The Tapestries and Vestments

Perellos's offering was exceptional. He ordered a set of twenty-nine tapestries for St.John's from Judocos de Vos in Brussels. There are large horizontal Rubens scenes from the life of Christ including the Adoration of the Magi; the Last Supper; the Crusifixion and the Resurrection; also impressive allegorical scenes to be identified as 'Time Exploring and Unveiling Truth ', 'The Destruction of Idolatry' and 'The Triumph of Faith'; there are depictions of St Peter; St. Paul: the two James's; St. Thomas the Apostle and others on each side of the of the nave. The regal portrait of the Grand Master set imposingly under the Cotoner lunette is flanked by St Simon the Apostle and the four Evangelists to the right and St. Thaddeus the Apostle and the Annunciation to the left.

How sad and thought - provoking that Mattia Preti should have died not long before the arrival of the tapestries. Hannibal Scicluna, in his history of St.John's, tells us that Preti did indeed make frequent visits to the Netherlands while Perellos was a Bali. It seems that some plan may have been afoot which perellos was able to bring to fruition when he
became Grand Master: One wonders, did he influence the Grand Master in his choice of subject matter? Had he made the original suggestions to introduce tapestry? Did he paint the grand Master in those almost two years he survived into the new reign? These are all questions to which we do not know the answer. Perellos's grandiose tomb emphasizes Justice and Bounty. Together with his magnificent tapestries bearing his coat of arms, and his large woven portrait under the great lunette, he challenges the dominance of the Cotoner presence in the Conventual Church.