SOME NOTES ON THE CRETO-VENETIAN PIANTING IN DALMATIA

Na primjeru novo uočene ikone s prikazom Sv. Trojstva u obliku Prijestolja milosti iz crkve Uspenja Bogorodice u Drnišu dopunjuju se rasprave o problemima kretsko-venecijanskog slikarstva. Na ovoj se ikoni primjećuje utjecaj venecijanskog slikarstva Trecenta i bizantskog slikarstva, što rezultira neobičnim karakterističnim stilskim govorom. Uz ovu ikonu analizira se i ikona I m a g o P i e t a t i s iz crkve sv. Spiridiona u Skradinu, a obje se datiraju u sam početak 15. stoljeća. Zaključuje se da je prisustvo radova kretskih majstora u stilu kretsko-venecijanske škole u Dalmaciji znatno, što otvara pitanje mjesta i uloge Dalmacije u rasponu od Venecije i Krete i obrnuto.Icons of the Creto-Venetian school were noticed in Dalmatia a long time ago. Although scientific oppinions and even the precise title of this particular style based both on byzantine and western (venetian) influences differ (S. Bettini and other Italian school, while Greeks, among them most prominent M. Chatzidakis emphasize the role of the Crete – thus Cretan school) the number of these icons constantly increse in Greece, Italy and Dalmatia. In this article the authoress on the example of two newly discovered icons from Dalmatia – from the Orthodox churches of Drniš and Skradin (well known by the signed icon of the Last Judgement by Georgius Margazinis) gives a synthetic view on the problem of the Creto-Venetian school emphasizing the existence of the school in the real meaning of the word. Although Creto-Venetian school has been recognized in 16th and 17 th centuries around the Greek community and the church San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice, the school must have existed even in the 15 th century, but on the island of Crete. It is not easy to believe that such a number of painters well known from Cattapan’s documents didn’t have artistic connections, expecially when documents prove several apprenticeships: Angelo Accotanto-Giovanni Acotanto – Andrea Rizo – Nicola Rizo, Andrea Pavia – Antonio Papadopouli, or Andrea Pavia – Angelo Bizamano. The formation of the Creto-Venetian school in the 15 th century has not been explained yet although we know the main works and the names of the painters, but we don’t know either the exact place or the exact time of their activity. The contribution of the authenitic Createn painting of the 14 th and 15 th centuries is indisputable in the formation of the School but still a link is missing between of the 15 th centuries. Venice is in the possesion of the Crete from the 1204 til 1669 and the influence of its painting had to be strongly present on the island even before 15 th century, although the Venetian painting itself is based on the experience of the byzantine painters. The absorbed and modified bysantinism »alla veneziana« will last in Venice from Paolo Veneziano to Crivellis. Only the powerful mercantile Republic of St. Mark could give to Creatan painting an international fame, but with certain modifications. So a hybrid style is born. It is an eclectis one because together with byzantine elements in the same time takes fragments of the Gothic, Renaissance or even Baroque art and uses them in its own way, never managing to absorb real space and volume. In spite of the Cretan (byzantine) origins in the formation of this school, it cannot be understood without very strong influences of the Venetian Trecento. The influence of the gothyc style is even more stressed on the Holly Trinity icon from Drniš than on the works of Rizos, Pavia or Zafuri. The western iconography and gothic moulding of the draperies are combined with byzantine technology and programme. The result is byzantine essence wrapped in gothic forms. The double formation and thus the doubble capacity of the Cretan painters to work »alla greca« and »alla latina« is obvious in this icon but the difference between this Holly trinity and other, almost the same iconographic subjects, is in individualism and emotions of the latter. Cretan painters were brought up in strong tradition of icon painting which excludes any personal attitude and the result is a strong hieratic vision of the Divine. Holly Trinity icon is compared with works of Andrea Rizo and Andrea Pavia and is dated in the second half of the 15th century. The resemblances are found with icons of Angelo Acotanto founder of the Acotanto pictorial school from which Andrea Rizo emerged, one of the most important Cretan painters of 15th century. The Imago Pitetatis icon from Skradin in the traditional scheme Western world took from Byzance, is analysed and dated in the first half of the 15th century compared with other examples of Imago Pietatis by Nicola Zafuri and others from the beginning of the 16th century. The autoress streses the possible role of Dalmatia between Crete and Venice. The question of the Dalmatian byzantinism is not solved yet. Dalmatia received most of its icons by trade but from 13th to 17th century collonies of Greek painters exist in Kotor, Dubrovnik and Zadar. The geographic position of Dalmatia had to make a certain role in the mutual interreactions of Crete and Venice. Dalmatia received byzantinism but is also accepted and reshaped it. The most significant example are local variations of the Andrea Rizo’s icon of the Virgin in Ston. As artistic outskirts of strong artistic centres such as Venice and Constantinopole both Dalmatia and Crete had a freedom to develop a creative artistic activity – Crete a double one – which enabled a mixture of styles. In the 15th century which was the time of its formation, Creto-Venetian school, had its themes, obvious combination of both byzantine and venetian art and a solid technology. In that early period it was new and fresh with new themes and iconographic types to be followed in few next centuries. From 15 th to 17 th century Creto-Venetian school will preserve the procedures and models of byzantine Paleologue painting and Venetian Gothic or Renaissance, which during centuries will slowly vanish on the retarded petrified Madonnas, Imago Pietatis or bassanesque Nativities. It seems paradoxical but Creto-Venetian school seems to be the delayed and of the Venetian Quattrocento and Cinquecento. Loosing its »international« venetian element Creto-Venetian school ceases and scatters in the space leaving from Greece to the Adriatic numerous local schools. On the numerous icons of the 18 th century apparently everything is the same: the motives, iconography and technology with dominant bysantinism. But icons are rigid and poor. After the Creto-Venetian school the icons of the Mediterranean imerge into popular, almost naïve painting

