[3] At age 19, in 1865, thanks to the generosity of the merchant William Stephen Eynaud,[1] Calì moved to Naples to further his artistic formation at the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he studied under neoclassicist Giuseppe Mancinelli (1812-1875).

He made return to Valletta two years later, in 1867,[3] summoned by his terrified parents who were told that their son planned to join Garibaldi in his latest attempt to overthrow the Papal States.

[1] His first major work, The Death of Dragut from 1867, is still deemed a masterpiece; it was purchased by the government and placed on permanent display in the armory of the Grandmaster's Palace, Valletta - then later at the Museum of Fine Arts, today's MUŻA.

His performance was enormous; during his lifetime he made more than 600 different compositions[6] (according to some sources - about 2,000[5]) consisting of an impressive variety of paintings, drawings, bozzetti, portraits and decorations of church vaults, as well as a number of sculptures and lithography.

[5][6] Calì has worked on many private home decoration assignments, including a series of four putti entitled The Four Seasons in the entrance hall of Villa Alhambra in Sliema, property of the architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia.

This should include the portraits of Cardinal Lavigerie (1884), Cardinal Logue (1886), as well as Governor Richard More O'Ferrall, Marquis Emanuele Scicluna, Giovanni Battista Schembri, Achille Camilleri, Edward V. Ferro, Sir Victor Houlton,[5] Judge Sir Adrian Dingli, Rector of University Napoleone Tagliaferro, Pope Pius IX, Judge Paolo Debono, Count and Countess of Messina, and Lord and Lady Strickland.