Wall Paintings by a domestic Master in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice

Autorica obrađuje srednjovjekovne zidne slike u kapeli sv. Antuna Pustinjaka u Zadobarju, uz koje se prema zajedničkim stilskim i morfološkim osobinama mogu povezati zidne slike u kapeli sv. Marije Snježne u Volavju i župnoj crkvi Rođenja Marijina u Sveticama. U skladu s godinom 1539. zabilježenom glagoljskim natpisom na zidnim slikama u Zadobarju su i stilska i morfološka obilježja kasnoga gotičkog slikarstva. Utvrđivanje rada radionice istog majstora na zidnim slikama u Zadobarju, Volavju i Sveticama, čija stilska obilježja upućuju na pripadnost domaćoj sredini, što potvrđuje i upotreba glagoljice, pokazuje na kraju gotičkog razdoblja, duboko u 16. st., rašireno djelovanje domaće radionice koja se još služi zakasnjelim gotičkim formama, prerađenima u otvrdnulim dekorativnim oblicimaRecently an extensive, well-preserved cycle of medieval wall paintings were discovered in the Chapel of St. Anthony the Hermit in Zadobarje. The year 1539 is written in Glagolitic script on the wall painting, which, if the inscription of the actual painter, may represent the date of completion of the cycle, or, if graffiti made by a visitor, may constitute an upper boundary for dating. The stylistic and morphological features of the wall paintings comply with this year, i.e. the late date in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The lack of interest in depicting folds which turn into a series of parallel lines, with straight hems of dresses at the bottom, as well as the overriding decorativeness in the rendering of the cycle, accomplished through the equal treatment of dresses, wings and the decorative patterns of the trimming, are features of Late Gothic painting, when initiated Gothic forms turned into solid forms of the decorative pattern. In terms of stylistic, formal and morphological features, the fragmentarily preserved wall paintings in the kermis Chapel of St. Mary of the Snow in Volavje and the parish Church of St. Mary in Svetice can be brought into connection with the cycle of wall paintings in Zadobarje. Confirmation of the workshop of the same master painter on the wall paintings in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice, whose stylistic features indicate domestic origin, further confirmed by the use of the Glagolitic, indicates the widespread work of a domestic workshop at the end of the Gothic period, deep in the sixteenth century, which still used already out-moded Gothic forms, reworked into solidified decorative forms. The use of the Glagolitic, which spread from the Croatian Littoral zone toward Croatia’s interior in the fifteenth century, leads to the assumption of the Littoral origin of this workshop. The workshop of the domestic master painter who painted the wall paintings in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice can be brought into connection with the Slovenian monuments which are classified as belonging to a group of “Croatian” painters, i.e. the circle of the painter Toma of Senj, who signed and dated the wall painting in the Church of St. Gertrude in Nadlesek pri Ložu in 1511. The wall paintings in Nadlesek, signed by the master Toma of Senj, are associated with the story by Primož Trubar, recounted in the introduction of the catechism of 1575, that his father commissioned the decoration of a church in Rašica by a Croatian painter, so that the term “Croatian” group became accepted in Slovenian art history. The signed and dated wall paintings in Nadlesek are deemed the principal example of the activity of the “Croatian” group of painters and are among the earliest, and approximately twenty-five monuments from the second, third and fourth decades of the sixteenth century, inside the territory from Ljubljana to White Carniola, are ascribed to this group. Data on the Littoral origin of Master Toma of Senj, to whom wall paintings in Slovenia are ascribed which exhibit commonalities with the wall paintings in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice, confirm the hypothesis of the Littoral origin of the master from Zadobarje based on his of the Glagolitic script. A comparison with the Slovenian examples yields new knowledge on the workshop which made the wall paintings in Zadobarje, Svetice and Volavje, which can be recognized as the domestic workshop of painters who came from the Croatian Littoral and who worked in the continental zones of Croatia and Slovenia. Tying the wall paintings in Svetice with the patronage of the Frankopan magnates of the island of Krk, who expanded their holdings in Croatia’s interior during the fifteenth century, complies with the hypothesis of the origin of this workshop in the Croatian Littoral. Monuments of medieval wall painting in the territory of the Croatian Littoral, which may provide evidence of the local origin of the workshop of the domestic master painter who worked in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice, and the foundation for studying its formation, are poorly preserved and researched. The wall paintings in the Church of St. Florian in Kubed, in the Slovenian Littoral, are associated with the painting of the Croatian group, while physiognomy of the figures indicate a notable distancing from the “Croatian” painters and ties with the workshop of Ivan of Kastav. Vincent and Ivan of Kastav were the most important domestic painters of the second half of the fifteenth century in Istria, and even though their activity belongs to the Istrian region, their signature indicates their origins in the Littoral. Thus, one can seek in the work of the Istrian workshops of domestic masters from the third quarter of the fifteenth century, in which the solidification of pleats and their transformation into decorative schemes is present (as in the work of the so-called ‘Colourful Master’ of Istria), which is associated with the workshops of Vincent and Ivan of Kastav, the source of the formation of domestic workshops which operated in Zadobarje, Volavje and Svetice in the third quarter of the sixteenth century