Stefano Erardi Apostle paintings now gracing the Inquisitor’s Palace walls

Fifteen seventeenth-century paintings by renowned Maltese artist Stefano Erardi, featuring the apostles, have been transferred back to Heritage Malta and the majority installed as part of the permanent display at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu. The paintings were treated by Heritage Malta’s conservation team.

Their reunion journey goes back to 2018, when a group of Heritage Malta curators noticed that a number of matching apostle paintings were scattered in museums and government properties – two were at San Anton Palace in Attard, another was at the Inquisitors’ Palace, another at the Grand Master’s Palace and the rest adorned Ministry and public buildings. Through the cooperation of various entities, the paintings were transferred back to Heritage Malta, whereby its conservators with the assistance of its diagnostic scientific laboratories, embarked on an extensive restoration and conservation project throughout 2024.

This ‘Apostolato’ series consist of a number of easel paintings produced by Stefano Erardi and his workshop around the 1670s and 1680s, depicting realistic half-length figures of apostle saints. These sets were sought after for both religious environments and private settings. The fifteen paintings forming part of the national collection originate from at least two different sets, evidenced by the duplicated saints and differing typologies in the background. Despite having a more stylised appearance, Erardi’s apostles give homage to his contemporary Mattia Preti’s tenebrist work.

The artworks underwent study and lengthy treatments, which were primarily aimed at preserving them. Losses of paint and gilt were filled and retouched, and non-original varnish and paint were removed to uncover the original ones. The deformation of the canvases was reduced, and the paintings were re-stretched. These interventions also confirmed the artefacts’ authenticity.

Despite the absence of backing archival documentation, the fifteen paintings are confidently attributed to Stefano Erardi and his workshop on stylistic and technical grounds.  The facial profiles throughout the sets of apostles have been featured in the numerous religious paintings by Stefano Erardi found across the islands.

Apostolato painted sets are typical of ecclesiastical interiors and collectors, in fact paintings representing apostles do feature in a number of Palace inventories from the inquisitors’ time. In this way, the paintings compliment the historic house approach which is currently being studied in the Inquisitorial archives and increasingly being proposed at the Inquisitor’s Palace – where they can now be appreciated together, after so many years.