'There seems to be an increasing interest in Mediterranean art and culture occurring throughout academic circles and even beyond and this is what has spurred the University of Malta’s Department of Art and Art History to host another international conference in Malta, an island that has had a central role in the development of art in the Central Mediterranean.'
This was stated by Dr Charlene Vella from UM’s Department of Art and Art History following another successful annual art-historical international conference held recently at the University of Malta Valletta Campus.
The conference, themed Dynamics of Artistic Interaction in the Mediterranean in the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods, was hosted by the University's Department of Art and Art History and saw leading local and foreign scholars exploring, debating, and putting forward hypotheses on various elements that display artistic exchange in the Mediterranean.
The themes presented by the academics included painting, sculpture, architecture and manuscripts, and involved the discussion on mendicant orders, scientific analysis, new hypotheses and attributions of art works, all within the remit of exchange occurring in the Mediterranean world.
The conference was divided into two sessions chaired respectively by Prof. Conrad Thake and Dr Mark Sagona.
Dr Anthi Andronikou from the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of St Andrews discussed how the King of Cyprus, Peter I Lusignan, is portrayed in a western European context. Dr Keith Buhagiar from the University of Malta presented his hypothesis for the identification of the location of the medieval harbour of Marsa Siklah in Scicli, Sicily. Dr Paola Vitolo from the University 'Federico II' of Naples presented her recent research on the tomb of Queen Mary of Aragon (d.1401) in Catania Cathedral that identified that part of this tomb is in fact older and thus reutilised.
Dr Martina Caruana from MCAST discussed illuminated choral manuscripts in Malta focusing on their Medieval roots, their use in the liturgy, as well as the technological developments of the choral book. Dr Donal Cooper from the University of Cambridge presented his paper dealing with the Franciscan church in Candia on Venetian Crete that does not survive as well as a Renaissance altarpiece now in Venice that was once in this church. Finally, Dr Charlene Vella presented an analysis of the diagnostic tests that have been carried out on Antonio de Saliba's Renaissance Triptych of the Madonna del Soccorso that forms part of the Mdina Cathedral Museum Collection.
The Triptych is currently being conserved and restored thanks to funds received the University of Malta and the Malta Airport Foundation and is the first painting on the Maltese islands that is being scanned in 3D, the results of which will be presented alongside the painting when it is inaugurated following its restoration.
Whilst the proceedings of the first and second editions of these conferences will be published in the coming months, the success of this second edition of the 'Dynamics' conference ensured that a third edition will be held in 2020.
Dr Charlene Vella added 'this rising interest in Mediterranean and Medieval art is also confirmed by the fact that other similar conferences are being organised in mainland Europe. In fact I have recently had the opportunity to address a conference at the University of Warwick entitled ‘Re-imagining the Mediterranean: Trans-cultural networks in the Early Modern World’. Additionally, this coming July, I will also be presenting another paper at the 6th Biennale conference titled ‘Movement and Mobility in the Medieval Mediterranean organised by the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona. At this conference I will be talking about the evidence that points to the presence of Antonello da Messina’s Saliba nephews in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, Venice’s most important Quattrocento artist.'
