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THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ST. JOHN'S OF TROGIR
Milan Ivanišević
Abstract
In the bishop's town Trogir (Tragurium), the chatedral is
dedicated to St . Laurel (Laurentius martyr). The oldest by
name and certainly a well known bishop was John, probably
a Benedictan, who was mentioned in documents from 1064
to 1111. He had been a ver y eminent man and participated
in church and state offairs during the t ime of papal reform
movement in the Dalmatian and Croatian dioceses and in the
time of the last Croation rulers and Hungarian King Koloman,
who founded a united Croato-Hungarian state. He was
proclaimed a Saint about 1192.
Since 1125 in Trogir, Bishop John has been venerated
together with St. Laurel, as the protector of the church and
twon. His feast day i s the 14th of N o vember (XVIII kal.
decembris). Located in Trogir's cathedral is the Saint's sarcophagus
(from the old chapel 1348). This old chapel had been
started by Ni kola Firentinac in 1468, and finished in 1681.
The saint is also on the city's coat of arms.
Vita Beati loannis Confessoris Episcopis Traguriensis et
eius Miracula was
wr itten annonymously around 1150,
and i n 1203 was supplemented by Treguan of Florence,
later the bishop of Trogir. This work described some of the
saint's miracles during his lifetime (making of wine during a
d rought, walking on t h e sea's s urface at the moment o f
shipwreck, protecting the city of Zadar f rom Koloman, the
setting of pigeon on his head while he was serving mass in
šibenik in the presence of Koloman and after his death (miraculous
cures of 3 Trogirion citizens who doubted his holiness
but firmly believed that they would be healed).
The Iconography depicts the miracles in a f e w p i ctures
from XVIII — XIX century, with l i t t le artistic value (the shipwreck,
the mass, and the discovery of t h e saint's grave in
the cathedral). The majority of wo r ks are those on wh ich
thesaint is shown as an i ndependent f igure wearing bishop
robes with a staff, a book, and in his hand is the church or
the city which he is blessing.
The most valuable ar tistic work in i conography of t h e
saint i s th e s a rcophagus f rom Venetian w orkshop of De
Sanctis (1348) and polyptychs of our a r t isans especially of
Blaž Jurjev, (1434).
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
148575
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1978.
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