The National Portrait Gallery of Malta

This book is a collection put together over a period of some ten years. The chosen pictures have been assembled from a large number of varying sources. As an art-book this work brings together an interesting set of uncomfortable bedfellows: from the magnificence of the masters to an important glimpse at mediocrity; from the sophistication of intellectualism to a revel in the reality of the naïve. The subject matter – the actual identity of the sitters – must collectively be put in second place if one is to really appreciate the merits of this anthology. Here, side-by-side we take a look at taste, aspiration, pretention, skill, achievement, success and failure, all important for us to assess, learn, criticise and appreciate. Here, before us, we see the endeavours of those portrait painters and sculptors who have depicted the postures, the visages and features of so many who over the years have been concerned with the amazing and extraordinary development of these islands at all levels of society.