Your MUŻA: Celebrating Giuseppe Calì

This is a touring exhibition spotlighting local artistic genius Giuseppe Calì – the second in the series ‘Your MUŻA’, an outreach and accessibility initiative bringing works from the national art collection closer to the public by temporarily loaning them to different localities with which they bear a connection.

The exhibition runs until the 4^th of June 2025 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Porto Salvo and St Dominic in Valletta. It will then be set up at the Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady in Mosta from the 12^th till the 25^th of June, and visit Lija and Sliema later in the year.

Born in Valletta in 1846 to Neapolitan parents who fled the political turmoil that flared up in Naples a few years before, Calì is one of our country’s greatest artists of all time. True to his family’s artistic streak, Giuseppe became enamoured with painting early on, and in 1865 he set out to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples.

Back in Malta, he quickly rose to fame – first as a theatre scenographer, following in his father Raffaele’s footsteps, and later taking on wider commissions including notable portraits and painting various churches around Malta and Gozo.

At the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady in Mosta, also known as the Rotunda, Calì was commissioned to create various works – including paintings of the Madonna of the Rosary, the Holy Trinity, the prophets and the angels, and the Eight Stages of the Life of Jesus Christ.

Within this context, two new exhibits will enrich the display. The first is an artistic sketch of the painting ‘The Death of St Augustine’, one of the lateral pieces in the chapel of our Lady of Consolation, which forms part of the Basilica’s collection. The second addition comprises negatives of old photos showing a damaged Calì painting on the church’s dome, after it was hit during an Axis attack in the Second World War.

A detailed catalogue accompanies the exhibition, of which physical copies are available on site and a digital version may be accessed here.

The exhibition is open from Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm, on Saturday from 9.30am to 4.30pm, and on Sunday from 12pm to 5pm. Admission is completely free.