Pietro Paolo Troisi

Pietro Paolo Troisi (29 June 1686 – March or April 1743) was a Maltese Baroque silversmith, sculptor, medallist, designer, engraver and Master of the Mint. His works include bronze sculptures of his patron António Manoel de Vilhena, designs of various coins and medals, a wide range of mainly religious works in silver, engraved portraits, designs for temporary triumphal arches and designs for works in a number of churches, most notably the altar of repose at the Mdina cathedral.

Biography Pietro Paolo Troisi was the son of Carlo Antonio Troisi and Ninfa née Bison, and he was the second of eight or nine children. He is the second known Maltese artist to have been admitted into the academy, after Melchiorre Cafà.

Upon his return to Malta, Troisi made a name for himself as a successful artist in multiple genres. He was a silversmith, medallist, bronze sculptor, portraitist, designer and scenographer. He retained the post until his death.

Silverwork Troisi was a skilled silversmith, and he gained these skills through apprenticeship with his father. His brothers Massimiliano and Giovanni Andrea and their children also worked in this trade. In 1721, he was commissioned to produce a silver ceremonial mace, possibly for the jurats of the Università of Mdina.

He also designed a number of commemorative medals during Vilhena's magistracy, such as a silver medal commemorating the construction of Fort Manoel in 1724.

Other works Troisi also designed a number of reredoses at the Franciscan Conventual church in Rabat between 1710 and 1722, and collaborated with the sculptor Pietro Paolo Zahra and the Fabri brothers on a number of altar reconstructions in the same church along with the parish churches of Balzan and Żebbuġ.

Troisi also designed the reredos of the main altar of the Carmelite church in Mdina and that of the choir altar of the old church of St Mary in Birkirkara. He designed choir stalls in the churches of Lija and Żebbuġ. In the latter, he also designed the choir altar and a monstrance for a relic of the arm of St Philip.

Troisi designed the frame of a marble slab commemorating the consecration of the Parish Church of St George in Qormi in 1731. In 1735 he produced designs for wood carvings at the altar of St John the Evangelist in the Church of Our Lady of Victories, Valletta.