Austrian Painter Leopold Kupelwieser and Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer

U svim kronologijama sakupljačke djelatnosti biskupa Josipa Jurja Strossmayera (1815. – 1905.) i pregledima stvaranja galerijskog fundusa današnje Strossmayerove galerije starih majstora Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti objavljivanima tijekom 20. stoljeća spominje se Strossmayerova suradnja s austrijskim slikarom nazarenskoga usmjerenja Leopoldom Kupelwieserom (1796. – 1862.), ocem nekadašnjega vlasnika otočja Brijuni Paula Kupelwiesera. Ta epizoda iz \u27prapovijesti\u27 Strossmayerove galerije do sada je bila poznata tek na razini šture zabilježbe, koja se višekratno ponavlja u gotovo identičnim formulacijama: „1857. biskup otprema u Beč prvu veću pošiljku slika na restauriranje pod nadzorom slikara Leopolda Kupelwiesera.” Istraživanje arhivskih dokumenata koji svjedoče o suradnji biskupa Strossmayera i slikara Kupelwiesera autorice su upotpunile uvidom u Kupelwieserova djela u Hrvatskoj, s ciljem daljnjeg očuvanja i revalorizacije toga dijela slikarskog opusa Leopolda Kupelwiesera. Osim slika koje je od Kupelwiesera naručio Strossmayer (danas u Dijecezanskom muzeju u Zagrebu), dva su njegova djela nastala za crkve u Hrvatskoj posve neovisno o slikarovoj suradnji s biskupom (za crkvu Svetoga Stjepana Kralja, danas Bezgrješnog Začeća Blažene Djevice Marije, Nova Gradiška, i za Kapelu Svetoga Petra i Pavla u Dvoru na Uni), a na Brijunima se čuvaju dvije slike koje ne pripadaju izravno Kupelwieserovu opusu, no s njim su blisko povezane.All 20th-century chronologies of the collector’s activity of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815-1905) and overviews of the evolution of today’s Strossmayer’s Gallery of Old Masters at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts mention the bishop’s cooperation with the Austrian Nazarene painter Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862), father of Paul Kupelwieser, the former owner of the Brijuni islands. This episode from the “prehistory” of Strossmayer’s Gallery has hitherto been known only as a brief notice repeated in almost identical formulations: “In 1857, the bishop sent the first larger group of paintings to Vienna in order to be restored under the supervision of painter Leopold Kupelwieser.” Research of archival documents mentioning the cooperation between Bishop Strossmayer and painter Kupelwieser has now been complemented with an overview of Kupelwieser’s activity in Croatia, with an aim of promoting the preservation and evaluation of this segment of his painting oeuvre. Besides paintings ordered by Strossmayer (presently at the Diocesan Museum of Zagreb), Kupelwieser produced two paintings for Croatian churches independently of his cooperation with the bishop (for the church of St Stephen of Hungary, today’s church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nova Gradiška, and for the chapel of St Peter and Paul in Dvor na Uni). Two more paintings are preserved on the Brijuni islands that do not directly belong t