The First Early Medieval Sculpture from the St. Martha\u27s Church of Bijaći

Uprilogu se raspravlja o skupini nevješto klesanih reljefa u dva navrata otkopanih u ruševnim ostacima crkve Sv. Marte kod Trogira; najprije početkom 20. stoljeća u vrijeme prvih iskopavanja i potom u revizijskim nastojanjima krajem lO-tih godina istoga stoljeća. Otim spomenicima do sada je više puta pisano, a povodi za to bili su različiti. Uočljiva su oprečna mišljenja opitanju njihove stilske i vremenske pripadnosti. Udosadašnjim prijedlozima kreću se vrlo široko, od 6. do 12. stoljeća, dakle, od kasnoantičkoga do ranoromaničkoga razdoblja. Našim pokušajem nastoji se osnažiti pretpostavka da je u ovom slučaju riječ o ranosrednjovjekovrtim skulpturama iz kraja 8. ili samog početka 9. stoljeća.The paper deals with a group of unskilfully cut relieves, excavated on two occasions (in the early 20 th ct., and during the revising excavations in the 1970s) among the ruins of the St. Martha\u27s Church (Sv. Marta) near Trogir, that made part of the Croatian rulers\u27 court in the early Middle Ages (villa Biaci, as referred to by the historic sources, was built on top of the remains of a Roman villa rustica). The relieves were made at various parts of the altar rail (plutei, pilasters, capitals, beams and arched gables) and at a lintel. The main decoration, appearing in various combinations at almost all the fragments, are sequences of concentric circles, single-and multi-switch laces made into braids, with a dot bulge or a small cross in the middle, and double-switch curfs with trefoil ending and a cross in the middle. The dominating motives at the plutei are the large multi-switch crosses with stylised palmettes below and rosettas ofvarious forms above their horizontal arms. These artefacts have been written about several times,Jor various reasons. There are confronting opinions about their stylistic and chronological affiliation. In the present-day proposals, they range very widely,from the 6th to the12th centuries, thus,from the late-classical to the early-Romanesque periods. Here it is attempted to enforce the theses on these being early-medieval seulptures o ft he late (fh or the very beginning of the 9th century. In a review of all the opinions presented on the tapie by abut a dozen oj authors since 1930, particularly emphasized are the efforts ojLj. Karaman, B. Gabričević, Ž. Rapanić and T. Burić. In 1930, Lj. Karaman presented his thesis on the seulptures originating from the 12th century, and indicating a rebuilding of the St. Martha\u27s Church (with the change of its dedication to St. John) performed, according to a 1197 written source, by the local peasants who, at the time, already formed a settlement there. He also deems that they make clear and unique evidencesproving that the interlaced sculptural decoration in the then rural Croatia lasted much longer then in towns, the latterfollowing development of the arts in the neighbouring Italy In 1956, B. Gabričević analysed similar ornaments at the then discovered pluteum of Gala, in the Sinj Field. He does not present a precise dating, however, he was the first to assume that the pluteum, together with the similarly decorated fragments ofBijaći to which he compared it, should be dated to the centuries between the last classical period and the times prior to the early-medieval interlaced art. In 1987, Ž. Rapanić discussed generally the art of the preRomanesque epoque in Dalmatia. Searchingfor its roots in the previous centuries, he assumed that the Jragments oj the St. Martha\u27s Church, just like the similar Dalmatian artefacts, belonged to the second half of the 7th century. In 1993, T. Burić assumed, while taking into account casual conclusions made by other authors, that these seulptures, together with several other examples similar by style, oj Trogir, Solin (Gradina and Otok) and the Sinj Field (Trilj and Gala), and of Crkvina in Biskupija near Knin, make a unique cultural circle. He deems this regional group of ornaments, the common characteristic of which is unskilful stone cutting and peculiar artistic expression, should be dated after the "classic" paleo-Christian sculpture, and certainly before the pre-Romanesque one. He assumes that the fragments belong to the first half of the 7th century, and make products ofthe "last stone-cutters of Salona/~ who worked immediately before moving ofthe then ecclesiastical centre from Salona to Split. He deems, thus, that this group of artefacts is, in general, a closer regionalfeature, territorially limited to the diocese of Salona. In the results ofthe past analyses ofthe St. Martha relieves, this paper emphasizes as a common characteristic the lack ofskill and proper training of their authors, as well as the stylistically defined group of similar artefacts discovered in the past at several of the already mentioned sites in Dalmatia. These are to be added some further artefacts from the Šuplja crkva and Gradina ofSolin and, as pointed out, some