Original scientific paper
THE HIGH ALTAR OF THE CHURCH OF ST DOMINIC IN SPLIT
Duško Kečkemet
; Bobovišća, otok Brač
Abstract
The Dominican church and monastery in Split were erected east of the walls of Diocletian’s Palace in 1217. After being knocked down in the time of the Candiot (Cretan) War, they were reconstructed in 1682. One more renovation of the church ensued in the second half of the 19th century, and in the 1930s it was enlarged. The new grand high altar of Carrara marble was made in 1898 in the workshop of carver Pavle Bilinić (1860-1954), as shown by written documentation preserved in the monastic archives. The drawings for most of the altars from this workshop were made by Bilinić’s father-in-law, the engineer Emil Vecchietti (1830-1901), who after his studies in Padua and Venice became a drawing teacher in Split. He produced plans for churches in Vela Luka, Solin, Kaštel Kambelovac, the Orthodox churches in Dubrovnik and Skradin, the Katalinić House in Split, the altar of the Split Dominicans, and altars in churches in Solin and Imotski. He
was a teacher of the young Emanuel Vidović and Ivan Meštrović. He was helped in the production of designs for altars and monumental masonry by his daughter Regina, married to Bilinić. In the making of the altars, particularly the sculptural parts, the greatest part was played by the Italian sculptor Arturo Ferraroni from Milan, who taught Meštrović and Rosandić and took part in the renovation of the
ruined campanile of the Church of St Mark in Venice. Bilinić’s workshop took part in numbers of operations such as the reconstruction of the Old City Council Chamber in Split, the First Popular Dalmatian Bank, the extension of the Prokurativa, the Perović Building on the waterfront, and the convent and church of the Poor Clares. A number of very high quality altars are in existence, like that of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Jesuits, in Kaštel Lukšić and Kaštel Kambelovac, in churches in Imotski, Solin and Sumartin. The high altar in the Dominican church with its mensa and baldachin is counted among the most monumental altars in Dalmatia. The central statue of Our Lady of the Rosary was transferred from an earlier high altar, while at the sides are the Ferraroni statues of St Dominic and St Catherine of Siena.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
109690
URI
Publication date:
15.8.2008.
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