Those making their way to the Ta’ Pinu National Shrine in Gharb, will, on the last stretch of their journey, discover a new set of five frescoes, which, Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary said, have been designed to help pilgrims prepare themselves for their meeting with God at Ta’ Pinu.
The frescoes, by Italian artist Sergio Favotto, will at night, illuminate the way along the road leading to the Sanctuary.
The artist, Sergio Favotto spent his childhood in a poor and numerous family, produced his first paintings of a sacred nature in 1964, and in 1965 after returning to his home town he set up his first exhibition at the “Saletta G. Casellato” in Treviso.
Five years later he got married and obtained a degree in Modern Artistic Literature. From the end of the Sixties onwards the first important commissions began to arrive and his explosive activity became copious and international.
In the following years, while exhibiting pieces of his own and taking part in other exhibitions in Italy, he produced monumental works such as frescoes of a sacred nature for churches or private collections.
In 2004, he performed four fresco paintings for the lunettes under the cupola of Annigoni, in the basilica of Montecassino. Several of his frescoes adorn the monastery of St John the Evangelist at Lecce and a painting of the Crucifixion hangs over the altar of Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s private chapel.
Favotto has produced a number of publications for Fratelli Fabbri Editori apart from the splendid volume on St Benedict, his life and miracles, with 52 sketches.
The artist’s activity has been greatly influenced, in the sacred sense, by his deep study of the Rinascimento. He captures the ancient technique of the fresco and encausto paintings. Besides his painting activities, he is also a much sought-after lecturer.
Photographs: Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary