THE MIRACLE OF ST. PAUL IN MALTA

This fresco presents a miraculous episode during the life of St.Paul that occurred in Malta, after the wreck of the ship that was to have taken him to Rome. The scene is one of the four frescoes of the Lives of Sts. Peter and Paul that were on the wall structure encompassing the choir of the basilica. The choir had originally been at the center of the middle aisle. When the wall structure was demolished and the choir moved back within the apse in 1591, the frescoes were detached and moved to the opposite façade. This series of frescoes (1547-1548) was one of the first commissions given to Orazio Alfani in Perugia, on his return to his native city after a long period of absence. In these episodes regarding St. Paul, it is perhaps possible to identify the hand of his collaborator Leonardo Cungi, a painter from Sansepolcro. It was he who carried forward the lessons of Raphael, as reflected in the interpretations of Perin del Vaga and Raffaellino del Colle. Elongated figures of an affected elegance are immersed in a carefully described landscape, almost overcome by the crystalline atmosphere, accentuated in bright, vivid colors. These particular traits call to mind one of the principal works by Cungi in Perugia, the extraordinary Ascension of Christ painted for the oratory of the Confraternity of St. Francis in 1558.