Review article
Petretić’s Holy Sepulchre: Bearer of Spiritual and Salvational Messages and a Testimony of Cultural and Artistic Endeavours
Lina Slavica Plukavec
; Zagreb Cathedral Treasury
Abstract
The paper presents an overview of previous research and restorations of the Holy Sepulchre (Wolfgang Jakob Stoll, 1659), a masterpiece of embroidery preserved in the Zagreb Cathedral Treasury. The author makes special mention of scholarly studies written by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, Ivan Krstitelj Tkalčić, Anđela Horvat, Vanda Pavelić Weinert (author of the book Vezilačka radionica 17. stoljeća u Zagrebu – The 17th-Century Embroidery Workshop in Zagreb) and Milan Pelc, and gives an overview of exhibitions at which the work was displayed and for which it was restored: Gospodarska izložba (1891), restoration in the workshop of Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (1892); Kulturno-historijska izložba grada Zagreba prigodom 1000-godišnjice Hrvatskog kraljevstva (1925); restoration for the exhibition Umjetnost na tlu Jugoslavije od praistorije do danas (Paris, 1971); Riznica zagrebačke katedrale (Zagreb, 1983, 1987); Sveti trag (Zagreb, 1994); The Croats: Christianity, Culture, Art (Vatican City, 1999–2000).
The paper also examines the role of the patron, Bishop of Zagreb Petar Petretić, and provides an iconographical description of scenes from the Old and the New Testament, with an analysis of their semantic interrelations (The Sacrifice of Isaac, Moses and the brass serpent, Moses’s victory over the Amalekites, Jonah, and the Passion and Resurrection of Christ). The scenes are accompanied by theological explications of church fathers and quotations from the Bible. The author argues that the Zagreb Bishop Petar Petretić not only commissioned the Holy Sepulchre but also devised its concept, and proposes that the workshop which produced it should be named Petretić’s workshop. The paper also discusses the function of the Holy Sepulchre: it was created for the liturgical services of the Holy Week, during which it is regularly exposed for public veneration.
Keywords
Holy Sepulchre; Zagreb cathedral; Wolfgang Jakob Stoll; Petar Petretić; embroidery; 17th-century art
Hrčak ID:
157218
URI
Publication date:
1.1.2016.
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