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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. More images of the Tapestrys |
