PETAR DE CEGA AND THE RENOVATION OF TROGIR CATHEDRAL IN THE EARLY 14TH CENTURY

Kroz analizu novootkrivene rozete trogirske prvostolnice, s natpisom operarija Petra Dujmovog Cege, autor donosi nove spoznaje o pregradnji trogirske katedrale početkom XIV. stoljeća u gotičku građevinu. Rozeta je s pročelja crkve u XV. stoljeću ugrađena u njezin začeljni zid nakon mletačkog bombardiranja grada.An epigraph carved in Gothic letters on the rim of a rosette discovered during research into the nave of Trogir Cathedral conducted by the present author was written in hexameters that were not at first legible. It was covered by the rim of a subsequently expanded oculus in the wall surface. Reading of the epigraph was also impeded by the mortar that had partly been smeared over the letters while it was being incorporated. After it was taken down and cleaned, the following couplet was revealed: HOC TIBI DE CEGA PETRVS QVONDAM DOIMI OPVS CONTVLIT VNVS SCTE PATER PATRIAE LAVRENTII SVSCIPE MVNVS Who was Petar Cega who made St Lawrence the gift of a rosette? The Cegas came to Trogir from Split and became one of the most important clans in Trogir. Petar Dujmov Cega was the member of a powerful noble family that was mentioned in Trogir from the 13th century, Petar Cega, son of Dujam (1271-1308), cited on the rosette, was probably the commune’s procurator during the building. He is mentioned in the cathedral documents at the end of the 13th century, when he was elected among the forty members of the council, and also again at the very beginning of the 14th century in an agreement of 1305. At that time the papal envoy Gentile de Montefiori brought in the office of master of the fabric of the cathedral, subsequently occupied by distinguished men of Trogir, which allows us to date the making of the Gothic rosette with greater precision to the end of the 13th or the very beginning of the 14th century. In the Romanesque epigraphy of Trogir Cathedral of the first half of the 13th century, the influences of contemporary liturgical codices can already be seen. The title of Sancte Pater Patrie with which the composer of this text addressed St Lawrence is not only the ancient root of a phrase that led towards the title of the heirs of Augustus but also pertained to a much closer invocational formula from the antiphon of the Franciscans devoted to their heavenly patron St Francis. The antiphon Salve Sancte Pater is composed of three rhyming hexameters: Salve, Sancte Pater, patriae lux, forma Minorum. Virtutis speculum, recti via, regula morum: Carnis ab exilio duc nos ad regna polorum. It was composed not long after the death of St Francis, between 1231 and 1235, and for a long time was exclusively the major antiphon in the celebration of vespers during the octave of the feast of St Francis, which was celebrated in Trogir on October 4. The composer of the record of the donation, in which the name of the master of the fabric Petar de Cega is mentioned, was extremely well taught, and probably was close to the Franciscan order. In Trogir from the 13th century the Franciscans had a monastery very soon after Francis was canonised in 1228. Their prosperity in the city was supported by the governing family of Bribir. Bishops Columban and Liberius of Ancona were members of the order, although the hexameter in honour of St Lawrence that paraphrased the antiphon was not composed by the Trogir bishop, who was at odds with the commune and the chapter. It was probably written by the primicerius Lampridius Vitturi or by Peter Dujmov Cega, perhaps with the help of some Franciscan, either a religious of the Trogir monastery, or a cleric in some high office like the papal legate Gentile, who belonged to the Friars Minor. Following the example of the cathedral in Split, the Trogir bell tower was almost certainly built in the axis of the church, in the tradition of Dalmatian Romanesque architecture. As through the Split bell tower or arch of triumph, it gave access through the external and internal portal to the interior of the cathedral, past the sculptural work of Master Radovan, guided by the same soteriological message that we can find in the ground floor of the bell tower in Split. Although there is no direct proof for the hypothesis, the fact is that the rearranged and more finished portal of Radovan had two programmes from his time. One was related to Christ and the Christian year and the other was connected to the sin of the first mother and father and the beginning of the time that created the history of mankind, started after the expulsion from paradise, which can mean, as in the ground floor of the Split campanile, two separate portals. It is not irrelevant to mention that during geosounding investigations in front of the Radovan Portal, massive foundations of some building were found; the soil had been consolidated with a large quantity of lime and stone, in the whole area in front of the portal. At the time of the research works, it was thought that some historical repairs to the foundation of the facade of the cathedral were involved, for a large crack is visible on it. But probably at issue are the foundations of the old Romanesque bell tower. The bell tower was pulled down for the sake of extending the porch, which in the spirit of Angevin Gothic had to