical study of the creative fluency of Abramo Gatt..."

The introductory chapter co-authored by Tessa Murdoch and Roderick O'Donnell provides "a brief overview of selected contemporary British architectural trends in Catholic commissions", focusing on Oratorian and College architecture encompassing Birmingham, Eton, London, Oxford and Liverpool.  This sets the context of the book and proves that Malta was not insular in its embrace of Eclecticism and the Baroque Revival.

The first part, written by Mark Sagona, dives into the context of "the two design currents which manifest themselves most clearly in the oeuvre of Abramo Gatt".  It frames Gatt's works within the international and Maltese scenario, showing how his works were not insular, but bear comparison with international ideas. The discussion draws parallels between Malta and important centres such as London, Paris, Dresden, Rome, down to Catania, and then switches to Malta and a number of designers some of whom were contemporaries to Abramo Gatt.

Architect Anthony Gatt, himself a descendant of Abramo Gatt, is the author of the book's second part. Entitled 'Abramo Gatt: Notes for a Life in Art and Design' this section traces Gatt's life in Cospicua, and gives a historical narrative of the many commissions which characterise Gatt's career, from the early works, to important highlights, to the master's final years in the town of Żebbuġ, where he had sought refuge in the war years.

Part Three, also written by Mark Sagona, constitutes the backbone of the book.  It presents a holistic and critical study of Gatt's oeuvre - based on many documentary sources.  There is a thorough analysis of Gatt's ornamental vocabulary, and considers him within the local and international milieu, discussing his aesthetic links with the international design world in which he lived. This part engages with the style and the personal timbre of Abramo Gatt, and his collaboration with many decorative practitioners, carvers and sculptors of his time, opening up new realities to the making of many of his works.  The works of Gatt are therefore not analysed by themselves but are woven with the works of other contemporaries. 

The book's fourth and final part carries the full illustrated catalogue of all the known works and drawings by the master, many of which are published for the first time, complete with their dates and measurements. This section is especially important because it includes most of the master's surviving drawings on paper which he created in preparation for many of his executed works, or for other project which unfortunately remained unrealised. The book also includes an extensive bibliography with references to archives across Malta and Gozo, and a full index.

The book hopes to foster and stimulate a better appreciation of the decorative arts in Malta through a serious, art-historical discussion.  Additionally, it aspires to setting the record straight with regards to this little-known figure.  Gatt has unfortunately for many years suffered from amateur literature in parish publications which has relegated him to a level to which he does not belong.  On the eightieth anniversary since his passing, this publication presents an opportune moment for a better understanding of his oeuvre and for his works to be better known in Malta and beyond.