Malta’s national art museum, MUŻA, has just made an exciting addition to its collection – one with international ties and centuries of history behind it.

The museum has acquired a rare old master drawing by Paulus Pontius and the legendary Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. The newly acquired work was inspired by one of Rubens’ grand altarpieces, and is a preparatory work for a popular engraving by Pontius – a renowned engraver who closely collaborated with Rubens in 17th-century Antwerp.

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This new acquisition is a fascinating piece of printmaking history. The drawing contains incised lines, indicating it was used as a direct design for copperplate engraving, a technique central to image reproduction before photography.

This artwork forms part of a prestigious series of preparatory drawings for engravings held in major museums across the world, including the British Museum in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The drawing will also play a role in MUŻA’s educational initiatives, supporting a programme tied to a digital project on old master drawings, funded by the Getty Foundation, specifically on design transfer in printmaking, providing valuable insight into how original compositions evolved from sketch to print – a process that defined visual culture in Europe for centuries.

MUŻA encourages the public to stay tuned for upcoming programming, especially for those interested in art history, Baroque art, and traditional drawing and printmaking techniques.

Are you a Baroque fan?