have two towers and a gallery between them. The new architectural concept of the Gothic cathedral brought with it a new formal treatment, in which it is possible to recognise the influences of the great workshops from the other side of the Adriatic. The portals of Master Radovan have been recomposed into a single whole, which is supplemented with new sculptures so as to complete the depiction of the scenes from Christ’s life. What pulls the whole operation together is the iconological concept inspired by the gospels, suffused with a new visual expression brought together under the Gothic pointed tegurium over the portal and the polychrome effect that was created by the incorporation of black elements of the architecture of the portal, the black and white graphic treatment imparting rhythm to the appearance of the sculptural collage. The black and white effects of architectural furnishing were discovered in the interior of the cathedral as well, like the facade on which black columns are incorporated between the reliefs of the portal and the rosette over the gallery fitted in between the planned Gothic towers; black and white stripes are to be seen on the cleaned vault of the pulpit and on the ciborium of the high altar. For the understanding of the operation in Trogir, the rosette built in on the facade after the demolition of the bell tower is of great importance. In the 15th century it was replaced with a large rose and was moved to the rear wall over the apse, where it is located today. The epigraph defines more closely the time it was made, and thus indirectly the time of the modification of the architectural programme of the cathedral, by the demolition of a Romanesque tower for the sake of building two new Gothic towers The time of the Gothic rebuilding according to this is the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. This is an important historical moment in Croatia, marked by the extinction of the Arpad dynasty and the ascent of the Angevin Charles Robert to the throne of Hungary-Croatia. The new king, for whom nobles from the house of Šubić went to Naples, confirmed to the Bribir family the heritable title of ban and the privileges that they had had earlier, and they continued to have a key role in the communes of Dalmatia in the 14th century. Almost the whole of the 13th and 14th century, there were members of the family at the head of the city government. The Šubićes were indirectly the patrons of the operation by which the cathedral in Trogir was remodelled, from a Romanesque to a Gothic building, in line with the new tastes that came from the western centres of Europe

TWO CHURCHES ON THE ISLAND OF BRAČ RECONSTRUCTED IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Autor raspoznaje dvije slične obnove na ranoSrednjovjekovnim crkvicama sv. Duha u Škripu i sv. Ivana u Bolu izvedene u doba rane romanike, a njihova prva gradnja seže u doba kasne antike. Posebna pažnja u ovom radu posvećena je crkvi Sv. Duha u Škripu te razjašnjenju njene slojevite arhitekture. Najnovija provedena istraživanja otkrivaju da se radi o crkvi koja je sagrađena u 7. stoljeću, i to da je već u vrijeme nastanka trobrodna građevina, te njezinu obnovu u doba rane romanike, sto se sve sačuvalo do danas.The author distinguishes between two similar reconstructions on the Early Mediaeval churches of Sv. Duh (Holy Spirit) at Škrip and Sv. Ivan (St John) at Bol, carried out in the Early Romanesque period. Both churches are reconstructed structures originally built in the late Roman time. Special attention is paid to the Sv. Duh Church at Škrip in order to explain its architectural strata. Recent research reveals that the church was built in the 7th century and it was a basilica with two aisles. Early Mediaeval churches on the Island of Brac were often discussed in professional literature owing to their numerous and varied architectural solutions. Two among them, Sv. Duh at Škrip, and Sv. Ivan at Bol, appear tipologically different and if, in this case one can speak about tipology they are related by almost identical Mediaeval reconstruction which has determined their present-day appearance with marked features of that style and by the recent discovery that both are adaptations of Roman buildings. The Early Mediaeval churches of Sv. Duh and Sv. Ivan and Teodor at Bol were built on ancient foundations during the 7th century and were reshaped by the Early Romanesque reconstruction. The reconstructions were carried out with the same intention, immaginatively and with a subtle feeling for architecture. The smooth interiors of the dilapidated churches were enriched by niches along the longitudinal walls during reconstruction. Besides the sculptural and stylistic features of the plastically rendered interior it also was of great constructive importance since this enabled the craftsman to strengthen the wall supporting the stone barrel vaulting. The level to which the old structures have been preserved shows that the churches were not completely destroyed. Strong impetus for these changes was given by the new style just coming into fashion, but also by the changes in church function which demanded a larger sanctuary. Archaeological excavations have not revealed any pre-Romanesque apse, so it might be assumed that neither of the two