Figuralni umjetnički vez obrednog ruha iz vremena renesanse u Dalmaciji i Istri

Obrađuje se figuralni vez koji ukrašava misno ruho iz vremena renesanse u Dalmaciji i Istri. Niz misnica, dalmatika i plašteva sačuvanih u crkvama od Motovuna do Dubrovnika pokazuju iste stilske odlike. Figuralni vez proizlazi iz prototipova onodobnog mletačkog slikarstva. Sačuvani fragmenti veza povezuju se uz vezilačke radionice Venecije, Dalmacije i Dubrovnika

IKONA GOSPE OD SUSPASA IZ SPLITA

U crkvi sv. Križa štovanju vjernika izložena je ikona Bogorodice s Djetetom koja se može datirati u XV. stoljeće. Tradicija je navodi kao „Gospu od Suspasa“. Ikona se podrobnije analizira, a njezin naziv povezuje uz nedovoljno poznatu i davno srušenu velovarošku crkvu sv. Spasa

CONTRIBUTI SUI TESSILI MEDIOEVALI A TROGIR - PROPOSTA PER RICAMATORI LOCALI

ObraĐĐuje se srednjovjekovna mitra iz Trogira ukrašena vezom, dragim kamenjem i minijaturama ispod gorskog kristala. Uz analizu stila i povijesnog konteksta, datira se u drugu četvrtinu 14. stoljeća i pripisuje venecijanskim radionicama. Na temelju sačuvanih pokrivala ambona u trogirskoj katedrali, Muzeju za umjetnost i obrt te Povijesnom muzeju Hrvatske, utvrđuje se djelatnost vezilačke radionice u Trogiru u 14. i 15. stoljeću.Nel Tesoro della cattedrale di Trogir (Trau), in cui si conservano da secoli preziose opere d\u27arte in argento e in oro, si trova anche un gran numero di oggetti liturgici in tessuto. Dal XIV al XIX secolo sono documentati molti legati alla cattedrale traurina, tra i quali numerosi oggetti in tessuto. Di particolare valore è una mitra vescovile di velluto rosso tagliato con applicazioni in seta ricamate con filo di seta e d\u27oro, decorata da perle, pietre semipreziose e gemme di pasta vitrea, con medaglioni dipinti nella tecnica della tempera su pergamena e ricoperti da cristallo di rocca. La mitra e già stata analizzata da V. Đurić nell\u27anno 1960 ed esposta al alcune mostre. È piatta, di forma triangolare, realizzata in velluto rosso tagliato conservatosi solo in parte. La fodera e in lino, a più strati. A diritto e a rovescio è decorata a ricamo su taffetà di seta rossa. Alla parte posteriore sono fissati due nastri. Da entrambe le parti la mitra e decorata da un bordo di nastri applicati in seta rossa, ricamati con fili d\u27oro e di seta policroma. I tralci a foglie di vite svolgendosi riempiono lo spazio alternandosi a medaglioni goticheggianti quadrilobati in cui sono ricamati busti di santi. Sulla parte anteriore, al centro, vi è un\u27 applicazione a edicola in seta rossa. All\u27interno la incornicia una ghirlanda di piastrine dorate con gemme ovali sfaccettate, e agli angoli sono fissate pietre preziose quadrate più grandi. Sulla seta rossa e ricamata con fili di seta policroma una Madonna con il Bambino a figura intera nello schema della Glykofilousa. La affiancano medaglioni tondi dorati, sotto la cui copertura di cristallo vi sono miniature dipinte a tempera su pergamena. Quella a sinistra rappresenta Gesù Cristo con il Vangelo in mano nell\u27atto di benedire. Quella a destra rappresenta il bue alato, simbolo di S. Luca. Sulla parte posteriore, che è del tutto identica a quella anteriore, nel bordo inferiore c\u27è una serie di santi che è difficile riconoscere. Nell\u27edicola centrale fa da pendant alia Madonna della parte anteriore la figura di Cristo con la corona sopra !\u27aureola. Nei medaglioni ricoperti da cristallo che affiancano la figura ci sono le miniature del leone alato di S. Marco e dell\u27angelo di S. Matteo. Alia parte posteriore della mitra sono fissati due nastri (infule, lat. fanones) di velluto rosso, sui quali sono applicati a impuntura nastri dorati ricamati con ornamentazione geometrica a rilievo. I nastri verso il fondo si allargano a trapezio, sono decorati da tralci dorati ricamati che formano un fiore di giglio contornato da perline. Lo stile delle miniature dai colori chiari e vivaci tra cui dominano i toni dell\u27azzuro che si sovrappongono in gradazione, lo sfondo dorato, i toni del rosa con spruzzi di rosso, appartiene indubbiamente al Trecento veneziano. Đurić ha classificato la mitra traurina, basandosi sull\u27Hahnloser, nel gruppo delle miniature sotto cristallo della fine del XIII e degli inizi del XIV secolo. Di recente da questo gruppo A. Neff ha separato Il Maestro della croce di Atri. Le miniature di questa croce italiana, datata intorno