Original scientific paper
New Investigations of Gothic Wall Paintings in Martinščina and Zajezda
Rosana Ratkovčić
; Umjetnička akademija, Osijek
Abstract
In the Chapel of St. Martin in Martinščina there is a square presbytery with a rib vault painted
according to the iconographic program of the Carniolan Presbytery. It shows the figures of the Apostles
and the Coronation of the Virgin, the Mass of St. Gregory, and St. Florian on the walls, and a
Maiestas Domini and the symbols of the Evangelists, church fathers, angels, and cherubim on the
vault. Within the workshop we can distinguish three masters. Two of them painted the Apostles,
whereas we attribute the Coronation and the vault scenes to the third.
The wall paintings in Martinščina were thoroughly analyzed by A. Deanović, who has discovered
stylistic and iconographic analogies with Salzburg and Lower Austria, and concluded that the wall
painting in that section of the Croatian Zagorje region developed independently of Slovenia.
This article analyses in depth links with a Slovene group of around Breg pri Preddvoru and the
Master of Bohinj Presbytery, and concludes that the Martinščina paintings were probably a work
by a late offshoot of the workshop of the Master from Breg pri Preddvoru. Thus we disagree with A.
Deanović’s ideas about independence and specificity of wall paintings in Croatian Zagorje regarding
Slovenia.
There are analogies between Martinščina and the fragmentarily preserved wall paintings in the
church of St. Mary in Zajezda, e.g. the Virgin in the scene of Coronation in Martinščina, and the
Mary in the Annunciation in Zajezda. The decorative background of the Zajezda Annunciation is
similar to that of the Apsotles by the second master in Martinščina, the complex pattern made by
using a stencil being almost the same. The motif of the kneeling and praying donor just barely visible
next to Our Lady of Mercy in Zajezda, appears also in Martinščina. The clothes of the better preserved
cycle in Martinščina are often covered by a decorative pattern carried out with stencils, and
so also are the figures of the faithful under the Virgin’s robe in Zajezda. The figures of the Coronation
in Martinščina show the same pattern as in Zajezda.
Analogies between the Martinščina and Zajezda workshops on one hand, and the Slovene group
centered around Breg pri Preddvoru, and the workshop of the Master of Bohinj Presbyter on the other
is revealed by the lower sections of the background with a decorative pattern made by using stencils
on an ochre ground. The first master of the Apostles in Martinščina comes closest to the Master of
Breg pri Preddvoru, as witnessed by the painting of faces realized by shading in darker color within
the basic color of the incarnate.
The Breg pri Preddvoru workshop possibly reveals closer links with the late Trecento art of Italy,
reflected in Martinščina only in the painting of the folds of the master working on the vault. The
Italian Trecento influences in the group around Breg pri Preddvoru are present also in the painting
of the borders with Cosmati like ornament, not found in the paintings in Martinščina. By showing
fewer links with Italy the Martinščina workshop comes closer to the Master of Bohinj Presbytery, but
he and his workshop display harder forms, whereas the forms in the works in Martinščina are softer
and freer, and thus closer to Breg pri Preddvoru.
A comparison of the Martinščina paintings indicates that they should be placed somewhere in between
the group formed around the Master of Breg pri Preddvoru and the workshop pf the Master of
Bohinj Presbytery. The Trecento elements of the Breg pri Preddvoru are less evident in Martinščina,
but the forms had not hardened to the point of the Master of Bohinj Presbytery. Therefore we conclude
that Martinščina was a somewhat later offshoot of the Breg pri Preddvoru master, and, consequently
they are datable later than the Breg pri Preddvoru paintings, and earlier than those of the
workshop of the Master of Bohinj Presbytery, i.e., around the first half of the 15th ct.
Keywords
Medieval Wall Painting; Martinščina; Zajezda; Carniolan Presbytery; Soft Style
Hrčak ID:
105256
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2008.
Visits: 867 *