The Madonna della Flotta: A Lepanto Ex-Voto Tabella
For centuries, Mediterranean seafarers shared, irrespective of faith, a common belief in God and His dominion over the sea, the weather and the outcome of journeys and naval engagement. This was also the case with Catholic seafarers. In their case, the Virgin Mary was commonly invoked under various titles, as well as other saints, to intercede with God the Father for positive outcomes of every sort at sea. The visual image had a significant impression on the Christian faithful after the end of the Council of Trent. When lives at sea were believed to be spared thanks to the result of their faith, ex-voto panels, known as tabelle, were made or commissioned not only to give thanks, but to be put on display for others to take note of. The tabelle were therefore one way that someone could strengthen belief and values in their community through their story and a visual attestation of the power of faith. Hundreds of maritime ex-voto tabelle can still be found in principally Marian sanctuaries around Malta and Gozo, not least Tal-Grazzja, Tal-Grotta in Mellieħa, Tal-Ħerba in Birkirkara and Tal-Ħniena in Qrendi. Unfortunately, a considerable number were destroyed over the years, even as late as the 1980s. Among the hundreds surviving on Malta, a particularly noteworthy one is the Lepanto ex-voto panel conserved at the Malta Maritime Museum.
Composed of several vertical wooden planks conjoined by horizontal members, it is the work of Antonello Riccio from Messina. Known as the Madonna della Flotta, the panel depicts at the uppermost tier the Virgin Mary sitting on nimbus clouds. She is blessing with her right hand and holding the infant Child Jesus with her left. Jesus is depicted sitting on His mother’s lap, gesturing with His right hand whilst holding in His lefthand an Orb, the globus cruciger, a symbol of Christ’s dominion over Earth. On the second tier, kneeling on either side of the Virgin and Child are Saint John the Baptist and Saint Lucia. The two saints are depicted with their attributes interceding for the Christian fleet, which is depicted in the third tier just before it engages with the enemy in the 1571 battle of Lepanto. Saint John is depicted blessing the Christian fleet with his staff, while Saint Lucia is shown with her bleeding neck wound, the dagger that caused her final martyrdom appearing instead in her hand, pointing damningly at the Ottoman fleet. The order of battle of either side does not reflect the real size of both fleets, but the panel does not fail to depict the three Maltese galleys that took part in the engagement: the Santa Maria della Vittoria, the flagship or Capitana of the squadron of the Order of Saint John, clearly identified by its standard and large lantern; the San Giovanni, the padrona of the squadron, and the San Pietro, curiously, the lowest of the three in seniority, yet the only one captioned. An angel, brandishing the sword of justice, hovers above the Christian fleet, right behind the Spanish flagship La Real, with its banner of the crucifix and from which Don Juan of Austria, the half-brother of the King of Spain, commanded the entire fleet. The Ottoman fleet is, in contrast, supported by no less than seven demons. At the bottom of the painting, an armoured Hospitaller knight kneels in thankful prayer. His closed helmet lying close by suggests that the knight is clad in armour from head to toe, although this was rarely seen in the late 16th century. The red tabard surmounted by the white cross. Considered to be the largest — and one of the oldest — of the Malta ex-voto tabelle, it is also the most historically important of all since it depicts a major naval engagement that left an impact on the course of history that most certainly bore much significance to Christian Europe from the latter quarter of the 16th century onwards.