all\u27anno 1300, mostrano una grande somiglianza con quelle traurine nell\u27iconografia e nella fattura. Ma il colorito è del tutto diverso, i 145 colori sono molto vivaci, e il volume e costruito per gradazione tonale. Considerate le caratteristiche stilistiche dei ricami e delle miniature dipinte e la fattura tipica dell`oreficeria con l\u27impiego di pietre semipreziose e preziose, di gemme vitree, di cristallo di rocca, la seta e il velluto rosso usati, la mitra si può datare tra il 1320 e il 1350 e attribuire a botteghe veneziane. Le miniature sono vicine allo stile della bottega del Maestro di Atri, ma sono certamente posteriori a quelle sulla croce. Una tradizione locale collegava la mitra al vescovo Nikola Kažotić. Considerata la datazione proposta essa e anteriore alia durata in carica di questo vescovo (1362-1371 ). Forse e possibile collegarla al predecessore del Kažotić alla cattedra vescovile, Bartolomeo di Valmontone, che giunse da Avignone e Padova, nel 1349, a sostituire il vescovo traurino. Nello stesso Tesoro si conserva il drappo coprileggio del Vangelo, che e stato a lungo considerato uno stendardo. II velluto rosso liscio tagliato e decorato da una croce ricamata a bracci uguali, con applicazioni ricamate in seta policroma. L\u27applicazione superiore mostra la figura del vescovo S. Giovanni da Traù ricamata su tela di lino. L\u27applicazione inferiore e quella al\u27incrocio dei bracci sono strappate. Nei bracci laterali della croce sono applicati stemmi ricamati. I bracci della croce sono riempiti con tralci a rilievo ricamati svolgentisi a foglie doppie cuoriformi, che si congiungono formando un piccolo fiore di giglio. La croce presenta i caratteri delle croci gotiche del XIV e del principia del XV secolo con i tipici bracci quadrilobati e con minute decorazioni floreali sui contorno. Il tralcio a rilievo con cui sono ricamate le croci s\u27incontra spesso inciso sulle croci argentee processionali gotiche e nelle miniature dello stesso periodo. I ricami sono su tela di lino applicata al velluto. La tela di lino e rinforzata da uno strato di carta. Due croci del tutto identiche, ricamate su velluto rosso, si conservano a Zagabria nel Museo Storico Croato e nel Museo di Arti Applicate. Il loro ricamo e identico, come anche le applicazioni con ricamate figure di santi che raffigurano i santi traurini S. Giovanni da Traù, S. Lorenzo e S. Girolamo. Le figure sono riprese dalla pittura del Quattrocento con la tipica composizione frontale dall\u27ampia impostazione delle figure a mezzobusto e con la messa in rilievo degli attributi che sono collocati davanti alia figura. Solo guardando attentamente si nota che le applicazioni con i santi sono state aggiunte in un secondo tempo ai quadrilobi dei bracci della croce, dai quali prima sono state probabilmente scucite le applicazioni originarie. Nemmeno gli stemmi ricamati su seta sono contemporanei alle croci. Sono stati applicati successivamente sui quadrilobi dei bracci sui quali erano motto probabilmente raffigurati dei santi. Secondo gli stemmari veneziani sono riconosciuti come stemmi delle famiglie patrizie Bembo e Cornaro. Due Cornaro furono vescovi traurini: Federico Cornaro dal 1560-1561 (molto probabilmente non venne mai a Trogir), al quale successe nel 1561 il fratello Alvise, fino al 1567 quando andò a Roma. Gli stemmi sono stati chiaramente applicati nel momento in cui a Trogir erano presenti i membri di entrambe le famiglie. Nell\u27anno 1563 Augustino Bembo era conte e capitano della città, Federico Cornaro invece vescovo traurino. Nell\u27analisi delle opere oltre all\u27analisi stilistica è molto importante l\u27analisi tecnica. Questi drappi infatti nell\u27arco di tempo dal XIV al XVI secolo sono stati "rifatti" o meglio ricomposti in pili strati. Sui fondo originario di velluto rosso liscio tagliato nella seconda meta del XIV secolo fu ricamata la croce. In essa nel XV secolo furono collocate figure di santi, e nel 1562-1563 gli stemmi Bembo e Cornaro. Interventi cosi stratificati evidenziano il ruolo avuto da questi drappi-stendardi nella tradizione locale, dove erano in uso almeno fino al XVIII secolo. Tutte le trasformazioni permettono di localizzare tutte e tre le croci ricamate a Trogir, rinviando cosi alia presenza di una bottega locale di ricamo che nel XIV secolo, con un ottima preparazione tecnica, eseguiva ricami per la cattedrale su velluto importato da Venezia