churches originally had one. They were added much later at the time the churches were reconstructed. The builder, in charge of the reconstruction, made a new independent construction on the pillars, using the old wall to strengthem the new supporters of the stone barrel vaulted ceiling without stripes. In the reconstruction this completent craftsman must have been guided by his deep religious feelings towards everything belonging to this holy place. Otherwise, it is not possible to understand why he did not take advantage of the old structure and more firmly connect the two walls on the spot where it could have easily been done. This contemplative attitude, this adoration of a place where God is present, even in the Holy Sacrament, is not only the pre-Tridentine relation towards holy places, but displays also the personal piety of the craftsman who poured his intimate feelings into this church

The Hektorović Tvrdalj between Imitations and Examples: The Antique villa maritima from Stari Grad

Literarni predložak za gradnju Hektorovićeva Tvrdalja jest opis vile u Cassinu Marka Terencija Varona u djelu De re rustica. Avijarij, kunićnjak ribnjak, te njen precizno opisan triklinij i musaeum s natpisima, izgradio je Hektorović, arhitekt , na svom posjedu u Starom Gradu na Hvaru. To potvrđuje i ukrašavanje vile natpisima uklesanima u kamenu, što je doslovna primjena Terencijeva naputka. Kako je Tvrdalj sagrađen arheološkim ostacima antičke vile, načinom kojim su građeni zidovi toga doba, uz doslovnu primjenu opisa i funkcija što ih donosi rimski pisac, stječe se dojam kako je gradnja Tvrdalja više od podizanja ljetnikovca; ona je pokušaj cjelovite restauracije antičke vile. Istodobno to je djelo, umjesto poganskim idealima suvremenika, prožeto kršćanskom kontemplacijom raja nadahnutom Danteom i drugim velikim uzorima kojima se divio.As mentioned earlier with the example of Ovid, the translations of Hektorović attract particular attention because of his translation method, which is to provide a kind of reinterpretation of the original work. This kind of interpretation of the original was often used by his contemporaries, and there are numerous examples in which free translation becomes a new work of literature, particularly in the case of renderings of Antique authors the works of whom were not easy to translate artistically while preserving the meaning, particularly without an antiquarian’s knowledge of the quotidian in which the original work was created. It is interesting that Hektorović’s approach to translation was matched by that to building. He altered the canonical architectural mainstream enjoined by fashion according to his own creative approach, which he drew from his readings. If we compare, for example, his Tvrdalj with Lučić’s villa in Hvar, a paradigmatic piece of Renaissance country house architecture, we shall see how original and unique Hektorović’s approach was, eschewing the standard deployment of rooms and devoid of the decoration and architectural sculpture that belongs to the stylistic expression. As against the architecture of the villa, the organisation of its garden contains elements that we find in the great examples of villa architecture of Italy and Dubrovnik. A huge impact was exerted on the landscaping of the Renaissance garden by the didactic work Liber Ruralium Commodorum, written at the beginning of the 14th century by a Bologna lawyer, Piero de’ Crescenzi, who drew in turn on classical texts concerning agriculture by Columella and Palladius, De re rustica and Opus agriculturae. His work was one of the best read in the whole of Europe, was often translated and went through many editions from as early as the 1470s. The drawing of the frontispiece of the edition published in the vernacular by Matteo Capcasa in Venice is a direct model for the erection of the dovecote tower of the Tvrdalj. The inscription OMNIUM CONDITORI on it refers to Crescenzi’s garden of pleasure that »relieves care celebrating God in the heights, the author and cause of all worthy contentment«. The garden of Hektorović’s Tvrdalj is certainly one of those that opened up the way to the humanist type of grounds in Dalmatia, drawing on classic examples, including the celebrated garden of the villa in Quaraccio of 1459, described in his diary by its owner Giovanni Rucellai. The grounds of his villa were indirectly a model for Hektorović’s horticultural undertaking, with its abundance of water that was made possible by its location alongside the River Arno, with a fishpond and a fine large garden inspired by ancient literature and the theoretical works of L. B. Alberti. Being a model for Renaissance gardening of the 15th century, the garden of the Quaraccio villa could not have been unknown to Hektorović and his literary circle. Also certain to have been familiar to him and Adriatic such as the celebrated garden of the Villa Medici in Carregio, inherited by Cosimo, and the location for his Platonic Academy during the time of the Church Council held in Florence in 1438 to 1439. The garden, inspired by the model of the grounds of the Roman classical period, was surrounded by a high wall enclosing shrubs of fragrant herbs, flowers, including species from other climes, rows of potted citrus trees that were moved under cover in winter. Water