from the farther Dalmatian hinterland, from the present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina (sculptures from the churches ofZenica and Dabravina). While discussing the sty!istic and stonecutting characteristics of all these seulptures, particularly those of the St. Martha\u27s Church, particular attention is paid to the dominant decorative motives: the multi-switch crosses and braids, and curls with trefoil and cross ornaments in the middle. The author turns attention to their numerous analogies with stylistically similar artefacts ofthe Istrian and the Apennine peninsulas, particularly among the rnstic relieves dated to the 8\u27-h and the very beginning ofthe !Jh centuries. Attention is also turned to the fact that, at the same time at the Apennine Peninsula, similar ornaments were also cut at relieves that made the very top of the contemporary art. Among several such examples, particular attention is paid to the sarcophagus of Buggi, of the ffh century, and very similar ornaments decorating the lateral sides ofthe cathedras ofCividale and Sesto al Reghena, of the second half of the ffh century, as well as those of the ciborium of St. Eleucadia in the church of S. Apolinare in Classe in Ravenna, made between the years 806 and 810. These better cut Italian sculptures are finely comparable to two very Similarly decorated ones in Dalmatia: the fragment of the altar ciborium of Trogir and the very finely decorated pluteum of the Zadar cathedral. The fact that in the ffh century similar motives were being cut at both rustic relieves and those ofhigh stonecutting quality simultaneously at both the East-Adriatic coast and its hinterland as well as in Italy, brings into doubt the previously presented conclUSions, that the Dalmatian rnstic sculptures make later and unskilful products of the stonecutting workshops that worked follOWing the models of those in urban centres. However, it appears acceptable the thesis that the Dalmatian 8\u27-h centU1Y sculpture, in its entire complexity, makes a complete image ofthe contemporary events in the European art, especially in the Italian one. Very like and, probably, contemporary ornamental motives are, thus, produced in both analysed areas -Dalmatia and Italy. The fact that in Dalmatia they are made in a somewhat different stonecutting treatment may indicate their regional production, however, most probably the same models and schemes being followed in both communities. The same ornamental group ofsculptures found in the St. Martha\u27s Church is to be added also the fragment of a decorated architrave with remains of the inscription reading CA ... IUP[anus (-ana?)} and [. ..Chr}ORATORV(m) ET .. Since this fragment, too, certainly belongs to the end ofthe [fh or the very beginning of the gh centuries, there is the logical conclusion that the fragment from the St. Martha\u27s Church has brought to us the presently oldest known artefact stating a Croatian ethnic and, thus, the oldest presently known record of a župan (viceroy) in the early-medieval Croatia. Since at the locality of Bijaći there have been excavated remains of two ecclesiastical buildings in two layers (the earlier > paleo-Christian, and the later early-medieval), it iseventually also \u27.! discussed the issue of which of them stood as a sacral building in (~ the early Middle Ages and which of them was decorated with the seulptures discussed in the paper.Following a briefreview ofresults ofthe researches performed so far and other opinions presented on the topicS, it is concluded that the first early-medieval church ofSt. Martha was a simple, three-vessel, three-trave, three-apse church, the vessels being mutually separated with square, masonry py!ons, the first pylon leaned against the inner side of the western wall, and the fourth against the triumphal arch of the large, central, square apse, in the way that it, at one side and with the ais!e flat wall surfaces, forms smaller lateral square apses, and at the other side further deepens and monumentalises the central apse space. With such basic ground plan, the St. Martha\u27s Church is very close to the St. Mary\u27s Church at Biskupija near Knin. It is also interesting that both churches are early-medieval structures built at the end ofthe 8\u27b century as parts ofthe then Croatian sovereigns\u27 residentiaI complexes. Namely, in such an environment, churches with such emphasized central apse were well justified since they could occasionally have been used as halls for performing ofvarious royal jobs (aula regis), in line with the contemporary European practice. From all that issaid above results that the St. Martha\u27s Church makes apart ofan architectural complex ofutmost importancefor the Croatian early-medieval sculpture, which, besides very important fragments ofthe early-medieval sculpture ofthe end ofthe 8\u27h or the very beginning ofthe gh centuries, also produced the so far the earliest known information on the then Croats in their new country