Ethnologica Dalmatica, Vol. 2 , 1993.
Original scientific paper
Interest In Croatia Folk Art
Branka Vojnović
; Etnografski muzej Split
Abstract
The interest in folk art in Croatia first began sporadically by recording folk costumes, while describing areas isolated from urban influence. The earlest descriptions and drawings of folk costumes are found in the works of foreign travel writers at the end of the 18th century. During the 19th century, influenced by Romanticism, a great number of private collectors gathered works of folk art, primarily textile handicrafts. As early as the beginning of the 20th century there were numerous collections for didactic use of folk motifs in schools and companies of so-called artistic craftsmanship, but also served for the founding of the first ethnographic museums in Split and Zagreb. This period of interest in folk art is characterized by its corelation with the complex of applied arts and the aspiration to realize the universal national ornamental style. Gradually, the idea of the artistic handicrafts production is supplemented by the need for forming an autochtonous style of the entire Croatian art, on the model of folk art. Therefore the interest in folk art now leaves the need for practical applicability and enters the sphere of theoretical, scientific research, characteristic of the period between the two World Wars. Now folk handicraft is a subject of ethnological study and museological interpretation so its aesthetic values primarily give way to the importance for documenting and preserving the Croatian folk art culture. The ethnologist M. Gavazzi with his book from 1944 is considered the greatest contribution to the study of Croatian folk art. He pointed out the faults of strictly aesthetic valuation and the irreplaceable role of the ethnologist in the study of this type of art work, defining it as an integral part of Croatian folk culture. In the period after the II World War only particular objects or individual ornamental motifs underwent a more systematic study; there was more research work and museum exhibitions on this subject matter, but nevertheless a modern scientific synthesis has not yet been developed. Neither the past cultural and historical ethnology nor recent folklore study has shown a greater interest in this field of folk culture and creativity. Thus, even today Croatian folk art is terminologically and phenomenologically undefined. Industrialization and rapid adaptability left it at the very margin of scientific and popular interest being nothing more than a nostalgic admiration of ethnographic objects on display. But the presence of a specific aesthetic taste of the newly arrived urban population of rural background leads to the possibility of cultural and anthropological study. Surely, folk art cannot be studied in the light of the classic European history of art and should be viewed primarily as a segment of Croatian folklore. Further scientific research should therefore include both quality of duration and transformation, preferring the value of this cultural phenomenon to the existing aesthetic norms.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
108730
URI
Publication date:
20.12.1993.
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