ran from numerous fountains, the best known being that on which Andrea dell Verrocchio did the boy on a dolphin. The promenade and the table of Hektorović’s garden, which he erected for his circle of friends for their philosophical communing, the paths of the pretty grounds and the stone table (tarpez kameni) symbolically preserve the memory of Plato’s symposium. Antique writings about agriculture had a huge influence on the late medieval idea of the villa from the very beginnings of humanism. Cato’s work De agri cultura, Varro’s Res rusticae, Pliny’s Naturalis historia and Palladius’ De agricultura were an inspiration to Petrarch in the work he dedicated to agriculture, now preserved in a late manuscript in the Vatican Library. It is known from this gardening diary that Petrarch tended gardens with his own hands, in Parma, Milan and Arqua, his actions becoming a model to many of the humanists and their followers on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. It is an interesting fact that Petrarch swapped grape vines and other plants with his friends, who also looked after their gardens. For example, for the Milanese garden that he tended for the Monastery of St Ambrose came six laurels from Bergamo. Petrarch exchanged gifts of plants friend Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan, a gardener and botanist who established the garden of the new palace in Pavia with his own work. The centre of this garden was a lawn with wildflowers and a pool, and it also had pergolas and an orchard planted in the Roman manner. Like his great model, Hektorović too exchanged plants within his literary circle of friends, including the Benedictine Mavro Vetranović, Nikola Nalješković, Ivan Vidali and Hortenzije Bartučević. Thus Dom Mavro was praised for his gifts of oleanders and cypresses for a garden with pergola-topped stone pillars, orchards, fragrant plants and bushes, in which there were tamarisks, capers, and the inevitable crocuses, cactuses and Indian figs and jasmine that climbed the pillars, and sweet-smelling lilies and rosemary. These thanks were more than just gratitude to a friend, for the exchange of plants from gardens cultivated with one’s own hands was part of the galant conduct of the time. The book of Marcus Terentius Varro Res Rustica, which Hektorović knew well, from all accounts, is in some parts literally put into the building of the Tvrdalj. This hypothesis, if, Varro’s advice about the building of the architectural part of the villa can on the contrary be considered merely commonplace, is confirmed by the decoration of the Tvrdalj with the various inscriptions carved into the stone, a literal implementation of one of Varro’s instructions. He writes to the builder of a villa that it is not good enough if its walls are not decorated with his writing. »And letters…. in stone made« on the Tvrdalj, of which the poet was able to boast, were not the panegyrical inscriptions for special occasions of the Dubrovnik villas, but really tuis quoque litteris exornati parietes essent, of which he had carved, as he wrote himself, twenty and more. This is really a unique example in Renaissance architecture anywhere. A rare example of villa architecture decorated with quotations is the south west loggia of the Palace Orsini in Bomarzo that was created at about the same time as the Tvrdalj. The quotations carved onto its walls are copied from the Bible, with the drawings of Francesco Colonna, or else from the speeches of contemporaries, like the humanist Bocchi and the astrologer, astronomer and mathematician Guarico. In this light, drawing attention to the literalness of Hektorović’s implementation of Varro’s instructions and other motifs taken from his work, such as the aviary, fishpond, aqueduct and other parts of the villa as recommended by De re rustica, their appearance in the Tvrdalj cannot be seen as a topos appropriate to the building of a Renaissance villa. Quite to the contrary, this is a proof of Hektorović’s interpretation of Varro’s work, and the reinterpretation of the literary contents of various authors in his own rendering. But there was more than that: employing the Antique literary prototype in the building of the Tvrdalj, Hektorović attempted to interpret the look of the vanished ancient villa on the basis of which he was building his country house. The manner of building the walls of the Tvrdalj, with courses of the stone slab called bašetina in Stari Grad, is completely identical to the manner of building of Hellenistic and Roman buildings. The remains of the walls of the ancient ruins that he had inherited on the land on which he built the villa were precisely like this. In an architectural sense, it might be said that the building of his country house was an attempt at the reconstruction of the Roman villa in the space of the Tvrdalj, his own interpretation of the appearance of the former building, of which only the layout of the rooms in the archaeological strata was extant. Hektorović also reconstructed the lost parts of the ruin and developed the garden, drawing as he did so on examples that he had studied in Roman written sources, especially the work De re rustica of Marcus Terentius Varro. In the context of what has been written, this kind of building might be considered an attempt, as it were, to translate the work of Varro by construction