ANOTHER PAINTING BY BALDASSARE D’ANNA IN DALMATIA

The art history in Yugoslavia is partly acquainted with the opus of Baldassare d’Anna, a painter of the Venetian Seicento. One can find his works all along the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia, from Istria and the islands in the northern Adriatic to Hvar, Korčula and Trogir. The authoress deals with a hitherto unknown altar-piece »Madonna of the Rosary« from Gornji Humac on Brač Island, which revealed the painters signature in the course of restoration. This painting, like the others of the same master, has an uninventive composition, with stiff and hard figures and an impersonal and spent colouring. The painting represents the Madonna with the Christ Child on her lap, flanked by St. Dominic and St. Hyacinthus painted iside oval frames, while St. Francis and St. Charles Boromeo are kneeling in the lower part. Differing from the hard and stiff treatment of the central painting, these small ovals with scenes from the lives of Christ and the Madonna are presented in a new, lively and spontaneous way with a completely novel interpretation of light, which is no longer of an enforced impersonal colour, but the basic element of the painting. The light permeats the bodies, stopping at certain points with violent strokes, emphasizing the expressiveness of the composition. The chronology of Baldassare d’Anna’s opus is difficult to reconstruct owing to the fact that here we have an artist whose style is not consequently developed, but who repeats his established artistic treatments. According to documents preserved in the episcopal archives at Hvar, the execution of the painting may be dated between 1627 and 1637

