
Favray probably set out to adhere to the unwritten rules of the standard commissioned work - that is to portray the Grand Master in all his worldly glory and surrounded by a plethora of symbols of grandeur: crown, shield, sword, drapery..you name it and it's all crammed in Favray's portrait.
But I tend to see this portrait more with the eyes of Goya when he set out to paint the Spanish royal family. Goya probably did not intend to caricature the family of Charles IV when he executed that particular painting but the unflattering depictions surely approach caricature...
Pinto died in 1773 and twenty five years later the Knights of St.John were unceremoniously bundled out of Malta by the cunning Napoleon Bonaparte.

I am in no way attempting a lookalike or trying to add all the paraphernalia in the original work. I tend to cut down on the fireworks and keep to the straight and narrow road. My aim is pure and innocent mockery....
The frivolity of Man has no limits and I reckon this great painting (unintentionally?) brings that out completely.

Finally the image is completed two months after starting out.
Altogether I used about nine colors out of the possible range of eleven colored inks I have, combining three or four colors for the curtains and carmine and black for the cape.
For the face I also combined colors: sepia, burnt sienna, yellow and a hint of vermilion.
I am now ready to start on something else...whatever and whenever that will be.
I hope it will be soon!