Michele Busuttil

Biography

The first post with which his name is linked in the history of Maltese education dates from 1800. Francesco Saverio Caruana, rector of the University of Malta, appointed Busuttil the first professore del disegno and put him in charge of the new Drawing School, with a yearly wage of 200 scudi.

He was born on 14 June 1762 in Żejtun, under the Knights Hospitaller. His father was Clemente Busuttil, his mother Rosa Magro. Another birth year, 1750, is also found, but there is no confirmation of it. He began in Valletta under Rocco Buhagiar (c. 1725–1805). In 1780, at eighteen, he went to Rome with Giuseppe Grech (1755–1787) and continued his studies at the Accademia di San Luca; his tutor there was the sculptor Tommaso Rigi. In the drawing competitions of 1782 and 1783 Busuttil won second prize, both times right after Grech. After returning to Malta he married Maria Antonia Buhagiar of Rabat, Gozo; they had five children. By one account the marriage took place in 1794. Next to his father’s house in Strada Irlandese in Valletta, close to the Lower Barrakka, he set up a private art school. Massimo Gauci and Giorgio Pullicino studied there; Pullicino later assisted him at the university as a professor.

Busuttil’s style remained close to the Baroque, although the influence of Neapolitan Neoclassicism is evident in it. His works are scattered among parish churches: on Malta in Lija, Tarxien, Birgu, Żabbar and Żejtun, on Gozo in Fontana, Għajnsielem, Għarb, Rabat and Żebbuġ. In the Cathedral of the Assumption in Victoria (Rabat, Gozo) are “The Assumption of the Virgin” (1791), “Nativity of Mary” and “Immaculate Conception” (both 1793).

He spent long periods on Gozo, where he owned property. He died in Valletta on 31 October 1831 and was buried in the family grave in the Collegiate Parish Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck.