Mattia Preti was one of the most successful painters of the seventeenth century, so much so that many still consider him the greatest Calabrian artist of all time.
The works of Mattia Preti are countless, the fruit of over sixty years of career. The Calabrian Knight, as he was known, is one of the last great heirs of Caravaggism: although he never met Caravaggio (who died in 1610, three years before Preti was born), he studied his works closely and absorbed his masterful use of light. In his canvases you’ll immediately notice details brought out by sudden flashes of light, which animate the scene and highlight gestures and expressions.
In his use of light Mattia Preti is a true master, especially in his dramatic, chiaroscuro works.
He lived in Rome, Naples and Malta and travelled a great deal, drawing inspiration from many different artists.
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The life of Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti was born in 1613 in Taverna, in Calabria, into an “honourable” family. Once well-off, by the time Mattia was born it was rich only in moral virtues: we should therefore imagine some financial hardship in his early years, which nonetheless did not stop him from studying and leaving early for Rome, in the footsteps of his brother Gregorio, also a painter and about ten years older.
Arriving in Rome around 1630, Preti moved in the circle of the Accademia di San Luca, studied the paintings of Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti and began to make his name. He frescoed the tribune of Sant’Andrea della Valle and worked in various parts of Italy.
But he did not stay in central Italy forever. Preti travelled widely, moving through northern Italy (in Modena he worked for Duke Francesco I d’Este), Venice and other cities. After about twenty years in Rome, in 1653 he moved to Naples, where he received important commissions: during the terrible plague of 1656 he painted the votive frescoes on the city gates, as an ex-voto for the end of the epidemic.
In 1661 he settled in Malta, where he became in effect the official painter of the Order of the Knights of St John (he had been made a knight the year before). From then on the island became his home.
Even at a very advanced age, he painted until his final days. He died in Valletta on 3 January 1699.
The works of Mattia Preti
The life of Mattia Preti recalls in some ways that of Caravaggio: both worked in Rome, Naples and Malta, and both were knights of the Order of St John.
But his art did not look only to Caravaggio: he studied and drew on the Emilian painters (Domenichino, Lanfranco, Guercino) and on the Venetian colourism of Veronese. His first master, though, remained his brother Gregorio: together they produced many works, in which Mattia’s hand always stands out for its originality and dynamism.
The Neapolitan period (1653-1660) is among the most interesting: here Caravaggio’s influence is especially evident, in the bodies and expressions of his figures.
But the most significant moment of his career is tied to Malta. His most important commission was the decoration of the vault of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (1661-1666): not a fresco, but an extraordinary painting in oil directly on the stone, with the stories of St John the Baptist divided into six great bays. It is considered one of the masterpieces of European Baroque.
A little-known detail: in that very cathedral, in the oratory, is also the Beheading of St John the Baptist by Caravaggio, the only work Merisi ever signed. Preti and Caravaggio, the two great knight-painters, thus “meet” under the same roof.
Where to see Mattia Preti’s works
Preti’s works are scattered between Italy and Malta:
- in Valletta, St John’s Co-Cathedral holds his most famous work, the vault with the stories of the Baptist, as well as Caravaggio’s Beheading;
- in Naples you’ll find his canvases in churches and in the Capodimonte Museum;
- in Rome the frescoes of the tribune of Sant’Andrea della Valle survive;
- in Taverna, his home town in Calabria, the Civic Museum gathers many of his works.
If you are planning a trip to Malta, a guided tour of Valletta with entry to St John’s Co-Cathedral is the best way to admire Preti’s vault and Caravaggio’s Beheading in person, and to understand their story.
And you, did you know that the greatest Calabrian painter of all time rests in Malta, beneath the very vault he had painted himself?