The altar of the Virgin in Trogir cathedral, work of Niccolo di Giovanni Fiorentino

Autor je iz tekstova vizitacija trogirske katedrale i drugih pisanih izvora, te tragova u njenoj unutrašnjosti rekonstruirao izgled Gospinog oltara pod propovjedaonicom. Njemu je pripadao maleni kameni triptih s likovima sv. Jeronima, sv. Marije i sv. Ladislava, rad bliskog suradnika majstora Nikole Firentinca uzidan u zapadni zid katedrale uz ulazna vrata. Oltar je bio nadarbina nekog od članova trogirske humanističke obitelji Dragać i Borgoforte, a bio je prislonjen uz oltarnu pregradu koje više nema. Rekonstruirajući izgled središta katedrale i oltarne pregrade autor predlaže izvorni smještaj Firentinčevih anđela s vazama pod velikim raspelom, u sklopu trogirske pobožnosti Krvi Kristovoj koja s raspela kapi u vaze anđela.Underneath the pulpit of the Cathedral in Trogir there stood a small altar originating in the 15th century. Particulars about it are found in the Episcopal visitations of the 16th and 17th centuries, and its first mention in the visitation to the Cathedral undertaken by the papal delegate Agostino Valier on 6th April 1579. He described a small altar placed under the pulpit in the central nave of St Lawrence cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God. The altar had a stone triptych executed in the workshop of Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino, with a figure of the Virgin in the centre and St Jerome and St Ladislaus on the sides, and it was donated by local families Dragač and Borgoforte. The altar was made by one of Niccolò’s pupils with the help of the master, and its shaping reminds one of the standard solutions of the Aleši and Niccolò’s workshop that also produced the triptych in the Dominican church in Trogir depicting St Jerome. The altar of the Virgin leaned on the altar fence and the choir stalls until 1731 when it was removed and partly demolished during the renovation of the high altar. It was then that the sanctuary was open to common people, and the altar fence was completely removed. The triptych which survived was then built into the Cathedral’s wall, north to the entrance door beneath the choir. The altarpiece under the pulpit creates a new conception of the 15th century altar fence, adorned by altars and paintings backdropped by Budislavić’ choir stalls and with Biagio di Giorgio’s Crucifix placed high above

Trogir and Hvar opus of TRIFUN BOKANIĆ

U tekstu se donosi prikaz djela Trifuna Bokanića u Trogiru, Zadru i Hvaru u kontekstu mletačke manirističke arhitekture Dalmacije ranog 17. st. Uspoređujući trogirski i zadarski opus majstora, te njegova od ranije poznata djela na Hvaru, autor Bokaniću pripisuje završetak Arsenala i Fontika prije Semitecolove obnove i gradnje kazališta, uspoređujući njegovu urbanističku regulaciju trogirskog trga s hvarskim.The Bokanić family became famous due to its many renowned members, and above all builders, the most famous of which was Trifun Bokanić (1575 – 1609), an architect and sculptor, who during his short life left an extremely rich opus. The bell towers and city loggias of Trogir and Hvar, the altars on the island of Hvar and Zadar, the renovations of their cathedrals and squares, all of them are works of this master craftsman that number him among the greatest builders of his time. Trifun and his father Jerolim Bokanić worked in the 16th century together with Trifun’s brothers and cousins Vicko, Petar, Šimun and Stjepan, while in the 17th century, besides Šimun and Stjepan, there are records about Ivan Bokanić who worked on the bell tower of the church of the Dominican Monastery in Bol on the island of Brač. Trifun Bokanić finished working on the bell tower of the Trogir Cathedral with stone from the Čiovo and Drvenik quarries between the years of 1597 and 1603. He was paid 1800 ducats for his work. The signed contract regarding the building of the bell tower mentions his father’s workshop, builders from Pučišća and their co-workers: brothers Petar and Nikola, cousins Jeronim and Ivan, and Ivan Ozarević, a stonemason from Šibenik. In 1603, Trifun Bokanić finished the work on the bell tower according to his own drawings. The executive drawing in 1:1 scale is engraved in the paving of the floor of the south loggia of the Cathedral. The drawing shows the top of the bell tower which is completely different from the present top, which was wrongly considered to be Bokanić’s work. The bell tower got its present appearance in the reconstruction, after its top was destroyed due to the strike of thunder on April 14th, 1653. The restoration of the loggia was done in 1669 for the bishop John Paul. According to the drawing, the Trogir bell tower from Bokanić’s time was finished with the loggia having a parallelogram layout which had eight biforates and above which there was a Late Renaissance wreath and a Late Gothic balustrade. At the top floor, above the balcony with the balustrade, there was an octagonal tambour, the base of the eight-faced pyramid with faces that were much less steep than the present faces, like the top of the bell tower of the Dominican church of Saint Marc on the island of Hvar. The octagonal pyramid of the Bokanić’s bell tower is also confirmed