The donor’s coat of arms is at the bottom right-hand corner. It has not yet been definitively identified. The caption San Petro suggests it is that of the Gascon Fra Pierre de Roquelaure Saint-Aubin, that galley’s captain. Others suggest that it belongs to Fra Martino de Sarria, a Navarrese knight. In 1585, Sarria constructed a church in modern-day Floriana, within which this tabella was probably originally installed as the titular painting. The magistral coat of arms at the centre bottom of the panel is that of Grandmaster Hugues Loubenx de Verdalle (r. 1582-1595). A more precise dating of anywhere between 1585 and 1587 is, however, possible, thanks to the absence of the cardinal’s hat with tassels from the coat of arms, which would be adopted by Verdalle in 1587 after he was made a cardinal. The church was rebuilt in 1678, following which the panel, superseded by various works by Mattia Preti, was moved to its sacristy.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571. The Holy League, a Roman Catholic coalition composed of the Papal States, Venice, Genoa, Tuscany, Savoy, Malta and Spain, defeated the Ottoman fleet decisively under Ali Pasha despite being at a numerical disadvantage in a naval battle lasting over six hours near Lepanto, off the coast of Western Greece. The battle commenced with each side presenting three vanguards abreast and a reserve formation. The three Maltese galleys occupied the right flank of the central formation, led by Don Juan of Austria himself. From the outset, the Christian fleet gained a slight advantage, but at a crucial moment, a portion of the Genoese southern vanguard led by Giovanni Andrea Doria that went south, screening the opposing vanguard led by Uluç Ali, became hopelessly detached from the central vanguard, leaving the Hospitaller galleys exposed. Uluç Ali’s ships turned into the exposed gap, four galleys enveloping and overrunning the Fiorenza, whose men, knights of the Order of Saint Stephen, were almost killed to a man. To their rescue came the Santa Maria della Vittoria, overflowing with zealous knight caravanists and professional soldiers, overrunning two of the galleys, but when they boarded a third, Uluç Ali, with seven galleys, appeared. A Christian renegade who had captured three galleys of the Order the previous year, Uluç Ali was eager to mete out equal punishment on this occasion. Around forty knights fought to the death on the Capitana, a handful retreating to the balustrade, either barricading themselves below deck to tend to their wounds or fighting tooth and nail to protect the Order’s standard. Among these was Fra Martino de Ferrera, who lost his arm. According to Bartolomeo dal Pozzo, several period accounts insisted that Uluç Ali failed to take the huge standard to Constantinople with the remainder of his ships, and he probably presented to the sultan only one of the pennants hoisted from the balustrade during ceremonies.
The death of Ali Pasha, the commander of the Ottoman fleet, as well as the timely intervention of the reserve led by the Marquis of Santa Cruz, brought the battle to a decisive end. On the Capitana, six knights were found seriously wounded when the other Hospitaller galleys came frenzied to their rescue: among these, Fra Pietro Giustiniani, the General of the Galleys, and the captain Fra Rinaldo Naro were found below deck, tended to by a loyal slave who had blocked the entrance with waterproof cassocks. From beneath the corpses of practically the entire ciurma and gente di capo, Fra Martino de Sarria was also taken away to be tended to. The Ottoman force suffered a loss of some 210 galleys sunk, burnt or taken as a prize from the 278 originally brought to bear. With them, some 15,000 men were lost, almost an entire generation of skilled mariners that the Sublime Porte could not easily hope to replace, while 3,500 others were enslaved. Seventy-five hundred soldiers, sailors and rowers on the Christian side were dead, but an equal number of Christian slaves were freed. Lepanto was to be the last major naval battle fought exclusively with rowing vessels. The Christian victory denied the Ottoman Empire ever again looking at the Mediterranean as its uncontested lake. In Malta, the event was scarcely celebrated. Indeed, the ex-voto is the only known local depiction of the battle. This was a pyrrhic for The Order. Nevertheless, Pope Pius V attributed the victory to the Virgin Mary’s intercession and the recitation of the rosary. Our Lady of the Rosary is commemorated annually on the 7th of October. The identity of the donor remains mysterious, but some theories are considerably more grounded. If the extant caption pointing to the galley San Pietro is excused, the donor may well be Fra Martino de Sarria himself. While the coat of arms is no longer complete enough to be easily identified, it does bear some resemblance to a quarter of the coat of arms of the Galician town of Sarria — two rampant beasts flanking a central tower. And if the presence of the panel within Sarria’s church, as well as the likely identification of the coat of arms, is insufficient, a further hint might be Saint Lucia herself, a patron saint of Syracuse. The inclusion of Saint Lucia may well be a dedication by Fra Martino de Sarria, who is otherwise not easily linked to the saint, to his captain on that fateful day, Fra Rinaldo Naro. A Syracusan knight, Naro, became Grand Prior of Messina in 1586, perfectly within the 1585-1587 dating of the panel. The attribution of the panel to Antonello Riccio, a Messinese, might even suggest that Naro was somehow involved in the commissioning of the painting, with the inclusion of Saint Lucia as a show of gratitude by Sarria to the former captain of the Capitana or as a personal request of the latter.