Original scientific paper
Fragments of glass tiles (1 3th century?) in the Croatian History Museum in Zagreb
Snježana Pavičić
; Hrvatski povijesni muzej, Zagreb
Abstract
Six glass tiles in the Croatian History Museum in Zagreb were donated in 1905 to the former National Museum (to its »historical department«) by the famous Croatian historian, archivist and priest Ivan Krstitelj Tkalčić. No data is available as to where and how Tkalčić obtained them and their contextualization is therefore based on the analysis of their style and shape.
The tiles are made of painted, violet and blue, transparent glass varying in thickness from 1 to 2 mm. The front side is painted gold and silver, engraved in shallow lines and finally baked. The back side is smooth and for the most part clean; there are markings on two tiles where they originally adhered to a solid metal or wooden base. If held against the light, the scenes on the tiles lose their clarity since all painted surfaces turn into undefined dark smudges and the black lines become transparent.
Iconographical subjects are: »The Annunciation« (5,3x4,1 cm), »The Nativity« (cca 5x4 cm), »The Raising of Lazarus« (cca 5x4 cm), St. Gregory (5,2x4 cm), St. Andrew (2,3x1,9 cm) and St. Luke (2,2x2,2 cm). Similar mediaeval motifs, only in enamel, are often found on reliquiaries, portable altars and the covers of sacred books. The glass fragments from the Croatian History Museum can be compared with various art works and applied art objects such as miniatures, frescoes, metal objects, enamel and glass from the period between the 10th and the 14th centuries. Most similarities are observed in the works from the second half of the 13th century when Romanesque and Gothic stylistic features blend. The provenance of the tiles cannot be ascertained as they contain both eastern and western elements from various schools (mosan, Rhein, France, Italy, Venice and Monte Cassino), and the lettering (Gothic with the usual deviations) offers no clues. The eclectic style and the technical aspects indicate that the tiles should be dated very cautiously, as it is possible we are dealing with 19th century copies. However, most similarities were found with the specimens from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Their catalog »Enamel and Glass«, published in 1986, contains tiles dated in the 13th century and attributed to Venetian workshops, although their authenticity has not been verified.
ln order to interpret the tiles from the Croatian History Museum as accurately as possible, in 1999 and 2000 the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb carried out a nondestrucive analysis (PIXE-spectroscopy). The results obtained were variable and dubious (due to the inadequacy of the detector and the impurity of the specimens); also, comparison is difficult since references are rare and in Croatia, in terms of mediaeval glass, almost nonexistent, because no previous analyses had been made. A relatively high percentage of silica, violet glass contains a high percentage of potassium oxide and both glasses have low values of calcium oxide. They are probably made of flintsand and ashes. The major problem is that the anaylsis could not detect the presence of natrium and mangane so that hypotheses could not be confirmed; still, the presence of zinc in blue glass indicates authenticity.
Proper insight into mediaeval production is prevented by the lack of preserved objects and the history of glassmaking is based largely on hypotheses and guesswork. This important donation by Tkalčić, as well as similar materials in other collections in the world), are therefore subject to similar dilemmas.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
166634
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2001.
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