by the drawing containing the geometrical construction of the tumbled rib of thepyramid and reinforced corners of the bell tower which were made with stone diagonal blocks set up during the building of its loggia. We can recognize Bokanić’s hand on the preserved wreath of the bell tower’s loggia, with typical decorations from hisstatuary repertoire. Between the two profiles there are metope divided with two bent consoles and decorated with reliefs among which some display pears, melons, acanthuses and roses, while some display people’s faces, lion and ram heads and mascaron ornaments. One of them contains the coat of arms of the city’s Duke Girolamo Minio (1596 – 1598). The inscription at the bottom of the bell tower mentions the Trogir Duke Dominico Minio (1598 – 1601). The coat of arms at the bell tower’s loggia, which marks the completion of the work, belonged to the city Duke Alvise Bembo (1601 – 1604). Some other works from the Bokanić’s workshop were also recognized; the bell towers of the Benedictine Monasteries of Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael. The South City Gates, which together with the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Nicholas, leads to the city port, were built in 1593, during the time of the Trogir Duke Delfin Delfino. The inscription on the lintel puts the gate in the time when Trifun’s father, Jeronim Bokanić’s workshop was active in Trogir. Its formative repertoire can be recognized in semi – circular pilasters with alternately placed “bugnato” and finely carved segments, lined with the lintel with prongs and on consoles of the base of the relief with the Venetian lion, decorated with a ribbon on its main part with an ornament in the form of folded ducats. After the City Gate was made, the construction of the bell tower of the Benedictine church of Saint Nicholas was also finished in 1598. The architecture of the bell tower is defined by a characteristic octagonal loggia of the bell tower, closed in the tradition of the Benedictine cloisters. On the four corners of the stone wreath of the loggia, there were the late Renaissance phials, conic elongated pyramids which resemble small obelisks. That was an architectural decorative element that Trifun Bokanić often used, for instance, on the City Loggia in Hvar. During the time of the city Duke Dominico Minio, Bokanić put the pyramid in the shape of an obelisk in order to mark the square design in front of the big Cipicco palace, on the Trogir city square which was finished in 1600. The flagpole of the flag bearing the coat of arms of the Duke Ambrogio Cornaro carved among acanthus’ leaves on the capital was made in 1605. A year later, in 1606, Trifun Bokanić restored the Trogir City Loggia for the same duke. He made benches alongside the eastern and southern walls, as well as the stone judge’s bench decorated with coats of arms of Ambrogio Cornaro and the city of Trogir which were carved on the volutes of its massive stone legs and luxuriously decorated stone coats of arms hung next to the Florentine’s relief of the Justice. In that same year, Trifun Bokanić made a fireplace in the mannerist style, decorated with bent consoles with lion paws and mascaron ornaments. The fireplace is in the Quarco house, situated north of the Cathedral. The initials of Francesco Quarco and the year 1606 are carved in it. The following year, the construction of the Communal Palace continued; the Palace bears the coat of arms and the inscription of the city Duke Alvise Morosini (1606 – 1609). Trifun Bokanić reconstructed the second floor of the Palace, which was, during the previous century, built by Nicholas of Florentine, as could be seen on the windows of the ground floor. Morosini’s coat of arms and the tablet with an inscription are brought out on the front façade of the Trogir Communal Palace. An excellent stonemasonry and statuary work is the work of an exquisite stonemason andsculptor, while the ornaments characteristic for Bokanić’s repertoire point to Trifun, for whom that would be one of his mature works. The first floor of the Palace has elongated arched windows, from whose header stones watch carved faces so much like those characteristic heads found in headers of Trifun’s altars. One of the last works of Trifun Bokanić, could be the coat of arms of Dominico Contarini, from 1609. It is placed in the yard of the Communal Palace, above the staircase which led to the hall of the City Noble Council. A typical mascaron ornament, which Bokanić often uses as a decorative element, is on the coat of arms. We also find it on the wreath of Trogir’s Cathedral’s bell tower, on the fire place in the house of Quarco and on many of his other works. In Zadar, Bokanić built the altar of the Benedictine church of Saint Mary which was later transported to the Nin church. Trifun signed on that altar with carved capital letters. The building of the older and unfinished Zadar church of Saint Simeon (1572 – 1600) built on the city market south of the demolished church of Saint Mary the Great, is also attributed to Trifun. The project was commissioned after 1572 to a Venetian architect, while the actual construction was consigned to local craftsmen. The Palladian classicistic project left an enormous influence on young Trifun Bokanić, who