Original scientific paper
Venetian »Little Masters« in the Franciscan Monasteries of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sanja Cvetnić
; Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, Department of Art History
Abstract
The Bosnain/Hercegovinian painting legacy, preserved in the Franciscan monasteries
displays the same characteristics as the Dalmatian one, that is, a joint framework of
the Venetian school of painting. Artists such as Francesco and Gian Antonio Guardi are
among the famous artists in the collection of the Bosnia Srebrena province. However, the
majority of works belongs to the little masters. The three works analyzed in this article
reveal different aspects of the relationship between Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Venice
between the 16th and the 18th century. The so-far unpublished painting of the Flagellation
is a copy of the central part of the Flagellation by the Veneto-Roman painter Sebastiano
del Piombo in Kraljeva Sutjeska (after an initial drawing by Michelangelo). The theme,
inspiration and model have been identified for the Flagellation in Zadar, and the central
motif was also repeated by a Venetian little master, Bartolomeo Litterini in his altarpiece
at Abano Terme (Padova).
The St Francis Receiving the Stigmata at Humac (near Ljubuški) has been here attributed
to Giovanni Battista Augusti Pitteri, a painter whose work is linked to Venetian
patrons. For the votive painting of the Virgin with St. Roch and St. Sebastian, a Franciscan
and a group of the faithful, the author has determined the context of the commission,
i.e., the plague epidemic of 1782-1785, which spread from Bosnia to Dalomatia, and was
recorded in the reports by father Jakov Baltić, Mula Mustafa Ševkija Bašeskija, and Paolo
Pinelli. From the notes preserved in the Franciscan chronicles one is able to associate some
other paintings to the same artists whose works have been preserved in Dalmatia, as for
every year there are entries describing travel to the territory ruled by the Serenissima and
some other centers in Italy for the purposes of education, work, health, and, also, commissioning
of works to adorn the churches.
Keywords
painting; Venitian school; 16th-18th century; Franciscan friars; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sebastiano del Piombo; Giovanni Battista Augusti Pitteri; Sebastiano Devita
Hrčak ID:
105286
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2008.
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