Izvorni znanstveni članak
Artizans, Artists, and Medical Professionals and Their Patrons in Rab in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century
Meri Kunčić
; Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, Zagreb
Sažetak
The article deals with the issue of the relationship of the artisans, artists and medical professionals of Rab with their clientele in the second half of the fifteenth century. It is discussed on the basis of the analysis of extensive extant notarial deeds of the Rab commune of the same period, which is hitherto unpublished and kept in the State archive of Zadar (the deeds of the notaries of Rab Mark Olivone, Thomas Stančić, Andrew Fajeta, Marin Maroman, Anthony Nimira and Peter Teritono), as well as on the basis of legal and narrative sources of Rab provenience. The division of the Rab professionals that is followed in the article, into the categories of artisans, medical professionals and artists, stems from their particular position within the Rab commune in the Late Middle Ages. From the contracts drawn up between the professionals and their clients, it appears that the influence of the artisans dealing with simpler crafts (shoemakers, tailors, smiths, butchers, makers of oars, and others) on the decisions of their clients in their choice of requested goods was small, while physicians, surgeons and pharmacists, because of their expertise and education, influenced such choices much more. Artists, who in that period had just started to define themselves as a self-conscious group of professionals, who were assured in their skills and personal talent, strongly influenced the manner of building particular sacral and private edifices and different kinds of decorations in them, as well as the ideas of their clients. This is particularly true for the most famous proto-masters (prothomagistri), work supervisors, as were George of Zadar and Andrew Aleši. Detailed contracts between such masters and their clients, regardless of whether it was the case of rich individuals, secular or ecclesiastical, or of corporations (such as confraternities), show that any contract regarding some work was almost always the result of a compromise between the artist and the client, with an increasing influence of the artist. That influence was more and more pronounced also through expressions of self-consciousness, particularly expressed by signing a work with the personal name of the artist, as may be demonstrated through the example of Andrew Aleši. From contracts with artists, it is possible to find information on the spiritual and artistic movements and tastes of rich noblemen or the higher clergy, but also on the tendencies of artists to express their artistic tastes too and propose their own solutions. From them, it is also possible to find information on the organisation of work, on professional networks of artists with masters from other communes (for example Rovinj, Zadar, Modruš or Bergamo), on the position of the proto-master in relation to other masters (magister), subordinate to him, but also on the level of salaries that artists and masters subordinate to them received for their work. Based on the contracts with medical practitioners, it may be stated that they, particularly those with a previous university education, in contracts to the most of the artisans whose profession was relatively frequent in Rab and, consequently, their clientele dispersed and their monetary income modest, reached a high level of material life supported by rather good monetary incomes, sometimes measurable in tens of golden ducats received for their work, the same as artists, particularly those whose work was known all over Dalmatia and Italy. Because of that, it may be concluded that medical practitioners and particularly artists belonged to the circle of the rich communal population in late medieval Rab, even though they lacked political or ecclesiastical influence.
Ključne riječi
Rab; the Late Middle Ages; professionals; clientele; artists; medical professionals
Hrčak ID:
121319
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.12.2013.
Posjeta: 1.946 *