Original scientific paper
Putto on the High Altar of the Church of St Francis in Zadar: a Proposal for the Workshop of Giusto Le Court
Bojan Goja
; Ministarstvo kulture RH, Konzervatorski odjel u Zadru, Uprava za zaštitu kulturne baštine
Abstract
According to the contract drafted on Wednesday, 30 January 1669 in Venice, the execution of the high altar of the Church of St Francis in Zadar, dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was a joint undertaking of Baldassare Longhena and Gerolamo Garzotti. The contract with the masters was signed by Antonio Ferrari and Franchin Bonicelli on behalf of the commissioner, the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which had its seat in the Church of St Francis. According to the terms of the contract, Longhena and Garzotti promised to construct the altar within a year and a half, agreeing to make it equal in architecture, sculpture, quality of execution, shape and style to the today inexistent high altar of the Church of San Daniele in Venice, but with an addition of a marble putto on the altar gable. Earlier scholars attributed the said putto figure to Francesco Cavrioli, who was considered the author of the marble statues of St Anthony of Padua with Child Jesus and St Jerome from the same altar. On the basis of a thorough typological and stylistic analysis, as well as comparison with other works such as angel and putto figures and profile reliefs and busts, the author dismisses Cavrioli as the creator of the Zadar putto and proposes its association to the circle of the most important Venetian sculptor of the 17th century Giusto Le Court and his workshop.
Keywords
Zadar; Church of St Francis; 17th century; sculpture; putto; Giusto Le Court
Hrčak ID:
136368
URI
Publication date:
17.3.2015.
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