The development of the iconography of the Holy Week processional statues in Malta and Gozo

Abstract

The main idea behind this paper is to record and illustrate the changes and developments that have occurred in the Holy Week processional statues together with, maybe, a few generic and pertinent concluding remarks. For about three centuries, development in the iconography of Holy Week statues was rather static but, from 1961 till the present day, changes and additions have been legion in the Passion statues though this does not hold true for the statues depicting The Risen Christ. Since so many changes have occurred from I 961 to date, first of all, I propose to describe the situation as it developed till 1960 and then record the changes of the last sixty years or so I shall first write about the Passion statues and then round off this paper with a description of the iconography of the statues carried in the Easter Sunday processions.