THE ICONS OF OUR LADY SKOPIOTISSA IN DALMATIA

Obrađuje se skupina ikona u Dalmaciji s temom Bogorodice s Djetetom u shemi Skopiotise. Uz stilsku analizu izdvaja se ikonografska shema i vezuje uz Bogorodičinu ikonu koja se štovala u manastiru Skopos na otoku Zakintu u Jonskom moru.There exists in Dalmatia a group of icons of Our Lady With Child which have the same stylistic form as the icon in the Mimara museum in Zagreb. All these icons are painted on a dark background varying in colour from red and blue to silver. The faces and hands of Our Lady and Child are painted, while the clothes, haloes and crowns are done in pastiglia in shallow relief and covered with silvery leaves. Many lines suggesting pleats in clothing,crowns and haloes with curly or geometrical ornaments are engraved into a uniform and gently protruding surface. The elements are differentiated by graphics rather than painting.On some of these icons, including the one from Zagreb, the name Skopiotissa is engraved in Greek letters, clearly identifying them. Names according to which icons become famous are most often derived from places, churches or monasteries where they were originally venerated. Inscriptions and abbreviations of represented names are necessary components of icons,entering into the very essence of their theology and their connection with the archetype. In the same way that representation of a person in an icon is not a mere illustration, but represents an archetype- therefore the icon is the very person which is represented - the identifying inscription reflects the archetype. The veneration relates to the name of the represented in the same way as it does to the painted image.The identifying inscription of these icons clearly denotes the geographical origin of the cult: the monastery of Skopos on the Island of Zacynthus in the middle of the Ionian Sea. Both the inscription and the structure of the icon, which with minor variations is frequently repeated, clearly demonstrate the affirmed cult of Our Lady. The well-known Venetian chronicler Flaminio Cornaro confirmed this. During a flight of Panvenetianism, in 1761 he noted in detail all well-known cults of Our Lady in the area of the Venetian Republic. He described all pictures and statues of Our Lady, with historic enumeration of the shrines which were created around them. He wrote several pages on the cult of Our Lady from the shrine of Skopos on Zacynthus. The iconographic type at the time of Cornaro was already established and supported by an unambiguous inscription. The copper-etched illustration of the icon of Skopiotissa from Cornaro\u27 s book shows Our Lady as a Hodigitria to the waist, with the Child on her left arm. The child is blessing with the right hand holding a closed volume in his left hand. Although it is difficult to establish the detailed stylistic characteristics of the icon from the schematic nature of the illustration, it is clear that the Mimara and the other Dalmatian icons imitate it almost completely.In view of the distribution of the icons of Skopiotissa, there is a clear concentration of the cult within the Ionian and Adriatic Seas to Venice and Ravenna. The cause of such popularity is noted already by F. Cornaro: Our Lady of Skopiotissan was particularly venerated by seamen. Via the most important sea-ports of Boka Kotorska, Orebić, Korčula, the islands of Bračand Hvar, Split, the Kaštela, Krapanj and Šibenik, the cult of Our Lady of Skopiotissa spread throughout Venetian Dalmatia. The icons of Skopiotissa as pictures intended for private or public veneration were carried by captains and seamen. They were venerated in the houses of captains and tradesmen. Their veneration in churches and monasteries was related most probably to the custom of family pictures being left to posterity as votive gifts. Skopiotissa in Pučišća has a clear votive inscription by the Brač nobleman Nikola Moro.The Dalmatian Skopiotiss as are known in two variants. One is the already-described Hodigitria with Child on the left arm, like the original from Zacynthus. The icons from Zagreb, Pučisća, Poljud and Hvar and Split belong to this group, with small variations. The icons of Mimara, Pučišća, Poljud and Hvar are flanked ,however, by hanging chandeliers with eternal lights. They hang from three chains, and give light symbolising the power of Christ- of light, and the light which he gave to the people. Burners soaked in oil, also give light to Our Lady, the light of Glory since she has recieved God- the light- into her lap. The other type represents only the bust of Our Lady. The head is slightly inclined to the right, her look is sad and her hands are crossed on her breast in a humble gesture of prayer. Perhaps this type can be considered as a representation of Our Lady of Sadness, as suggested by M. Bianco Fiorin. The crowning of Our Lady has been added to several icons of this group. The inscription (Greek inscription) on one of them precisely defines them semantically.The group of icons of Skopiotissa does not fit stylistically into the well-known iconographic schools of the 17th and 18th centuries, nor into the Greek or the well-known and stylistically recognisable Cretan school. But these atypical and hybrid icons represent, by their number and characteristics,a clear stylistic form distinct within paintings of icons. The dominant and pronounced use of line of firm opaque dark shadows (although the flesh colour attempts to acquire the softness and roundness of the Cretan school), and the geometry, achromatism and monochromy form their common stylistic features,with a characteristic pastiglia and the use of silver. It can be supposed that along with the influence of Russian, Greek and Cretan icons of that time,the painters of Zacynthus, Cefalonia and Corphu developed what M. Hatdzidakis calls »the style of the Ionian Islands« within which icons of Our Lady were developed. Such convincing archaism, the emphasis on the patina where the old silver glimmers on red, green and blue backgrounds effectively stimulates popular piety. These Skopiotissas, more venerated in the West than within the Orthodox Church, are a real impetus to such feelings. Of schematic character and as a sign of deity, rather than a work of art, they carry characteristics of popular art

Lijepo i korisno

Prikaz izložbe: Baršunasti trag mučeništva, Muzej grada Splita, Split, 16.5.-16.8. 2005., autorica izložbe: Vjekoslava Sokol, autor postava: Mirko Gelemenović Prikaz kataloga izložbe: Vjekoslava Sokol, Baršunasti trag mučeništva, Split, Muzej grada Splita 2005

Icon of the Virgin and Child From the Church of St. Nicholas at Prijeko in Dubrovnik

