Inventory of the Parish Church in Kloštar Ivanić: Renovations and Renovators

Usporedna konzervatorsko-restauratorska i arhivska istraživanja prilika su za unakrsno povezivanje podataka i moguće nove spoznaje. Takva usporedna istraživanja inventara crkve sv. Marije u Kloštar Ivaniću razjasnila su nekoliko pojmova iz 18., 19. i ranog 20. stoljeća kojima su se opisivale likovne intervencije. Jedan od izvora, Spomenica župe Kloštar Ivanić, otkrio nam je imena čak četvorice obnovitelja inventara, a konzervatorsko-restauratorska istraživanja i radovi pokazali su o kakvim se majstorima radi. U Spomenici smo naišli i na pravi mali rječnik termina umjetničkih intervencija, poput: prenapraviti (1903.) te iznova obnoviti, pozlatiti, iznova marmorirati, i restaurirati (1860.-1863.). Kanonska vizitacija iz 1765. godine donosi pojam „sjajne boje“. Značenja tih pojmova rasvijetlila su konzervatorsko-restauratorska istraživanja inventara.Parallel conservation and archival research of the inventory of the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kloštar Ivanić brought about new insights into the meaning of terms that the 18th, 19th and 20th century used to describe artistic interventions, thus better acquainting us with the paintings and polychromies executed by as many as four renovators of the church furnishings. From 1761 to 1765 seven new altars were erected and polychromed in the church, as well as the baptismal font, the pulpit and the throne of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the mid-19th and early 20th century the interior was redesigned by two renovations covering nearly the complete furnishings. Other lesser-scale renovations during the 19th and the 20th century were also recorded, encompassing just a portion of the furnishings or making only slight alterations to it. In the two decades of conservation work executed on the furnishings of the parish church in Kloštar Ivanić, comprehensive treatments were performed on the main altar, the altars of St. George and St. Joseph, the altars of the Suffering Christ and of St. Barbara, the throne of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the baptismal font, while the Altar of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary was only partially conserved. In the wartime years the priority was given to the preservation of the furnishings. In the early years after the war, conservation work was focused on representing only the 18th-century polychromy, abandoning the concept in certain portions, where compromise was necessary due to the polychromy’s poor state of preservation. In the course of conservation of the Altar of St. Barbara, which came last, the interest was extended to researching and evaluating all historical layers. This resulted in the presentation of all three chronological layers combined, the last one being the dominant. Investigations and treatments of the furnishings gradually revealed a complex distribution of stratigraphic layers, increasing our acquaintance with the chronological layers of various portions of the art pieces. Records from the Chronicle of the Ivanić parish disclosed to us the names of the polychromy masters. Petar Rutar and Marco Antonini defined the appearance of the last re-polychromy of the altars. In the mid-19th century the furnishings were fully renovated by Gašper Milavc, while Karlo Haman had been active somewhat earlier on the main altar. The authors of the 18th-century polychromy remain unnamed, although their way of executing the marbling can be recognized on a number of altars from the Zagreb area or associated with commissioners from Zagreb. In the parish church chronicle, we came across a regular little thesaurus of terms for artistic interventions, such as: to remake (1903) or to renovate anew, to gilt, to re-marbleize and to restore (1860-1863). The canonical visitation of 1765 brings about the term of glossy color. Conservation research of the furnishings clarified the meaning of these terms