St Francis Xavier, Mattia Preti

The painting representing St Francis Xavier by Mattia Preti, situated in the chapel of Aragon, is currently undergoing restoration. Amongst the main problems from which the painting suffers are surface cracks caused by lack of cohesion in the preparatory paint layers. The painting is being restored by Giuseppe Mantella Restauri and sponsored by Din l’Art Helwa, through the initiative of The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation.

The St Francis has been identified as the first painting by Preti to have reached Malta while the artist was still in Naples in 1658. Also in the same chapel is the painting by Mattia Preti of St Firminus which together with the St Francis Xavier, was commissioned as a tribute to the recent institution of the two saints as co-patrons of Navarre, the birthplace of the Grand Master at the time Martin de Redin.