Continuing my review of various paintings related to the Nativity, I share with you a recently discovered painting by Maltese artist Willie Apap, kept in a private collection and recently exhibited at the museum ‘Il-Ħaġar’ in Rabat, Gozo, Malta. It is very evocative of maternity as the Blessed Mother is seen surrounded by several angels behind her and holding baby Jesus on her lap. Its title is ‘The Incarnation’ and was done in 1966, oil on canvas. Born in 1918 in Malta, Willie Apap studied at the Malta Government School of Art and at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. He painted prolifically mostly spending his working years in Rome, producing a large collection of oil paintings, some of which with a religious theme. He also produced some scenic works as well as pen-and-ink paintings. He exhibited frequently both in Rome as well as Malta, earning him a place as one of Malta’s leading exponents of twentieth-century art, although his early death in February 1970, cut short the best that was probably still to come.
This painting was described thus by Maria Cassar, my sister-in-law who curated the exhibition: “Previously known only from a black and white photograph taken in a Milan gallery, ‘The ‘Incarnation’ can now be admired as one of Apap’s masterpieces. Columns of light fall on the Virgin and the Child with a double-entendre around the Son of God who is shown in the womb of his Mother while also incarnate, as she presents him to the world while a choir of angels watches in awe.” The Mother and Child theme also features in a number of outstanding works from the artist’s late mature period, from oils to ink.
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