ROCCO BUHAGIAR

Maltese competent and prolific late Baroque painter of religious subjects and designer born in Bormla 4 June 1723 died in Bormla 10 July 1805. He was the second son of six children of Orazio Buhagiar and Giuseppa née De Barro. He is said to have been a pupil of Enrico Arnaud and Agostino Masucci. In 1752 he was living on his own at Valletta in the parish of St Dominic.

He travelled to Rome where he is said to have studied under the painter Giacomo Zaboli and returned to Malta in 1763. Between 1777 and 1790 he directed the redecoration of the church of St James in Valletta. In 1790 Rocco was living in the Parish of St Paul, Quartiere Primo, Valletta. Earlier on, when aged 40 in 1726 he resided at the Quartiere della Stampa del Pane at Valletta.

Besides painting Rocco Buhagiar designed church furnishings and accessories. He lived long enough to experience the turmoil of the French occupation of Malta. He was the mentor of Giuseppe Grech before Antoine Favray.

In his old age he became too frail to work and by 1804 had sought refuge in the convent of the Discalced Carmelite Friars of Bormla where he died. In May of that year, in response to a petition, Civil Commissioner Sir Alexander John Ball (1756-1809) granted him a monthly pension of twenty scudi. On 1 March 1827 Count Saverio Marchesi purchased from Sig. Galdies twenty-one engravings which had formerly belonged to Rocco Buhagiar.

From An Encyclopedia of Artists with a Malta Connection