Ikona Bogorodice s Djetetom iz crkve sv. Nikole na Prijekom u Dubrovniku, nakon provedenog konzervatorsko-restauratorskog zahvata, na temelju stilske analize povezuje se s poznatom „Bogorodicom benediktinki“ iz Zadra i datira u isto vrijeme oko 1300. godine. Analizira se ikonografija ikone te otvara problem utjecaja slikarstva istočnog Mediterana na slikarstvo Dalmacije u XIII. stoljeću.Recent conservation and restoration work on the icon of the Virgin and Child which stood on the altar in the Church of St. Nicholas at Prijeko in Dubrovnik has enabled a new interpretation of this paining. The icon, painted on a panel made of poplar wood, features a centrally-placed Virgin holding the Child in her arms painted on a gold background between the two smaller figures of St. Peter and St. John the Baptist. The figures are painted in the manner of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dubrovnik style, and represent a later intervention which significantly changed the original appearance and composition of the older icon by adding the two saints and touching up the Virgin’s clothes with Renaissance ornaments, all of which was performed by the well-known Dubrovnik painter Nikola Božidarević. It can be assumed that the icon originally featured a standing or seated Virgin and Child. The Virgin is depicted with her head slightly lowered and pointing to the Christ Child whom she is holding on her right side. The chubby boy is not seated on his mother’s lap but is reclining on his right side and leaning forward while his face is turned towards the spectator. He is dressed in a red sleeveless tunic with a simple neck-line which is embroidered with gold thread. The Child is leaning himself on the Virgin’s right hand which is holding him. He is firmly grasping her thumb with one hand and her index finger with the other in a very intimate nursing gesture while she, true to the Hodegitria scheme, is pointing at him with her left hand, which is raised to the level of her breasts. Such an almost-realistic depiction of Christ as a small child with tiny eyes, mouth and nose, drastically departs from the model which portrays him with the mature face of an adult, as was customary in icon painting. The Virgin is wearing a luxurious gold cloak which was repainted with large Renaissance-style flowers. Her head is covered with a traditional maphorion which forms a wide ring around it and is encircled by a nimbus which was bored into the gold background. Her skin tone is pink and lit diffusely, and was painted with almost no green shadows, which is typical of Byzantine painting. The Virgin’s face is striking and markedly oval. It is characterized by a silhouetted, long, thin nose which is connected to the eyebrows. The ridge of the nose is emphasized with a double edge and gently lit while the almond-shaped eyes with dark circles are set below the inky arches of the eyebrows. The Virgin’s cheeks are smooth and rosy while her lips are red. The plasticity of her round chin is emphasized by a crease below the lower lip and its shadow. The Virgin’s eyes, nose and mouth are outlined with a thick red line. Her hands are light pink in colour and have elongated fingers and pronounced, round muscles on the wrists. The fingers are separated and the nails are outlined with precision. The deep, resounding hues of the colour red and the gilding, together with the pale pink skin tone of her face, create an impression of monumentality. The type of the reclining Christ Child has been identified in Byzantine iconography as the Anapeson. Its theological background lies in the emphasis of Christ’s dual nature: although the Christ Child is asleep, the Christ as God is always keeping watch over humans. The image was inspired by a phrase from Genesis 49: 9 about a sleeping lion to whom Christ is compared: the lion sleeps with his eyes open. The Anapeson is drowsy and awake at the same time, and therefore his eyes are not completely shut. Such a paradox is a theological anticipation of his “sleep” in the tomb and represents an allegory of his death and Resurrection. The position, gesture and clothes of the Anapeson in Byzantine art are not always the same. Most frequently, the Christ Child is not depicted lying in his mother’s arms but on an oval bed or pillow, resting his head on his hand, while the Virgin is kneeling by his side. Therefore, the Anapeson from Dubrovnik is unique thanks to the conspicuously humanized relationship between the figures which is particularly evident in Christ’s explicitly intimate gesture of grasping the fingers of his mother’s hand: his right hand is literally “inserting” itself in the space between the Virgin’s thumb and index finger. At the same time, the baring of his arms provided the painter with an opportunity to depict the pale tones of a child’s tender skin. The problem of the iconography of the Anapeson in the medieval painting at Dubrovnik is further complicated by a painting which was greatly venerated in Župa Dubrovačka as Santa Maria del Breno. It has not been preserved but an illustration of it was published in Gumppenberg’s famous Atlas Marianus which shows the Virgin seated on a high-backed throne and holding the sleeping and reclining Child. The position of this Anapeson Christ does not correspond fully to the icon from the Church of St. Nicholas because the Child is lying on its back and his naked body is covered with the swaddling fabric. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko claims a special place in the corpus of Romanesque icons on the Adriatic through its monumentality and intimate character. The details of the striking and lively Virgin’s face, dominated by the pronounced and gently curved Cimabuesque nose joined to the shallow arches of her eyebrows, link her with the Benedictine Virgin at Zadar. Furthermore, based on the manner of painting characterized by the use of intense red for the shadows in the nose and eye area, together with the characteristic shape of the elongated, narrow eyes, this Virgin and Child should be brought into connection with the painter who is known as the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. The so-called Benedictine Virgin is an icon, now at the Benedictine Convent at Zadar, which depicts the Virgin seated on a throne with a red, ceremonial, imperial cushion, in a solemn scheme of the Kyriotissa, the heavenly queen holding the Christ Child on her lap. The throne is wooden and has a round back topped with wooden finials which can also be seen in the Byzantine Kahn Virgin and the Mellon Madonna, as well as in later Veneto-Cretan painting. The throne is set under a shallow ciborium arch which is rendered in relief and supported by twisted colonettes and so the painting itself is sunk into the surface of the panel. A very similar scheme with a triumphal arch can be seen on Byzantine ivory diptychs with shallow ciborium arches and twisted colonettes. In its composition, the icon from Prijeko is a combination of the Kyr i ot i ss a and the Hodegitria, because the Virgin as the heavenly queen does not hold the Christ Child frontally before her