Publications, Talks and Conferences
Academic publications
‘‘Identifying one of Antonio de Saliba’s “lost” Taormina altarpieces’, Studi Storici Siciliani: Trimestrale di Storia della Sicilia Moderna e Contemporanea, December 2023, III, 4, pp. 8–15.
With Abigail Pace, ‘Isabelle Borg: an Artist who happened to be a Woman’, ed. Yosanne Vella, 2024, Malta University Press, pp. 143–151.
An analytical investigation into two of Antonello da Messina’s nephews’ workshop practices: insights into Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio’s paintings on Malta’, Alla Maniera: Technical Art History and the Meaning of Style in 15th to 17th century painting: papers presented at the Twenty-Second Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting, Peeters Publishers, 2024, pp. 97–109.
With Andrea Luca Bartolo, ‘An art-historical and scientific investigation into two Early Cinquecento Renaissance Polyptychs by Antonio de Saliba (1466/7 – c. 1535) on Sicily and Malta’, Proceedings of the 2023 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Rome, Italy, 2023, pp. 172-176.
With Michaele Zammit, Keith Buhagiar, Sebastiano D’Amico, Luca Piroddi, Emanuele Colica, Luciano Galone, ‘Fading devotion: the case of the Late Medieval cave-church of San Niklaw (ca. 1398 - 1436) in Mellieħa, Malta’, Proceedings of the 2023 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Rome, Italy, 2023.
With Jamie Farrugia, ‘A Sicilian Renaissance Mary Magdalene pedestal in Rabat, Malta: a recent discovery’, Papireto, Vol 1, 2022, pp. 142–152.
‘New insights into the painted crucifix attributed to Antonio de Saliba in the V&A Museum, London’, The Antiquaries Journal, 101, 2021, pp. 269-300. doi:10.1017/S000358152000030X.
‘Revisiting Antonello Gagini’s 1504 Madonna and Child’, Treasures of Malta, Summer 2021, No. 81, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, pp. 12–21.
‘Out of obscurity: long-lost Renaissance paintings from an Antonio de Saliba masterpiece’, Melita Historica, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, 2020, pp. 220–245.
‘Marriage alliances for the sake of art: the case of Renaissance Messina, Sicily, and the repercussions for the Maltese islands’, Storja 2018–2019 (Journal of the Malta University Historical Society, 2019), pp. 1–24.
‘Paintings in the Sanctuary of the Virgin, Mellieħa: a selection’, in J. Sammut (ed.), Mellieha through the Tides of time, Mellieha Local Council, 2019, pp. 69–89.
‘An Antonello School Madonna and Child at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris: new considerations’, in John Azzopardi (ed.), Tribute to Alain Blondy, Malta: Fondation de Malte, 2018, pp. 399–433.
‘Unrecognised paintings by Antonio de Saliba on Malta’, Melita Historica, Vol. XVII, No. 2, Malta: Malta Historical Society, 2017, pp. 115–48.
‘Three recently restored Renaissance paintings by Antonio De Saliba in Malta’, in C. Vella (ed.), At Home in Art: Essays in Honour of Mario Buhagiar, Valletta: Midsea Books, 2016, pp. 47–65.
‘A Late Medieval and an Early Modern Window in the Reserve Collection of the National Museum of Archaeology’, in C. Vella (ed.), Proceedings of History Week 2009, Valletta: Midsea Books, 2012.
‘Sculpture in Malta in the Early Post-Muslim Period’, in J. Grima (ed.), 60th Anniversary of the Malta Historical Society: A Commemoration, Malta: Malta Historical Society, 2010, pp. 455–66.
‘New Light on Petronilla, the oldest bell in Malta’, Melita Historica, Vol. XV, No. 1, Malta: Malta Historical Society, 2008, pp. 49–54.
Past Research
In the footsteps of Antonello Da Messina: the Antonelliani in Sicily and Venice in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. PhD, Department of History of Art, University of Warwick, 2015.
The Mediterranean Context of the Art and Architecture of Medieval Malta, 1091-1530, MA, Department of History of Art, University of Malta, 2010.
The Sanctuary of the Virgin of Mellieħa and the Knights of St John, BA, Department of History of Art, University of Malta, 2006.
TALKS AND CONFERENCES
2024
With Andrea Luca Bartolo, ‘Antonio de Saliba’s 1515 Altarpiece for the Franciscan Observatns in Rabat, Malta: an analytical and scientific investigation’, Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting: titled Cross-Media Perspectives. Technical Studies of Art on Panel, Paper and Parchment (1400-1600), was held between 11 and 13 January 2024 at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and the KBR Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels.
2023
With Andrea Luca Bartolo, ‘An art-historical and scientific investigation into two Early Cinquecento Renaissance Polyptychs by Antonio de Saliba (1466/7 – c. 1535) on Sicily and Malta’, 2023 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Rome, Italy, 19-21 October 2023, Università Roma Tre, Rome.
With Michaele Zammit, Sebastiano D’Amico, Keith Buhagiar, Luca Piroddi, Emanuele Colica, Luciano Galone, ‘Fading devotion: the case of the Late Medieval cave-church of San Niklaw (ca. 1398 - 1436) in Mellieħa, Malta’, 2023 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Rome, Italy, 19-21 October 2023, Università Roma Tre, Rome.
‘Antonello da Messina's Artistic Legacy with a special focus on Antonio and Pietro de Saliba’, Oratory of the Immaculate Conception, Jesuits’ Church, Valletta, 21 April 2023.
