The Malta Historical Society, as part of its Public Lecture Series 2014-2015 has organised a public lecture by Georgina Pavia on ‘The Cult of the Via Crucis,’ with particular reference to the Artistic Representations of this Religious Ritual in Maltese Parishes.
This lecture, which will be delivered in English, aims to create a new interest in representations of the Via Crucis. While the various cycles of Via Crucis may not excite viewers in the same manner as titular altarpieces, the cult of the Via Crucis is manifested worldwide and in Malta the tradition of practising the Via Crucis during Lent is still active in most parishes.
The cult of the Via Crucis has been in existence for centuries as a form of pilgrimage, during which the faithful ‘relive’ Christ’s footsteps towards His Crucifixion. Perhaps the representations are sometimes taken for granted but they are there to look at and help the faithful imagine each scene of every station which Christ went through on His journey towards Golgotha/Calvary.
In fact, the Via Crucis representations were originally created to help the faithful feel the sorrow and pain as a sacrifice and to experience the same suffering as Jesus Christ when He sacrificed Himself for mankind.
The lecture will commence with a brief sketch of the background to the cult of the Passion. This will lead to the eighteenth century when the actual Via Crucis practised today was established. The history of the Via Crucis in Malta mirrors what was happening in other artistic circles. The nineteenth century developed a Nazarene idiom, while other trends of execution followed in the late nineteenth and during the twentieth century.
Georgina Pavia has had an interest in art and art history for a number of years and has just completed her B.A. (Hons.) in History of Art. The title of her dissertation was The Artistic Development of the Via Crucis in Maltese Parishes.
She is currently reading for her M.A. within the History of Art Department at the University of Malta, researching the nineteenth-British artist Charles Allingham.
The lecture is taking place next Wednesday, the 16th of April, at the Church of St Catherine of Italy, Valletta, starting at 6.00pm.