but on her right-hand side while pointing at him as the road to salvation. He is seated on his mother’s arm and is supporting himself by pressing his crossed legs against her thigh which symbolizes his future Passion. He is wearing a formal classical costume with a red cloak over his shoulder. He is depicted in half profile which opens up the frontal view of the red clavus on his navy blue chiton. He is blessing with the two fingers of his right hand and at the same time reaching for the unusual flower rendered in pastiglia which the Virgin is raising in her left hand and offering to him. At the same time, she is holding the lower part of Christ’s body tightly with her right hand. Various scholars have dated the icon of the Benedictine Virgin to the early fourteenth century. While Gothic features are particularly evident in the costumes of the donors, the elements such as the modelling of the throne and the presence of the ceremonial cushion belong to the Byzantine style of the thirteenth century. The back of the icon of the Benedictine Virgin features the figure of St. Peter set within a border consisting of a lively and colourful vegetal scroll which could be understood as either Romanesque or Byzantine. However, St. Peter’s identifying titulus is written in Latin while that of the Virgin is in Greek. The figure of St. Peter was painted according to the Byzantine tradition: his striking and severe face is rendered linearly in a rigid composition, which is complemented by his classical contrapposto against a green-gray parapet wall, while the background is of dark green-blue colour. Equally Byzantine is the manner of depicting the drapery with flat, shallow folds filled with white lines at the bottom of the garment while, at the same time, the curved undulating hem of the cloak which falls down St. Peter’s right side is Gothic. The overall appearance of St. Peter is perhaps even more Byzantine than that of the Virgin. Such elements, together with the typically Byzantine costumes, speak clearly of a skilful artist who uses hybrid visual language consisting of Byzantine painting and elements of the Romanesque and Gothic. Of particular interest are the wide nimbuses surrounding the heads of the Virgin and Child (St. Peter has a flat one) which are rendered in relief and filled with a neat sequence of shallow blind arches executed in the pastiglia technique which, according to M. Frinta, originated in Cyprus. The Venetian and Byzantine elements of the Benedictine Virgin have already been pointed out in the scholarship. Apart from importing art works and artists such as painters and mosaic makers directly from Byzantium into Venice, what was the extent and nature of the Byzantine influence on Venetian artistic achievements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? We know that the art of Venice and the West alike were affected by the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and by the newly founded Latin Empire which lasted until 1261. The Venetians played a particularly significant political and administrative role in this Empire and the contemporary hybrid artistic style of the eastern Mediterranean, called Crusader Art and marked by the strong involvement of the Knights Templar, must have been disseminated through the established routes. In addition to Cyprus, Apulia and Sicily which served as stops for the artists and art works en route to Venice and Tuscany, another station must have been Dalmatia where eastern and western influences intermingled and complemented each other. However, it is interesting that the icon of the Benedictine Virgin, apart from negligible variations, imitates almost completely the iconographic scheme of the Madonna di Ripalta at Cerignola on the Italian side of the Adriatic, which has been dated to the early thirteenth century and whose provenance has been sought in the area between southern Italy (Campania) and Cyprus. Far more Byzantine is another Apulian icon, that of a fourteenth-century enthroned Virgin from the basilica of St. Nicholas at Bari with which the Benedictine Virgin from Zadar shares certain features such as the composition and posture of the figures, the depiction of donors and Christ’s costume. A similar scheme, which indicates a common source, can be seen on a series of icons of the enthroned Virgin from Tuscany. The icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko is very important for local Romanesque painting of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century because it expands the oeuvre of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin. An icon which is now at Toronto, in the University of Toronto Art Centre Malcove Collection, has also been attributed to this master. This small two-sided icon which might have been a diptych panel, as can be judged from its typology, depicts the Virgin with the Anapeson in the upper register while below is the scene from the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. The Virgin is flanked by the figures of saints: to the left is the figure of St. Francis while the saint on the right-hand side has been lost due to damage sustained to the icon. The busts of SS Peter and Paul are at the top. The physiognomies of the Virgin and Child correspond to those of the Benedictine Virgin and the Prijeko icon. The Anapeson, unlike the one at Dubrovnik, is wrapped in a rich, red cloak decorated with lumeggiature, which covers his entire body except the left fist and shin. On the basis of the upper register of this icon, it can be concluded that the Master of the Benedictine Virgin is equally adept at applying the repertoire and style of Byzantine and Western painting alike; the lower register of the icon with its descriptive depiction of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence is completely Byzantine in that it portrays the Roman emperor attending the saint’s torture as a crowned Byzantine ruler. Such unquestionable stylistic ambivalence – the presence of the elements from both Byzantine and Italian painting – can also be seen on the icons of the Benedictine and Prijeko Virgin and they point to a painter who works in a “combined style.” Perhaps he should be sought among the artists who are mentioned as pictores greci in Dubrovnik, Kotor and Zadar. The links between Dalmatian icons and Apulia and Tuscany have already been noted, but the analysis of these paintings should also contain the hitherto ignored segment of Sicilian and eastern Mediterranean Byzantinism, including Cyprus as the centre of Crusader Art. The question of the provenance of the Master of the Benedictine Virgin remains open although the icon of the Virgin and Child from Prijeko points to the possibility that he may have been active in Dalmatia. However, stylistic expressions of the two icons from Zadar and Dubrovnik, together with the one which is today at Toronto, clearly demonstrate the coalescing of cults and forms which arrived to the Adriatic shores from further afield, well beyond the Adriatic, and which were influenced by the significant, hitherto unrecognized, role of the eastern Mediterranean

