Statuette of Frà Philippe de Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464-1534), Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Saint John
Maltese School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1820 - 1860
Materials
Papier-mâché, painted
Place of origin
Malta
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 565256
Summary
Sculpture, papier-mâché (cartapesta), painted; Statuette of Frà Philippe de Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464-1534), Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Saint John; Maltese; c. 1820-1860. One of a group of three papier-mâché figures depicting Grand Masters of the Order of the Knights of Saint John, at various key moments in the Order’s long history. Figures of this type were made in the nineteenth-century in Malta, largely for the tourist trade, but they were also exhibited at international exhibitions.
Full description
A statuette made of papier-mâché (kartapesta), depicting Philippe Villiers de l’Isle Adam (1464-1534), Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Saint John. He is depicted wearing the monastic robe of the Order, with an eight-pointed Cross, and a belt with a gold pouch at the waist; over the robe a fur-lined stole, with the Cross of the Order of Saint John on his left breast. At his neck is a ruff. The Grand Master is depicted as an elderly man, with a full snowy beard, his left hand by his side and his right hand stretched out. On a base with canted front edges and a hand-written inscription. The figure has suffered some damage: the head is currently detached, and probably originally had a soft black hat, now lost; the right hand is broken off at the wrist. One of a group of three papier-mâché figures of Grand Masters of the Order of Saint John at the Argory (NT 565255-565257), the others a now fragmentary figure of Frà Philibert de Naillac (fl. 1376, died 1421) and Frà Nicolas Cotoner (1608-1680). The sculpture is based on an eighteenth-century painting of Grand Master de l’Isle-Adam taking possession of Mdina, in the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta (Scicluna 1955, Pl. XI, no. 18). Philippe Villiers de l’Isle Adam became Grand Prior in 1520 and led the Knights in their heroic defence of their headquarters of the island of Rhodes, against a Turkish siege in 1522-23. On eventually being forced to surrender, and allowed safe passage out of Rhodes by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were without a home, until they were granted the island of Malta by Emperor Charles V in 1530. There is a long tradition on the islands of Malta of making religious sculpture using papier-mâché, a material made from pulped paper mixed with adhesive, known in Malta as ‘karta pesta’. In the nineteenth century, with the growth in the number of visitors to the islands, workshops began to produce small figures in this cheap and versatile material, essentially for sale to visitors and the increasing numbers of tourists. There is a group of six such figures in the Museum of the Order of Saint John in Clerkenwell, London (Invs. LDOSJ 3013/1-6). The most popular subjects were figures associated with the history and life of the Knights of the Order of Saint John. The ancient order of knights hospitaller, which was devoted to the care of the sick and to the defence of Christendom, had its headquarters on Malta between 1530 and 1798, when the islands were invaded by the French and the knights expelled. Since the early nineteenth century to the present day, the Knights of Malta, their history and the remarkable artistic and architectural legacies that they left behind them have been one of the main attractions for visitors to Malta. The three figures at the Argory all have hand-written descriptions on their bases that identify the Grand Master not by name, but by a given year cited in the inscription. The date 1400 for Frà Philibert de Naillac is not a significant one in the history of the Order, but at that time the Knights were much engaged in wars against the expansionist Turkish empire, hence the depiction of the Grand Master in rather fanciful armour. The date 1530 on the statuette of Grand Master de l’Isle-Adam is on the other hand of the greatest significance, since it was the year in which Emperor Charles V granted Malta and Tripoli to the Order. 1674 on the statuette of Nicolás Cotoner could refer to his founding of a school of Anatomy and Medecine and to his drawing up of the Order’s statutes, both events from that year. Very little is currently known about the workshops that made the papier-mâché figures. However, what must have been very similar figures made in wax were shown at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, according to the catalogue manufactured by the Canonico Polito in Vittoriosa (Great Exhibition 1851, II, p. 946, no. 34) . There were five figures representing ‘the Grand Master Valletta’, ‘the Grand Master Lonzadari’ (i.e. Marc’Antonio Zondadari, born 1658, Grand Master 1720-22), ‘A knight of the Order of Malta’, ‘The grand master in warlike costume’ and ‘The Saviour’. The wax statuettes seem to have made quite an impact with the pubic, as did more generally the products sent to the exhibition from Malta. The Standard newspaper (26 June 1851) commented on how the figures ‘awaken vivid recollections of the time when the renowned Knights of Malta upheld the faith of Christendom by their valour, their treasures and their best blood.’ In their reports, the Juries for the Great Exhibition also singled out the figures for praise, suggesting that if they ‘did not have the same claims to merit’ as the Indian sculptures exhibited near them in the Crystal Palace, they ‘have still a certain amount of excellence.’ (Great Exhibition. Reports of the Juries, London 1852, p. 649). The figures show at the Crystal Palace were apparently made by the seventeen-year old Gerolamo Darmanin (1834-1879), a member of the well-known firm of Maltese marble-workers and furniture makers (Muscat 2022). Girolamo Darmanin also made wax figures for the firm’s contribution to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855 (Ellul 1998, p. 59). Jeremy Warren December 2022
Provenance
By descent; Walter McGeough Bond (1908-86), by whom given to the National Trust in 1979.
Marks and inscriptions
On base, handwritten in ink:: IL GRAN MAESTRO DELL’ / ORDINE GEROSO OSPITA / Nel 1530 [‘The Grand Master of the Order of Hospitallers of Jerusalem in 1530’]
Makers and roles
Maltese School, sculptor
References
Scicluna, Hannibal Publius,. The church of St. John in Valletta 1955. Ellul 1998: Michael Ellul, History on marble : a corpus of inscriptions in the presidential palaces in Valletta, San Anton and Verdala, Malta 1998 Muscat 2021: Jessica Muscat, The Darmanin Artists, Decorative Marble Production for the British Empire, Malta 2021