Giorgio Pullicino

Giorgio Pullicino (8 July 1779 – 25 October 1851)[1] was a Maltese painter, architect, and professor of drawing and architecture at the University of Malta.

He had an inclination to drawing from a young age, and attended a design school run by Michele Busuttil before being sent to Rome in 1794 to study at the Accademia di San Luca.

Pullicino studied the works of Raphael and Titian, and met a number of the leading artists of the time, including Antonio Canova.

[2] He became familiar with neoclassicism in both art and architecture, including the works of the French architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux.

[2] He sold many of the landscape paintings in order to supplement his salary at the university, some of them to foreigners including British military personnel stationed in Malta.

The Monument to Sir Alexander Ball, built in the Lower Barrakka Gardens in 1810, was "with almost absolute certainty" designed by Pullicino, but the original plans have not been found.

[1] The Doric portico of Main Guard in Valletta, which was built in 1814, is also often attributed to Pullicino,[1] although it might have alternatively been designed by Colonel George Whitmore of the Royal Engineers.

[2] Other structures which might have been designed by Pullicino include a fountain and exedra at Lower Saint Elmo,[5] Villa Frere in Pietà,[2] and the rear entrance of the Old University in Valletta.