Croatian History

In the Musée du Louvre in Paris (l’aile Déon) dedicated to Italian sculpture of Quattrocento, two Croatian artists are represented, Francesko Laurana and Giovanni Dalmata de Trau (Ivan Duknovic from Trogir). Their 4 sculptures and bas-reliefs can be seen in the first hall. It is interesting that Renaissance art appeared in Croatia about a hundred years earlier than in France. See information about the exhibition La Renaissance en Croatie at Musée national de la Renaissance in Paris in 2004. Ivan…

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Juraj (Giorgio) Spavento was an important 15th century builder in Venice, whom chronicler Marin Sanuto called homo di grande inzegno. He was a protomaster in construction of the Venetian bell-tower of basilica of St Marco. He participated in building of monumental Scale dei Giganti in Ducal Palace, and was involved in questions of regulation of a canal around Ponte dei Navi in Venetian arsenal. Italian historiography seems to be reluctant to stress that his birthplace was the city of Trogir….

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Sacral paintings of Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin (known as Blasius Pictor, ~1412 – 1448) are held not only in various churches in Croatia – in Zadar, Sibenik, Trogir, Kastel, Split, Korcula, Ston, Dubrovnik, but also abroad – in the People’s Museum in Budapest, Museo Correo in Venice, People’s Gallery in Warszaw, Luxemburg. He was fluent in the glagolitic script, which we know from his short note on the polyptych prepared for the church of St. Lovro in Trogir. Blaz was born…

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Feliks Petancic was the last head-master of the famous scriptorium in Buda (part of today’s Budapest) until the death of Matija Korvin in 1490. He was a Croat born in Dubrovnik around 1455, and he died after 1517. He entered the history as a scribe and a painter. As a miniaturist he portrayed many Turkish sultans and high court officials in his parchment rotulus called Genealogia Turcorum Imperatorum (started in 1502). His another work is Historia Imperatorum regni Turcici (1502)…

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Julije Klovic, or Don Giulio Clovio de Croatia (1498-1578), is regarded as the last great representative of the classical European miniature. His works decorate many famous galleries: Uffizi in Florence, Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, Galleria Sabanda in Torino, Bibliothek der Albertina in Vienna, Louvre in Paris, Towneley Public Library and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (which is in possession of “Officium Virginis”, 228 pages, his most famous and the best masterpiece, containing 30 valuable…

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Andrija Medulic (Andrea Schiavone, Andrea Meldola de Hiadra), (~1500-1563), a painter born in Zadar or Nadin, started his artistic career in Sibenik and continued in Venice. His works of art are scattered throughout Europe: Zadar, Sibenik, Zagreb, Venice, Milano, Florence, Naples, Torino, Verona, Paris (Louvre), London, Oxford, Richmond, Dublin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Dresden, St. Petersburg, Belgrade. Medulic influenced Tintoretto, who stated that any true painter must possess at least one of his masterpieces. As Klovic, he also influenced El Greco, a…

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Martin Rota Kolunic (Martinus Rota) was born in c. 1540 in Sibenik, Croatia. About 1565 he was already working as an engraver in Venice, while by 1573 he became the court portraitist in Vienna. He died in Prague in 1583. He belongs to the most significant European graphic artists of the second half of the 16th century. He is also well known for his reproductions of the outstanding masters of the Renaissance: Tizian, Michelangelo, Dürer and others. He engraved a…

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In the fine arts of our time probably the most famous is the sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962), who created masterpieces, many of which are dedicated to the history of his motherland. You can see them in the Mestrovic gallery in Split and in Croatian capital Zagreb. He also created the bust of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, New York (Croatia Place, Lackawanna), the grand “Monument of the Unknown Soldier” and “The Monument of Gratitude to France” in Belgrade, the beautiful Mausoleum of…

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Jozo Kljaković (1889-1969) is distinguished Croatian painter and illustrator. His paintings and murals are mainly of religious content. Kljaković is best known for his frescos that he painted in the church of St. Mark in Zagreb, in the parish churches of Vranjic (near the city of Split), in Dobrota (in Boka kotorska), and in the memorial church in Biskupija near the town of Knin, as well as for his  mosaics in the Pontifical Croatian St. Jerome Institute in Rome. He left Croatia…

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I like very much Gabrijel Jurkic (1886-1974), a little known Croatian painter from Bosnia – Herzegovina, who studied at the Academy of Arts in Vienna. If you come to Sarajevo, don’t miss to see his beautiful “Flower plateau” (from the Kupres area) painted in 1914, held in The Art Gallery of Bosnia – Herzegovina in Sarajevo. See on the left, and many more on Croats in Bosnia – Herzegovina. Biography of Gabrijel Jurkic (in Croatian).