This year’s SEPAC (Small European Postal Administration Cooperations) stamps feature paintings by Edward Caruana Dingli, a major local 20th century artist (1876-1950), housed at the new Valletta-based National Community Art Museum MUŻA.
This particular artwork features two items of interest: the għonnella (traditional – but now practically extinct – female overdress) and an example of a street-corner devotional statue.
The latter, at the extremity of Triq San Ġorġ in Victoria, Gozo, shows San Ġorġ tal-Ħaġar which depicts the “Protector of Gozo” St George. This stone statue was later taken to another location and replaced. It was restored, at its new position on the garden wall in front of the Dominican Sisters Convent (still in Victoria), in a joint venture between Wirt Għawdex and the Gozo Ministry.
This is not the first time that the local postal authorities have depicted our patron saint. The titular painting was included in a set for the 2003 centenary and the processional statue was chosen to represent the typical festa in 2015. Our basilica itself was used by Professor Richard England in 1975 to show a town around its parish church.
The 1975, 2003 and 2015 stamps prominently featuring St George.