During the celebrations due to Malta's inclusion into the European Community there was an exhibition of the works of Caravaggio. It was dubbed "The Impossible Exhibition" because the actual paintings are scattered all over the world. However what was on display was digital, actual-size transparencies of 68 of Caravaggio’s great works of art, including the six-by-three-metre Beheading of St John the Baptist.

Beheading of St John the Baptist

For information on Caravaggio there is a very good web site:

The exhibition, housed in the Caraffa Stores on the Birgu Waterfront, was open between 1 May and 30 June and was one of the items on my "must see" list.

The Inspiration of St Matthew

My daughter I and reached the Caraffa Stores at lunch time and decided to eat first and look afterwards so we started at the wrong end. The cafe was right at the top of the building and we were each served with a very nice salad platter. We were surrounded by beautiful pictures as we ate our lunch because the cafe was situated in the last gallery. This was one of the pictures on view in the cafe.

Death of the Virgin

From there we worked our way down to the beginning of the exhibition.

I was not able to photograph any of the pictures although the original of the Beheading of St John the Baptist is housed in St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. I did take a photo of it as it was well lit but unfortunately the photo itself was not good enough to keep as I was not able to use my flash in the Cathedral.

However, I have borrowed from several sites on the internet to give some idea of what the pictures are like. Many are of religious subjects, some rather gruesome but there are also non-religious ones;

My particular favourites were two pictures, each called "The Lute Player" which I have reproduced here.

I'd be happy to hang them on my walls, whereas there were some which I'd never give house-room to.

Judith killing Holofernes

The backlighting gave depth and glow but even seeing the original Death of John the Baptist without any backlighting one can only marvel at the use of colour - dark browns and blacks with brilliant flashes of red, in particular, and yellow which lighten the scene.

I would have liked to stay longer: one of the problems of sightseeing with a companion is that each has a different level of tolerance and I didn't want to wear out my welcome with my daughter who had said that she didn't want to visit any art galleries.

I only had one full day after she left Malta and there were several places I wanted to visit before I left, such as Gallery of Fine Arts and the Armoury at the Presidential Palace. Had I had more time I would have returned to the Carravaggio Exhibition on my own and enjoyed the pictures without the constraints of having to accommodate to somebody else.