Original scientific paper
Altar Paintings by Nicola Consoni for Đakovo Cathedral
Dragan Damjanović
; Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, Department of Art History
Abstract
Nicola Consoni was a highly appreciated mid 19th ct. artist working on a number of important projects of the time. He painted the chamber of Pope Pio IX in the Vatican, made mosaics for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, and the drawings for the compositions at the mausoleum of Prince Albert at Frogmore in the Windsor Castle in Great Britain. It is thus no surprise that he was commissioned by Bishop Strossmayer to do a few works for his new
Cathedral, which was meant to become the most sumptuous religious space in Croatia.
To celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of the Slavs by SS. Cyril and Methodius in 1863, Strossmayer commissioned from Consoni the first painting of SS. Cyril and Methodius
in front of Pope Hadrian, originally intended for an altar in the Đakovo Cathedral, but
eventually donated to the Gallery of the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences, which the bishop himself had founded in the meantime. Although Consoni committed himself to making
the painting within a year, it was completed only in 1873, after full ten years. In spite of the lateness, Strossmayer continued to use Consoni. The reason was, first of all, Consoni’s reputation, and the influence on the Bishop by a canon of the Institute of St. Jerome in Rome,
Nikola Voršak, who was Strossmayer’s agent in purchasing art, and who, as Consoni’s friend, promoted the interests of the painter.
Thanks to Voršak Consoni obtained, in 1874, a commission for five altar paintings in Đakovo Cathedral showing the Immaculate Conception, Sacraments of the Eucharist, St.
Paul presented to the Apostles, St. Cyril and his companions among Croats, and St. John Nepomuk. Consoni finished completely only the first two, but in the end they were never
installed in the Cathedral. As the influence on the Bishop by the first Croatian trained art historian Iso Kršnjavi grew, Strossmayer kept distancing himself from the Roman circle and
started leaning toward Vienna – first of all toward the architect Friedrich Schmidt and his associates. As well as the first, those two paintings ended being donated to the Gallery of the
Yugoslav Academy in Zagreb. After the Second World War they were moved to the Modern Gallery in Zagreb, which loaned them permanently to the Đakovo bishopric. Today they are
in the Strossmayer Museum and the Bishop’s Residence in Đakovo. Of the other three compositions Consoni completed one half of St. Paul presented to the Apostles, and the preparatory drawings for two more – St. Cyril, and St. John Nepomuk. These paintings have never been delivered to Đakovo, as the artist’s heirs refused to turn them over to Strossmayer, claiming that they had never been paid for.
Out of the three completed works for Đakovo, the best is the first- SS. Cyril and Methodius in front of Pope Hadrian. Later works, the Immaculate Conception, and the Sacraments of the
Eucharist are characterized by poor color, and rather static composition. Although they are not great artistic achievements, they hold an outstanding position in the history of still poorly
known religious painting in Croatian in the 19th century. They are interesting examples of the late Nazarene painting of the Roman circle of followers of Johann Friedrich Overbeck.
Keywords
Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer; Nicola Consoni; Đakovo Cathedral; Historicism; SS. Cyril and Methodius; Iso Kršnjavi; Nikola Voršak
Hrčak ID:
105288
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2008.
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