Celebrating 200 years of Schranz / edited by Giovanni Bonello

"Two hundred years ago the forebears of the Schranz dynasty of artists settled in Malta, and they left an indelible imprint on the aesthetic history of the islands. A lot was known about them, but a lot more had to be discovered. This book is the springboard for new research, and, by the end of it, their profile results far less two-dimensional. The nineteenth-century art scene in Malta did not favour prodigious individualists, outstanding geniuses who revolutionize the history of creativity. It gave rise to a different phenomenon: valid artistic talent filtered through dynasties and generations - the Brocktorffs, the Bellantis and the Schranzes, among others. So far, too many grey areas, unsolved problems, conflicts of attributions among generations of the Schranzes, had bedevilled art critics and historians, more than other composite families of Malta-centred artists. The Schranzes were probably the first consistent exponents of paesaggismo in Malta, those who introduced the non-Italian Baroque notion that immersion in pure nature can be as aesthetic and virtuous an experience as the portrayl of the achievements of the genius of man or of anything in which man takes centre stage. They claim to be among the earliest exponents of aesthetic Romanticism."--Provided by the publisher.