Giovanni Maltese was born in Forio on January 7, 1852 by Francesco and Rosa Castaldi, who live in the area of Monterone. Lost his mother since he was child and his father was passed to a second marriage, was entrusted to the care of his uncles farmers and lived his childhood in contact with the fertile land of Forio and the rural culture. Soon emerged in him the love for art, which was naturally suited. He liked to carve figurines of men and animals in the wood of the branches of his land with good results in a child of his age and this prompted then-Mayor Orazio Patalano to ask him for a scholarship that allowed him to move to Naples and enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he received education and arts education by the most famous masters of the time. Obtained his degree he moved to Rome, where he attended for two years the study of Giulio Monteverde, famous sculptor realistic. Just by the sculptor Monteverde, Piedmontese by birth and Roman by adoption, our Maltese was indicated as a sculptor for the decorative work of the castle of Chenonceaux, one of the castles of the Loire, which still can be visited with admiration for the elegance of style the perfection of the architecture, the symbiosis with the natural environment in which they are immersed. His stay in the Loire Valley lasted just over six months. Back in Forio devoted himself to sculpture commissioned and in this period (1881) produced "The lousy" beautiful sculpture in plaster. Between 1881 and 1883 the island of Ischia was hit by two earthquakes, the most devastating was that one of 1983, also known as "earthquake of Casamicciola" because it was the town that have the greatest number of injuries and deaths. Forio also suffered a lot of damage and wept many deaths. Among them relatives of Giovanni Maltese, who managed to save one from the rubble with the help of a boy then a decade later identified by biographers in the person of Louis Patalano, who later became a close friend, even if politically motivated them parted to the early '900s, as evidenced by some satirical dart launched by a Maltese Patalano in the collection "Cerrerme". Obtained in the lease by the City Tower, transformed it into a private residence and studio staff. Here was the highest number of his sculptures and paintings, which still reside there, having been left to the City its substantial heritage and having the City and ordered placed in the upper hall, called the Museum G. Maltese. Happy was the meeting with the artist Mrs. Fanny Lane Fayer, creating a life-giving experience of love, which ended with the wedding, celebrated in Naples on April 20, 1901. The elective affinity with the bride, the sweet character of Fanny, the late but profound experience of love to the sculptor gave renewed vigor and an unexpected serenity.
Fate was not generous. Only 12 years later, on August 21, 1913, G. Maltese died in Forio, suffering from heart disease.
