THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
437 
arms, crests, and other heraldic and symbolical 
insignia of upwards of 400 knights of the order. 
It was for this superbly decorated church, on 
which the gold of his predecessors had been so 
profusely lavished, that the Grand Master Perellos 
destined his gift, the Gioja or Bijou which he was 
bound by the statutes to present on his election, 
which the antecedents of the sanctuary, and his 
own reputation for wealth and generosity alike, 
made it necessary should be a splendid one. Over 
the main entrance, at the west end of the church, 
he placed his own portrait, copied from a picture 
by Preti, in which he is represented as accompa- 
nied by St. Michael (or as others say a figure of 
Victory in armour) and by an angel distributing 
alms to the poor representing Charity. On either 
hand, and across the arches which give entrance to 
the chapels, are hung seven large tableaux from 
designs which, with two exceptions, bear unmi- 
stakeable marks of the genius of the great painter 
Rubens. These fifteen pieces are each surrounded 
by borders woven in imitation of carved and 
gilded wood work, with the shield of arms of the 
donor, three pears, quartered by the cross of the 
order, and to give additional height, an entablature 
with medallions and garlands of fruit executed in 
imitation of a sculptured balustrade is superim- 
posed. The subjects of these tapestries from w 7 est 
to east are as follows, The Annunciation, The Four 
Evangelists, with their respective symbols, The 
Nativity, The Adoration of the Magi, The Entry 
into Jerusalem, The last Supper, The Crucifixion, 
The Resurrection, The Institution of the Feast of 
Corpus Christi, The Triumph of the Catholic Church, 
The Triumph of Faith, Time unveiling Truth, and 
the Destruction of Idolatry. These possess in a high 
degree the characteristics of the vigorous outline 
and powerful colouring of the great painter of 
Holland, indeed the Calvary is a Copy of his well 
knowm Antwerp picture, and the originals of se- 
veral others are in the Louvre and at Madrid, w 7 hile 
the Corpus Domini (interesting as containing a 
portrait of Pope Urban IV.)has a great resemblance 
to Raphael’s picture at the Vatican known as La 
Disputa del Sagramento. Two of the designs 
however are clearly not from the pencil of Rubens, 
and are supposed to be from the easel of Nicholas 
Poussin, these are the Entry into Jerusalem and 
the Last Supper, the second of which with its 
true classical arrangement of the figures upon the 
triclinium is one of the most beautiful of the series, 
and one of the best representations of the solemn 
event wdiicb it pourtrays. 
The narrow pieces in grisaille, which represent 
our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and twelve apostles 
arranged in the order in which they are mentioned 
in the canon of the Mass, are hung between the 
subject pictures, covering the faces of the six pillars 
between the chapels, and completing the ensemble. 
It has been remarked that these figures are some 
of them inelegant and out of. drawdng, but allow- 
ance must be made for the fact that they are in- 
tended to be viewed from beneath, and appear 
foreshortened. Below 7 each of these also is an 
elegant trophy of arms and banners surrounding 
the escutcheon of the Bali Perellos, and the enta- 
blature which surmounts the large tapestries is 
continued throughout. 
Unfortunately the magnificent coupd’oeil which 
the church presents when adorned with these 
priceless works of art is only visible to the En- 
glishman detained by duty, or w ho chances to be 
a passer by the island of Malta, in the blazing 
month of June: during the rest of the year the 
tapestries are kept in the seclusion of some vault 
or corridor, and only by chance, wdien repairs are 
needed to some particular tableau, has the most 
favoured visitor a chance of seeing them. About 
ten years ago the condition to which they had 
been reduced by nigh two centuries of neglect 
imperatively demanded repair, and it was a que- 
stion whether that repair was being properly 
executed which brought M: Parcel out to Malta, 
and procured us the advantage of his scientific and 
intelligent criticisms. But although the Govern- 
ment wisely expended a sum of almost £ 3000 on 
their restoration, and a native olfieial recommended 
their future safekeeping in such a position that 
they would be accessible to the general public, wirli 
out exposing them to danger of any injury to their 
colours or texture or any limitation of their use as 
church ornaments, they are still allowed to be 
secluded as an appanage to an ecclesiastical cor- 
poration, whose guardianship in the past has not 
been such as to inspire much hope that it will be 
more favourable to the lovers of art than that of 
some other dignitaries nearer home has been known 
to be in similar circumstances. 
