(Taverna 1613 – 1699 La Valetta) Christ on the Mount of Olives, oil on canvas, 166.5 x 116 cm, unframed

Certificate: Prof. John Spike, 12 September 2008: as an “important and entirely autograph work by this master.” Mattia Preti, called the Cavalier Calabrese, was one of the most prominent protagonists of Italian 17th-century painting. Following an initial Caravaggesque period in Rome, he went to Venice in order to study the art of Titian and Veronese. Sojourns in Rome and Naples followed. In Naples he dominated painting until he moved to Malta, where he spent almost forty years of his life and created important works for churches and the palaces of the Cavalieri di San Giovanni. The present painting shows Christ when two angels appeared to him on the Mount of Olives – one with a chalice to comfort him in is agony and another with the Cross. The figure of Christ is set off against the mystical golden background, and his face is illuminated in refined nuances of chiaroscuro. The painting identifies Marria Preti as the last major exponent among the Caravaggisti, at the acme of his career. Literature: John Spike is going to include the present composition as a hitherto unknown, rediscovered work and only known version of the subject in his forthcoming supplement to his catalogue on Mattia Preti’s autograph paintings.