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"Visitation to Elisabeth" – Christian Imagination of Pregnancy in Four Examples from Croatian Sacral Patrimony
Ante Škrobonja
; Hrvatsko znanstveno društvo za povijest zdravstvene kulture.
Abstract
The author portrays the evangelical theme Visitation to Elizabeth as an example of two this-worldly women, Mary and Elizabeth, who become physically aware of their pregnancies. The layout is accompanied by four hitherto uncommented examples from the Croatian sacral heritage. The fi rst example is a fresco by Vincent of Kastav (Beram, Istria, 1474), followed by a wall painting by Friar Serafin Schon in the Mother of God Shrine at Trsat in Rijeka (around 1630), and two gilded wood sculptures from Varaždin (1699/70). The fourth example is a miniature of an unknown 18th century artist from Mutvoran, Istria, which represents the second mandatory motive in a series of paintings known in sacral art as the Mystery of the Rosary. The study ends with the conclusion that Christianity can, aside from its religious message, offer a believer considerable practical, i.e. biological, knowledge of pregnancy.
Keywords
ethnomedicine; medicine and arts; 15th to 18th century; pregnancy; religion; Visitation to Elizabeth; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
111756
URI
Publication date:
5.11.2013.
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