When Giuseppe Cali was not really Giuseppe Cali

When Pierre Bugeja and his team at Prevarti were tasked with the conservation of some paintings on the ceiling of the Parish Church of the Transfiguration at Lija, they set about their work in earnest. What they never imagined was that the painting they were working on, which was always considered to be by Giuseppe Calì, had been restored in the 1930s and 70s and part of it had been changed. The restorer how he got carried away, copied part of the original and stuck on his own interpretation.

Pierre Bugeja is the perfect depiction of a man who works in art. He looks the part of the artist in turmoil, with his flowing locks and deep-set eyes. But speak to him and you realise he is soft-spoken, gracious and a mint of information about the meticulous work of the art conservator.

Bugeja is serious and obsessive about minutiae – and he needs to be because the art of conservation is all about detailed work which needs long hours of work and historical knowledge, such as the fact that Calì, the renowned artist who painted many ceilings of churches, never really painted in the fresco style. Rather, he painted in oil on stone, the same method used by Mattia Preti on the vault of St John’s Co-Cathedral.

When Prevarti quoted for the conservation works they obviously had no clue what they were faced with. From a simple conservation job, the task became a tough one involving checking, counter-checking and making sure that what they were claiming and seeing was right.

To further complicate matters, the restorer who changed part of the original was related to Giuseppe Calì and an artist himself. So the copy he made was good; in fact it was good enough to make the rest of the art world in Malta and everybody who saw his work believe the original still adorned the ceiling.

Bugeja and his team had no documentation to go on, so it was all a rather baffling and intriguing mystery. At first they started work on the painting that was visible to the naked eye; it soon transpired that this was a canvas and not Calì’s usual painting on stone. Pierre consulted his team and they decided to do more tests before taking off the copy to reveal the original.

Obviously even the copy that covered part of the original was kept in its entirety and it was removed piece by piece with special care. That is being conserved and regenerated as a copy that stood in shining prominence for a good 80 years, and will be hanging in the church museum as a piece of art by Rafel Bonnici Calì. This copy will be called just that, with a note to illuminate all viewers about its origins and its convoluted history.

The art of conservation is all about going into the problems that befall art. These can be botched conservation, water seepage, mould, salt deposits, worms and other natural and unnatural problems.

While in the past there was more intervention by restorers, today the emphasis is on conservation. Any changes on any piece of art or artefact have to be obvious and almost fully reversible.

All conservation and all problems caused by the passage of time need to be looked into and treated but proper conservation must not take the form of a new artist or an artist working in the place of the original one. What happened in previous ‘restorations’, especially as in the case of the Calì painting, is now considered wrong; but we cannot condemn it outright.

It was the practice then but today the art world and conservation have moved on and improved with more scientifically-based studies and research. And everything is highly documented thus making it easier for future work and conservation.

In the past, artists, if they had a bent for art research and conservation, were commissioned on their own artistic merits and so many artists did conservation work without knowing much about the science behind it. Today the study and science behind art conservation goes much deeper and is constantly improving.

Bugeja thinks that by looking after and making sure no more damage is done to the art in churches, museums, homes and other buildings, we are preserving it for future generations.

dsc_1525“Art is our history, part of our legacy, our essence,” Bugeja says. “If we don’t look after art – in all its different forms – we lose our culture and an essential part of our history. Once lost, art will never come back in its true form – as our idiom changes, as we move on, we modernise and find new ways of expression. But we need to protect our past legacy for us and for future generations to appreciate and live art fully.”

“But is enough happening?” I ask Bugeja.

“It’s never enough,” he replies. “Our country is very rich in art and all things worth preserving but obviously our resources are limited. I feel more should be done to avoid the cheapest quotes being accepted. I know this is not easy but if amateurs offer their services for less than market prices or cheaper than the professionals, the harm on the art done in the name of conservation will or could be irreparable.

“At Prevarti we always go the extra mile to further our knowledge base: we organise training, go abroad, use the latest materials and, when quoting, we make sure we will be able to use the best advice, experts and testing. This is hardly cheap. However, regeneration of art, conservation of our heritage, deserves the best, not the cheapest, available.”

dsc_1575Sleuthing was not part of what Bugeja studied but he and his team must do a lot of it to do their work. And thanks to that work, in Lija, the true work by Giuseppe Calì, lovingly restored, will soon be in splendid view for all to enjoy. In this case the regeneration was not just because the art was conserved but also because the real art was re-discovered and revealed.

All photos: Sean Mallia