he self-sacrificing heroism of the siege is epitomized in the figure of the young Italian Knight Paolo Avagardo, who was cruelly slaughtered at the door of the chapel in Fort St. Elmo in an attempt to protect the Holy
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 Sacrament. The lugubrious face of Jean-Baptiste Lascaris de Castellar who abolished Carnival on the grounds that it led the chaste knights to lascivious behavior is well-known.
A young lady caught flirting with a young knight has been awarded the grace and femininity not often portrayed among the male dominated society of the Knights. And most important of all, the figure all men turned to for leadership and the ensuing victory of the Knights and the
  Maltese over the infidel during the great siege is the stalwart Jean Parisot de la Valette.
The figures of Mattia Preti and Nicolas Cotoner y de Oleza in deep discussion about the ceiling in St. John's Cathedral is so life-like you expect paint to drop off the artist's brushes. There are 120 life-size figures in all at the Knights of Malta in Mdina. Each life-size figure has been carefully created, wherever possible, to be as faithful a likeness of the historical personalities as existing portraits of these men allow.
  Where no faithful portraits exist, a study of their character and actions have helped the artists who worked on the project create faces that project the individual personality. The result is a group of figures with distinct facial features and expressions, complemented by individually made wigs and costumes.