Valletta No. 2 / Belt Valletta / La Valette

Buhagiar (2005) writes: "In 1474 Naru Saguna, acting on behalf of the Cathedral [of Valletta] acquired in Palermo for the sum of2.27 uncie, a marble holy water stoup […] On its arrival to the Cathedral, the stoup was mounted on a stand to which it was secured by an iron ring […] The stoup in white marble […] survives in good state of preservation in the parish church of the village of Gharb, on Gozo, where it arrived in 1728 as a gift from the Malta Cathedral Chapter, to serve as a baptismal font for the new parish church […] It is a work of notable merit that has technical and stylistical affinities with the Palermo workshop of Domenico Gagini (1425/30 - 92) to whom it can reasonably be attributed. The marble is highly poilished and the decoration made up of a foliated garland and elegant reeding has a classicizing sobriety that is essentially Early Renaissance. The focal point is a low relief medallion of a majestic St. Paul." The font has a short round stem nicely moulded; the rest of the base, a block of quadrangula marble, appears modern. The museum entry [https://www.visitgozo.com/where-to-go-in-gozo/museums/ecclesia-mater-parish-museum-permanent-exhibition-sacred-art/] [accessed 2 October 2022] describes it as "a baptismal font brought from Mdina Cathedral". An article by Antonia Micallef in the February 21, 2016 edition of TVM NEWS [https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/l-akbar-gabra-tgozos-largest-find-of-coins-goes-back-to-arab-eraa-muniti-li-nstabet-fghawdex-li-tmur-lura-ghal-zmien-l-gharab/] [accessed 2 October 2022] notes: "Prized as one of the most important artefacts in this museum is a baptismal font made by the Italian artist Antonello Gagini who learnt his trade from another Italian grand artist Filippo Brudelleschi the architect of the ceiling in the majestic cathedral in Florence." This is probably the same object described in Noel Grima's article of 15 February 2016 [https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2016-02-15/newspaper-lifestyleculture/Old-Mdina-cathedral-survives-in-many-places-6736153353] [accessed 2 October 2022]: "There is a marble holy water spout also used as a baptismal font which can be found in the Gharb parish church in Gozo. It was made by Cagini in 1474 and was also used as a baptismal font in the Carmelite church in Mdina when this was being used as a pro-cathedral during the construction works."