according to Marković, participated in the construction of the unfinished church around year 1600. The front façade of the Church of Saint Simeon shows the influence of the Venetian architecture from the middle of the 16th century, with recognizable classical solutions. Sanmicheli and Palladio were in Dalmatia because of the building and studying classical antiquity architecture, while Bokanić could see the drawings of these two great architects in his homeland. Sanmicheli, the architect of Zadar’s fortifications and monumental City Gates erected all’ antica, had an undoubtedly great influence on Trifun Bokanić who saw his work during his stay in Zadar, during the building of the church of Saint Simeon. Sanmicheli’s influence is the most obvious on the Hvar City Loggia which was considered to be one of Sanmicheli’s works, until the comparison of documents showed that it belongs to the opus of Trifun Bokanić. While working in Trogir and Zadar, Trifun at the same time worked in Hvar as well. We can recognize his work in big interventions on the Hvar city square. Documents connect him to the building of the altar of the Madonna Chapel from the Hvar Cathedral from 1605, which was later transported to the Brusje church; Fisković connected written documents which mention the master craftsman and Bokanić’s manneristic style in which the City Loggia of Hvar is erected and finished during the time of Giulio Contarini, 1603 – 1605. The recent researches have connected Trifun Bokanić with the reconstruction of the Hvar Dominican Church and the bell tower of Saint Marc. The reconstructed loggia of the Saint Marc’s bell tower has typical ornaments of rosettes and angel heads. Opposite the City Loggia, facing the city harbor, is the Arsenal building. It was built in the 16th century, in place of the earlier warehouse which was destroyed during the attack on Hvar in 1571. Its reconstruction lasted up to the beginning of the 17th century and the works were finished in 1607. The Arsenal building was up-built evenafter that, the inscription on its eastern doors mentions the year 1611, while above the entrance door on the first floor, on its terrace, the year 1612 was carved in, thus marking the end of the building of the Renaissance Theater which is situated on its first floor. The finishing of the Arsenal building and the building of Fontico, as well as the construction of the Theater, are all connected to the proveditore Semitecolo, during the period between the years of 1610 – 1613, though the construction of the ground floor arches is mentioned in 1609 in the report of the proveditore general Marcantonio Venier, who mentioned that during the time of his report, two more arches were being built for finishing the first part of the construction. The workshop of the Bokanićs from Pučišća could take part in the reconstruction and renovation of the Arsenal building because it was active in there at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. The rare stylistic elements and forms that the Bokanićs often used also indicate to their participation. The profiling of the great arch of the Arsenal building with dents is the arch version of the Trogir lintel of the South City Gates with the completely same formation of profiles, while the ornament of its wreath, although much bigger, is a common decoration on ribbons which frame the fields of the coats of arms which are attributed to Trifun Bokanić. The doors of the northern façade of the Fontico with arched openings between which are the stone benches on elongated bent consoles, are made in the manner frequently used by the Bokanić workshop with alternate rhythm of blocks and finely carved pillows. The drawing of the similar doors from the Bokanić production in 1:1 scale is carved into the floor of the Pučišća church the Madonna of Batak over the smooth tablets of family tombstones of the distinguished builders, master craftsmen Petar and Vicko Bokanić, from 1546. Besides all the above mentioned, the characteristic shaping of the balustrade of the Fontico terrace goes in favor of the Bokanić’s work on the Hvar Arsenal building. The present balustrade is not the original one, while the original balustrade of the Fontico remained on the drawing which shows the line of stone pyramids above the fence. Bokanić frequently used, as it was mentioned earlier, the motif of the conic elongated pyramid – phial. He made them on the balustrade of the Hvar City Loggia, on the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Nicholas in Trogir, and the monument of the Trogir Duke Dominico Minio placed in front of the Trogir Cathedral has the same shape. From all the above mentioned, it can be concluded that the role of Trifun Bokanić in the renovation of Hvar was much bigger than has been considered so far. He worked on the Cathedral, the church and the bell tower of the Dominican Monastery, the City Loggia, the Arsenal building and the Fontico. The renovation of the Hvar main city square points out to his urbanistic work, the same as the expansion of the Trogir city square in 1600. The comparison of its proportions of the parts of elongated square which ends in the war harbor bounded with the City Loggia with the Duke’s palace and the Arsenal, leads us to think that at the beginning of the 17th century, the city of Hvar implemented the planned regulation of the city centre which was done in the mannerist style. With that intervention, its urban bipolarity, very frequent in the development of port towns, is lessened by the new junction of Groda (city) and Burg (suburb). The opus of the architect and builder from Pučišća on the island of Brač, Trifun Bokanić, is neither valorized enough, nor is his work monographically analyzed. Weare also far away from the recognition of his artistic expression as a personal contribution to the development of the mannerist style of Late Renaissance Dalmatia. For the beginning, it would be enough to set his place within his family shop which, for almost two decades, was the leading building workshop of the middle of Dalmatia

