Some Familiar Faces Grace Book Published By Ms. Maltese, Middle Village Artist

Senator Serph Maltese was the model for this portrait of Christopher Columbus.

An Artists Journey of Discovery

Written by

Constance Del Vecchio Maltese,

Griffon House Publications

131 Pages, illustrated

by john toscano

Starting out with a unique and interesting concept which one close friend describes as creating a "happy combination of contemporary faces and Renaissance personalities," Constance Del Vecchio Maltese has published an attractive 131-page book of portraits in which several well-known public figures in Queens are used as models for Christopher Columbus-era explorers.

Entitled An Artist’s Journey Of Discovery, the book consists of the author’s earlier "Age Of Discovery" portrait series in which Ms. Maltese, a long-time Middle Village resident, used as models living individuals whose countenances captured the spirit of those portrayed.

Councilmember Thomas Ognibene was the inspiration for Vasco De Gama and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Golia sat for Giovanni Da Verrazzano.

Among the public figures involved were state Senator Serphin Maltese, the author/artist’s husband; City Council Minority Leader Thomas Ognibene, and Queens state Supreme Court Justice Joseph G. Golia.

Maltese "subconsciously" became the model for Ms. Maltese’s first portrait in the series, that of Christopher Columbus at the age of 29—"The Young Visionary."

Ms. Maltese had sketched out a draft of the Columbus work around 1987 and afterward, she recalls," I was going through some old pictures for a political brochure my husband was putting together for his upcoming campaign and came across an old photograph of Serph.

"I was astonished when I looked at his face and realized that subconsciously I had drawn him. My young visionary was Serph."

Ognibene, she writes, had come to their home for a visit when she was researching the life of Vasco Da Gama, the man who had asserted Columbus was going the wrong way in his quest for the new world.

Of Ognibene, she writes: "I stared at him—his nose, his beard, his eyes. I asked him to take off his glasses, and voila! Before me stood Vasco Da Gama."

All that remained was to change "Tom’s smiling face to one of arrogance," the trait that defined Da Gama.

At another point, Ms. Maltese writes: "It was in the spring of 1989 that I found the perfect model" for Giovanni Da Verrazzano, who had landed on the eastern shore of New York in 1524 and after whom the bridge connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island is named.

"I had seen the face of Verrazzano in Supreme Court Justice Joseph Golia and pursued him in order to ask him to set aside some time for a sitting."

Golia of Douglaston Manor of course agreed and the artist superimposed a beard and mustache on the judge’s cleanshaven face to show accurately Verrazzano’s heavily bearded face, which she had seen in portraits of the explorer.

Ms. Maltese had had a successful career in the fields of graphic design and illustration when she decided after their two daughters had grown up to pursue her first love, a career in portraiture.

At about the same time, her friend Dr. Anne Paolucci informed her that she had founded "Columbus countdown: 1992," an organization dedicated to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in America.

"Believing in destiny as I do, I consider it no accident that Anne’s challenge to me—to create a portrait of Columbus for the Quincentenary—and my first step in the journey of discovery came to pass simultaneously," writes Ms. Maltese.

The first print of the "Young Visionary" portrait was presented to then-First Lady of New York State Matilda Cuomo at the Columbus Countdown Dinner in 1989. It also earned Ms. Maltese a Special Recognition in The Arts and Humanities award from that organization.

Mrs. Paolucci, a highly respected figure in the field of education and Chancellor of CUNY (the City University of New York) writes in her introduction to "An Artist’s Journey of Discovery" (Griffon House Publications) that Ms. Maltese’s use of real people as models resulted in "a happy combination of contemporary faces and Renaissance personalities.

"It was that novel approach that struck me about the ‘Navigators’ series," Paolucci writes. "I knew Connie had done something extraordinary in juxtaposing the past and the present in the faces she portrayed, creating a new kind of contemporary portraiture."