AN ADDITION TO THE OEUVRE OF LOVRO DOBRIČEVIĆ

U tekstu se analizira slika Bogorodice s Djetetom pronađena u privatnoj kolekciji u Ljubljani koja se na temelju komparativne stilske analize pripisuje kotorsko-dubrovačkom slikaru Lovri Dobričeviću i datira u peti decenij 15. stoljeća.In Ljubljana there is a picture of the Virgin and Child, privately owned, the stylistic characteristics of which, in spite of the damage and overpainting, suggest the Renaissance painting of Dubrovnik. It is painted in tempera technique with original gilding on lime-wood panels. It shows the figure, down to the waist, of the Virgin who, with the Child in her lap, is sitting in front of a high curtain of gold brocade, which almost covers the whole of the background, and which is held at the top by two angels. The Virgin is dressed in the traditional blue cloak that covers the head; it is fastened with a gold clasp and decorated with gold ribbon adorned with large gold pomegranate flowers. The Virgin has laid the naked Jesus on her knees, covering him with a transparent veil. Jesus grasps at the finch that she holds in her left hand. The Madonna and Jesus are flanked by hovering adoring angels superimposed in semi-profile in three registers. Their figures are engraved with fine goldsmith’s tools into the gilt background and are hardly discernible. The poor condition of this painting, without any clear provenance, which necessarily requires conservation treatment, does not however make it impossible to discern the similarities with the Virgins of the Kotor-Dubrovnik painter Lovro Dobričević. A number of details tend to suggest this: the composition, the typology of the Virgin, the refinement of the forms and the drapery stylisation patterns. The Ljubljana picture shows correspondences with paintings ascribed to Dobričević of the Virgin and Child from La Spezia, the Jandolo Collection in Rome and the Brajčin Collection in Komiža, the Academy Gallery in Venice, where there is also a Nativity. The painter uses short dark shading; light falls from the left hand with strong gleams on the incarnadine, leaving parts in the shadow. The transparency of the diaphanous veil of Jesus can be compared with that at Danče or the Brajčin Virgin. And yet in spite of all the details that tell of Dobričević, in the realisation the Ljubljana picture never attains the refinement and subtlety of the Virgin and Child polyptych at Danče or the Ludlow Annunciation, which are in quality terms the peak of his painting. In it, unfortunately, all the glazing that gives the final painterly effect has been lost, and the dark underpainting from which the colour has gone gives the impression of harsh shadows. In particularly the little Jesus has a very unattractively and awkwardly painted face, which is quite at odds with the well painted body, skilfully located within the curve of the Virgin’s lap. The boy’s nose is so large that it gives the face practically an aged appearance; the face of the Ljubljana Jesus recalls the mature faces of the saints, particularly of the St Peter from the Dubrovnik Dominicans’ polyptych. The iconographic type of the Virgin adoring the naked Child is a commonplace in the art of the quattrocento. Unlike the earlier depictions, the unclothed Jesus is sitting, standing or lying in the mother’s lap, and the playful and attractive childish body, in its various poses and compositions, among which the Holy Conversation is particularly to the fore, visualises the Incarnation. But the Ljubljana painting still has a trecento devotional structure, inheriting from the earlier Gothic painting and from icon painting the traditional clothing, symbols and adoring angels. In combination with the known symbolism of the goldfinch, the curtain behind the principal figures is particularly emphatic. The curtain, with the throne or the rose garden, is a dominant element of the Mariological topics of the Middle Ages. The symbol of the cortina is not unknown: Mary, bearing Jesus, herself becomes a divine temple, and the curtain symbolises her body – arca Dei. In this, as in other paintings from his oeuvre, Dobričević does not appear as a painter of narratives, but remains an artist of devotional paintings. He synthesises trecento decorum and quattrocento naturalism. The painting of Virgin and Child from Ljubljana really is a combination of trecento composition and quattrocento theology and form. It is perhaps even more Gothic than other paintings ascribed to Dobričević. The details of his paintings in which Gothic and Renaissance styles merge are a particularly interesting problem within this painter’s oeuvre. The influences of quattrocento painters Antonio Vivarini, Vittore Crivelli and Jacoppo Bellini in the shaping and the typology of face and robes, the hieratic perspective, the letters and golden background were long since remarked in print. Also known is the very crucial fact that in the Italianised version of his name, Lorenzo di Cattaro, Dobričević is mentioned in 1444 in Venice as being closely connected with the prime figure of the painting of the international Gothic, Michele Giambono. It is the demarcation of Gothic and Renaissance elements that are basic for the dating of Dobričević’s paintings. Although before the conservation treatment it is unrewarding to prejudge the possible answers, the Ljubljana painting, on the basis of the recycled elements of the Dubrovnik Dominican polyptych (1448) and the Annunciation of Ludlow, and the polyptych of the Franciscan church in Dubrovnik (1455-1458) must be dated to the first half of the 1440s