MUŻA, Malta’s National Art Museum, has launched its first exhibition in the series ‘Your MUŻA’.

This project involves 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 first and current exhibition, dedicated to Francesco Zahra, is being held at the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix in Senglea and will run until 22nd May.

Francesco Zahra died 250 years ago, in August 1773. Considered as one of the foremost Maltese artists of the 18th century, he was born, baptized, bred 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 Francesco Zahra’s father, Pietro Paolo, while four paintings that make up a cycle about the passion of Christ, also at the Oratory, are by Francesco Zahra himself.

Artifacts on display at the exhibition also include a painting by Gian Nicola Buhagiar, who was Francesco 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 Francesco 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 – right by its doorstep – in order to better understand who we are as a nation.

Bernadine Scicluna, Principal Curator at MUŻA, said that the Cottonera area, of which Senglea forms part, gave birth to several families of artists, including highly talented marble-cutters, sculptors and craftsmen.

It was in this culturally rich context that Francesco 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.

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 Francesco Zahra or his father Pietro Paolo, since they complemented each other in their projects.

Through this exhibition, the public has the opportunity to get to know Francesco 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 10th May at 19:00 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 Francesco 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 7am till 11:30am and from 4:15pm till 6:30pm.