Il-Ħaġar museum in Pjazza San Ġorġ, Victoria, will be welcoming visitors again from April 26. To satisfy the visitors’ requests, it has been decided to ex
Due to the new COVID-related directives issued by the health authorities, Il-Ħaġar museum of Victoria is currently closed but one can still admire its Lenten displays online.
These include hundreds of miniature clay statuettes representing a Good Friday procession. The statuettes were made by Joseph Agius, Paul Muscat and the late Lino Fardell, long-established Christmas crib artisans.
The idea of creating this artistic Good Friday procession was, in fact, developed within the circle of presepisti and pasturi artisans.
There are figurines of various styles, representing both the strictly traditional devotional procession and the modern pageantry type.
The displays can be viewed on the museum’s Facebok page at www.facebook.com/heartofgozo.
A traditional crib, Yuletide philatelic cards and stamps and pasturi (crib figurines) made locally are among the attractions currently on display at Il-Ħaġar museum in Victoria.
The title of the pasturi display is ‘The Privileged Outcasts’, refering to the shepherds who were considered as inferior members of society. However, they were the first privileged to be given the news of the birth of Jesus.
Works by pasturi artists Lino Fardell, of Żejtun, and Carmelo Agius, of Pietà, both deceased, are being exhibited.
There are also creations in clay and papier-mâché by Agius’s son Joe and the late Manuel Axiak, of Tarxien. Figurines, modelled in Maltese raw clay in the 19th century, are also on show.