‘L’eredità di Antonello da Messina: Venezia, Messina e Malta’, Sala Capuzzo, Chiesa S. Maria Odigitria dei Siciliani, Via dei Tritoni, Rome, 15 April 2023.
Antonello’s nephews in Bellini’s bottega’, in the panel ‘Art in Renaissance Venice I: Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Art’ chaired by Patricia Fortini Brown and organised by Lorenzo Buonanno and Daniel Wallace Maze, 9-11 March 2023, presented at the Renaissance Society of America RSA2023 in San Juan Puerto Rico.
With Abigail Pace, ‘Isabelle Borg: An artist who happened to be a woman’, presented at ‘Her Story: Discovering Women's History in Malta’, convened by Yosanne Vella, 14 January 2023, held at Fort St Angelo, Birgu, Malta.
2022
‘Antonello da Messina's Artistic Legacy with a special focus on Antonio and Pietro de Saliba’, Casino Maltese, Valletta, Malta, 30 September 2022.
Whereabouts, Exhibition Catalogue Essay for ‘Whereabouts” exhibition, Debbie Bonello and Andrew Borg, July 2022.
With Jamie Farrugia, ’Searching for Gold: a diagnostic investigation and digital reconstruction of Antonello Gagini's Sicilian 1504 Madonna and Child for Malta’, 9 and 10 June 2022, presented at a symposium on ‘Gold in Renaissance Western Europe’ was organised in Paris held at the C2RMF (the National Centre for Research and Restoration in French Museums) in the Palais du Louvre and University Paris Nanterre. It was organised as part of the AORUM project (Analyse de l’OR et des ses Usages comme Matériau pictural / Analysis of Gold and its Uses as a Painting Material in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries), directed by Romain Thomas (HAR, University Paris Nanterre), Christine Andraud (CRC/CNRS/MNHN), Anne-Solenn Le Hô (C2RMF) and Dan Vodislav (ETIS, CYU Cergy Paris Université). AORUM.
‘An analytical investigation into two of Antonello da Messina’s nephews’ workshop practices with insights on Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio’, 28-30 March 2022, presented at the Bruges Symposium XXII for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting on the theme of ‘Alla Maniera’: Technical art history and the meaning of style in 15th to 17th century painting'.
2021
‘The Art Historian and Conservation: A future for a prospective generation’, Department of Art and Art History and HOASA, 1 April 2021, online conference (chair).
‘Women in Art & Film’, Department of Art and Art History and HOASA Women’s day event, 10 March 2021, online conference (chair).
Speech delivered at Patrick Dalli’s exhibition ‘The Journey’ inauguration on 3 December 2021, held at the Gran Salon of the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta, produced by Valletta Cultural Agency
2020
‘Reframing and presenting Antonello da Messina’s nephew’s Renaissance altarpieces’, presented at ‘Reconstruction: Methods and Practices in Research, Exhibitions and Conservation’, 24–25 February 2020, inaugural conference of the Centre for Visual Culture University of Cambridge.
2019
‘From Messina to Venice: Antonello da Messina’s nephews in Bellini’s bottega’, presented at “Movement and Mobility in the Medieval Mediterranean (6th – 15th centuries)”, 8-11 July 2019, organised by the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean (SMM) 6th Biennal Conference in Barcelona, Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC).
‘Cross-cultural exchanges in the Renaissance in Eastern Sicily: the case of Antonello da Messina and his followers’, Rotary Club, Malta meeting held at the Corinthia St George Hotel, 17 June 2019.
‘Cross-cultural exchanges in the Renaissance in Eastern Sicily: the case of Antonello da Messina and his followers’ presented at the “Re-imagining the Mediterranean: Transcultural Networks in the Early Modern World, 17 May 2019, held at the University of Warwick, UK.
Convener and speaker in “Dynamics of Mediterranean Artistic Interaction in the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods: the second edition”, 10 April 2019 , Valletta Campus, University of Malta, with a paper titled ‘New perspectives on Antonio de Saliba’s Madonna del Soccorso Triptych’.
‘A focus on females in art: film screening and discussion on recent research’ in collaboration with HOASA and Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWA), 6 March 2019, University of Malta Msida campus (chair).
2018
‘The native art of the Maltese islands in the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods’ presented at “The Art of the Poor in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance” conference, 14 and 15 June 2018, The Warburg Institute, London.
Andrew Borg 64 at Camilleri Paris Mode, Rabat, May 2018
Convener and speaker in “Dynamics of Mediterranean Artistic Interaction in the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods”, 9 March 2018, Valletta Campus, University of Malta, with a paper titled ‘The Madonna del Soccorso triptych at the Mdina Cathedral Museum: attribution and new considerations’.
‘Malta in 1530 and the Hospitaller legacy’, University of Cyprus, Nicosia (Archaeological Research Unit), 29 January 2018.
2017
‘Marriage alliances for the sake of art: the case of Renaissance Messina, Sicily’, HUMS Autumn Symposium: Women, University of Malta, 27 October 2017.
2016
‘Antonello da Messina's nephews in Bellini's bottega and beyond’, Malta Historical Society, Auberge d'Aragon, Valletta, Malta, 29 September 2016.
2014
‘The Antonello School and Franciscan Networks of Patronage’, Department of History of Art, University of Warwick, 3 May 2014.
‘Mdina and Rabat before the Knights: the Cradle of Malta’s Renaissance’, Din l-Art Helwa, Valletta, Malta, 11 December 2014.
2012
‘The Renaissance in the South’, “New Directions in the Renaissance” conference, 1 and 2 November 2012, University of Edinburgh.