The Cali' name came to Malta via Giuseppe's ancestery, his grandfather Andrea
Cali of French-Neopolitan Bourbon background was born and lived in Naples,
who married Rachele nee Francese, they had four sons born late18th century,
one of the sons, Raffaele married Giovanna Padiglione, they had seven
children, two daughters, Erminia, Antonietta and one son Federico were
born in Naples. Upon Raffaele's move to Malta they went on to have two more
daughters Carolina, Mariuccia and two sons Lorenzo and of course Giuseppe
Cali, born 1846-1930.
Raffaele's 1840 choice to move to Malta, came due to a relative's advise,
that and together with the political unrest in the Naples area, it was not
condusive to bring up children in that situation, especially the Cali' family
being sympathizers of the Bourbon kingdom of Naples and France and the two
Sicilies, which did not want to unify with the rest of Italy. Perhaps throu
gh some reseach,
Raffaele with his many talents, in music and art, stood a better chance for
a decent and safe living in Malta.
They settled in the sparsly built village of Msida, later on, they moved to
Valletta the hub of Malta's
diversified culture that was influenced by the many nations who took a
liking to the island, and by those illustrious multi nationals Knights of
Malta, and of course the British, since we were a protecterate of the
British Empire ( Malta was never a colony of that demised empire). With
Malta being close to mainland Italy, the Maltese also adopted a certain
amount of Italian culture.
( Interesting to know, Giuseppe's mother and his sister Antoinetta were both
professional opera singers in Naples.)
Giuseppe coming from a large family, his education was limited, however his
sketching talent since early childhood was to be his future. There were
various versions how he ended studying in Italy at the Accademia di Bella
Arti, under the directorship of neo-classic master Giuseppe Mancinelli
(1812-1901), Giuseppe Cali' while Italy was also strongly influenced by
Dominco Morelli a leading painter of that period. (the one version that is
most authoritative, came from my mother through my father Hector Cali, who
was very close to his father Giuseppe Cali' ). So it goes, Giuseppe in his
early teens, and in his neighbourhood, roamed and nasty street dog, that,
whenever it spotted a cat, it charged and chased it, resulting with the poor
cat's demise.
Giuseppe soon put an end to that slaughter. The buildings in Malta were
built with cream colour
lime stone, that stone when exposed to the sun gets sun beached white. With
a piece of charcoal, grandpa, realistically drew a black cat on a wall, once
that dog spotted that image, it took a run for that painted cat....smack,
that dog became history, likely its nose ended in its tail.
This fete de arte was witnessed by a wealthy gentleman, in short, this
gentleman approached Giuseppe's parents, and offered to become Giuseppe's
benefactor to send him to Rome to study art. The parents accepted the offer,
but only, if he was sent to Naples to be close to their relatives watchfull
eye over their teen age son.
Following his graduation from the academy, he wanted to move on to Rome, but
his parents persuaded him to return home.
His first paintings in Malta were for his benefactor, the rest is history,
amongst the many churches in Malta there are very few which don't have some
of his work. There are many private collections and many paintings in some
national buildings. Beside being an art painter, he was also a great
caricature, dubing in local political situations beefs. He married Perrinia
nee Pace, they were blessed with eleven children of which one is my father.
He was no starving artist in his time, spoke mostly Italian, was nick named
"The devil with the brush".
The government of Malta did honour Giuseppe Cali' with two issues of stamps,
a Christmas set, and a set of four on his Centenary.
His grandson Alan Cali' .
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