Maria de Dominici

Suor Maria de Dominici (6 December 1645 – 18 March 1703) was a Maltese painter, sculptor, and Carmelite tertiary nun. Born into a family of artists based in the city of Birgu (Vittoriosa), she was the daughter of a goldsmith and appraiser for the Knights of Malta. Two of her brothers, Raimondo de Dominici and Francesco de Dominici, were painters.

Biography During her teens, de Dominici studied under the painter and sculptor Mattia Preti, who was painting and sculpting the interior of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta at the time. She is believed to have contributed, and is specifically recorded as assisting Preti on his best known work, a series of paintings depicting the life and martyrdom of St John the Baptist (1661–1666), which decorates the vaults of the co-Cathedral.

It was the inclusion of Delia Gaze's dictionary in the Mercury name bank that led to Dominici's name being applied to the crater lettered 'D' after the second fly-by of the NASA-MESSENGER. As Susanna Hoe remarks in her introduction to Malta: Women, History, Books and Places:

"Exciting or not as an explanation, the thought of a crater on Mercury named after a neglected Maltese woman artist is delightful, inspiring even, particularly when you come across Maria's crater on the internet, a lovely sight!".