The painted vault depicting the life of St John the Baptist by Mattia Preti, St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. The painter was commissioned to this work by Grand Master of the Order of St John Raphael Cotoner in 1661. It was completed during the reign of Grand Master Nicolás Cotoner, the brother of Raphael, in 1666. The Co-Cathedral’s vault decoration ordering and funding by the Order determined that the coat of arms of the Order and Grand Masters Cotoner were painted on each section of the ceiling (eight of them are visible in the photograph). Such an adornment of the church vault by the Grand Master armorial bearings is quite rare, only the few could be seen in Malta.