In thanksgiving for their victory over the Turks in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, Grand Master Jean de Valette and the Order of St John decreed that the first building of Valletta should be a church – Our Lady of Victory church. De Valette personally funded the construction of the church, which was completed in 1567 and dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin. It is believed that the titular Mannerist painting on wood depicting the birth of the Blessed Virgin is the original painting which stood above the altar of the 1567 church. Iconography The paining depicts St Anne, the mother of the Virgin, seated in bed. She is being offered food by a servant. St Joachim, Mary’s father, prays, while observing the midwives tending to the infant’s needs. When consulted about the painting’s iconography, art historian Martina Caruana notes that “the panel follows the typical domestic interior post-partum nativity scene that was used especially in Late Medieval through Renaissance times, largely until the Reformation, to represent the birth of Mary. Interestingly, such iconography is also adopted for other nativity representations such as that of the equally miraculous birth of St John...
