Mariano Gerada was a Maltese

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 sculptor.

He was trained in Valencia, Spain, and gained fame with his polychrome wooden statues, whose exquisite curves revealed a deep knowledge of Gothic devotional images. One can found various titular statues around Malta carved in wood by the artist, among others one could find the statue of Our Lady full of Grace venerated at Zabbar, The Assumption of Our Lady known as Santa Marija for the village of Ghaxaq which is considered as the most beautiful statue of its title in Malta and Saint Catherine of Alexandria for Zurrieq. One could also note that the statue of the Archangel Michael which is found in the parish Church of Cospicua

Cospicua

Ċittà Cottonera, Ċittà Cospicua, Cospicua is a double-fortified harbour city on the Mediterranean island of Malta. It is the largest of the Three Cities. It was also given a title as Citta' Cottonera, but erroneously the title is now used to define the whole region...

 is considered one of his masterpieces. An interesting fact is, that Saint Michael's draft statue model was made out of the remaining wood used to carve Saint Mary's statue of Ghaxaq and it can still be found in Ghaxaq's Parish Church Sacristy. Other non-religious statues are the Lion and Unicorn fountains found to the left and right of the entrance of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta

Valletta

Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...

and were made from local limestone.

Sources

• Artnet