THE BLACA HERMITAGE – CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Poseban fenomen na Braču predstavljaju samostani koje su sagradili glagoljaški pustinjaci iz Poljica čije su zajednice tu molile i radile od 16. do 60-ih godina 20. st. Ova preobrazba divljine u kultivirani krajolik daje poseban pečat jedinstvenom okolišu nastalom sjedinjavanjem uglavnom nenastanjene južne obale Brača s pastirskim planinskim dijelom otoka. Pustinja Blaca nisu samo iznimno vrijedan kulturni spomenik, ona su apsolutna točka u prostoru, središte cjelovitog i zaokruženog eko-sustava kojem pripadaju obrađena samostanska polja i imanja, te pastirski zaselci s pašnjacima razasutim podno Vidove gore. Pustinjački samostan bio je upravno i kulturno središte tog mikrosvijeta s izgrađenom infrastrukturom. Zaštićeni prostor blatačkog kompleksa trebao bi se tretirati kao svojevrstan hortus conclusus koji ponovnim kultiviranjem onog što je nekoć bilo obrađeno ne mora izgubiti svojstva prirodnog prostora. U dobro izbalansiranom omjeru divljeg i obrađenog može se sačuvati izvorna ljepota netaknute prirode.The monasteries on Brač which were built by Glagolitic hermit monks from Poljica are a particular phenomenon. All of these monasteries are situated on the steep south side of Brač Island, on the contour of the slope where the flysch zone changes into the rocky mass of the limestone mountain top. In the 16th century, hermits settled in the natural caves in the Blaca canyon, a dry river bed two kilometres from the deep bay of the same name on the seashore. Blaca is not just an exceptionally valuable cultural monument, but also an absolute mark of the place, a centre for a complete eco-system comprising the monastery’s fields and holdings, together with the pastoral hamlets and pastures scattered at the foot of Vidova Gora. The hermit monastery was the administrative and cultural centre of this microworld which had a built-in infrastructure, such as the primary school which functioned right up to the 1960s. In everyday life, it was a place where new agricultural methods were tried out. Exceptionally large amounts of olive oil and honey were produced there. The Blaca valley as a whole offers a unique opportunity to analyse an outstanding environment. With regular care and maintenance on very limited financial resources the Blaca Hermitage has been turned from a distant and neglected location into a popular destination. The monastery and its farms, vineyards, olive groves and pastures situated in natural, uninhabited countryside on the south side of the island, together with the experimental project to renovate the cultivated area, represent a unique opportunity to observe and preserve the traditional balance of ecology in a place set between cultivated and wild parts of the island’s landscape. With a well-balanced proportion of wild and cultivated areas it is possible to preserve the primary beauty of unspoilt nature. From the ecological point of view, the preserved part of the Blaca environment should become a protected biotope with animals and plants which would be safe there from the damaging effects of civilization. All produce, whether economic or experimental, would be grown on restored agricultural land, while the uncultivated areas should be maintained as a kind of nature reserve. From the educational point of view, Blaca should be a teaching centre for experts and professionals at the right level in all the relevant areas. Special care has to be taken to protect the area from natural disasters, rockslides, landslides, erosion through flooding and torrential rain. There also has to be up-to-date protection from fire, including sophisticated observation systems from the air. The use of pesticides, insecticides and other kinds of poisons should be suppressed through strict control of agricultural practices. The tourist potential of the Blaca slopes should be used within limits. The pollution damage caused by this type of economic activity must be monitored and eliminated. Related problems such as rubbish disposal and removal of sewage water have to be resolved and reduced to the minimum possible. Ecology should be the subject of a special study to ensure that the correct measures are taken to preserve the natural state and unspoilt character of Blaca Hermitage’s cultural area. Blaca could become a world example of a synergy in which the struggle for a clean environment and protection of unspoilt nature can co-exist with the scientific pursuit of knowledge to discover the world we live in