Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2022.2
Our Lady of Žnjan, Romanesque Icon from Split: Analytical Map of Medieval Painting in Dalmatia
Žana Matulić Bilač
orcid.org/0000-0003-3613-6009
; Hrvatski restauratorski zavod Restauratorski odjel Split
Sažetak
Although historical inventories and visitations to Split's medieval churches suggest that the 13th century, its golden age, furnished a large number of their altars with panel paintings, only three icons and three painted crucifixes have survived to the present day. One of them is Our Lady of Žnjan, a large icon and one of the most enigmatic of Croatian Romanesque paintings.
During the 1965 restoration, it was discovered that it contained three depictions of the Virgin and Child, which was later confirmed analytically. After the restoration, it was revealed to be a work of the so-called Split school of painting. However, the chronology, complete outlines and painting techniques of these depictions were not investigated, nor was the original location or the historical trajectory of the painting. The conservation project that the author developed and carried out at the Split Department for Conservation of the Croatian Conservation Institute encompasses a double spectrum: restoration of the icon and the creation of an analytical map of complete historical depictions, since none of them was removed during restoration.
The cleaning processes, which included the removal of the restoration layer of 1965 and the remains of the historical layers of the 18th and 19th centuries, were meticulously carried out with a stereomicroscope and several light sources. Optical surface analysis, layer mapping, targeted sampling, and a series of in situ instrumental analyses and targeted analytical procedures were also carried out in cooperation with several laboratories in accordance with the author's suggestion and proposal, and consulting with a number of experts from several fields.
At the same time, through art-history collaborations, the iconography and properties of the form and stylistic features of the depictions were analysed, which were then visualized virtually. Since it was determined that the depictions were created between the 12th and 16th centuries, special attention was paid to determining their age. In doing so, research was done into the binder, technical properties and possible genesis of pigments and barcodes of complete layers, and age analysis was done on selected elements of the painting.
The depictions were also explained using art history, palaeography and history, completing the missing components of the analytical map. A variety of documentation was carried out, and a presentation model of the results was conceived, so that the icon, a monument of medieval painting continuity in Dalmatia and the source of many important development components for its understanding, would become available to fellow professionals and the public.
At the same time, the results of the research on the other 19 examples of paintings and wood sculptures from that period in Split and Dalmatia were collected, and new targeted analyses are being performed. The resulting technical base should, in the foreseeable future, unite the scattered results of the work of a number of colleagues in different professions over the course of almost an entire century, as well as the history of conservation and restoration of paintings. Further key issues have been resolved, and a future model of multidisciplinary work planned out.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
289900
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.12.2022.
Posjeta: 428 *