Francesco Zahra was Malta's foremost native painter of the mid-18th century and his style wonderfully captured the spirit of the Late Baroque period.
Zahra was born in Senglea, the son of Pietro Paolo Zahra and Augustina Casanova, and was baptised at the Senglea Parish Church on 15 December 1710. His artistic education began at an early age within his own household. His father, who was one of the most sought-after stone carvers of the time, was his first mentor and employer. While refining his skills as "scalpellino" in his father's "casa bottega", the young Zahra soon discovered that painting was his life's passion. Gian Nicola Buhagiar (1698-1752), a very close friend of the Zahra family, and a renowned artist of religious paintings, became Francesco's art teacher. Zahra lived and worked in his home town of Senglea until his marriage to Teresa Fenech on 26th February 1743 when he then moved permanently to the Knights' City of Valletta. In the 1740s, his personal style began to mature and develop until he outgrew his tutor Buhagiar. By the mid-1750s, his figures and the atmosphere of his paintings had changed, showing influences from the art scene in Naples, including those of art masters Caravaggio and Mattia Preti.
Francesco Zahra produced a wide range of works including many religious paintings, devotional works of art for altarpieces and church domes, designs for church furniture, silver artefacts, marble floor designs and other objets d'art that still survive scattered in various local churches as well as in private collections and museums. Zahra's ceiling paintings in the Chapter Hall of the Mdina Cathedral, completed in 1756, are among his most notable creations.
Francesco died on 19 August 1773 at the age of 62. He was buried at the Church of St. Paul's Shipwreck, Valletta. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of his death, MaltaPost is issuing 3 stamps and a miniature sheet portraying four of his oil paintings. The 0.38 stamp shows a splendid painting of The Virgin Mary while the stamp denomination of 0.58 depicts the only known self-portrait by Zahra. With palette in his left-hand and brush in his gracefully poised right-hand, the painting shows Zahra in his mid-40s at the peak of his artistic career. The 3rd stamp, carrying a denomination of 2.88, shows St. John the Evangelist while the miniature sheet, with a denomination of 3, contains a 4th stamp, depicting the Martyrdom of St. George, a sizeable painting found at St. George's Basilica in Victoria, Gozo.
