Ars Adriatica, No. 6, 2016.
Original scientific paper
Baroque Adaptations in the Church of Our lady of Carmel in Trogir
Ivo Babić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3760-6247
; idependent researcher
Abstract
Church of Our Lady of Carmel is situated in a prominent locality – at the entrance to the suburb in Pasike. It was once called Our Lady of the Suburb or Our Lady of the New City (Sancta Maria de burgo, S. Maria di Città Nuova) and in the early 17th century it was dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel (Madonna del Carmine), with a Carmelite confraternity linked to it. The foundation stone for the first church was laid on August 10, 1265, at the time of Bishop Koluban. Sancta Maria de burgo Tragurii is mentioned in various 18th-century documents. No traces of this first medieval church have remained, apart from the knowledge about its location and the original dedication. According to the manuscript of Chiese in Traù, the new church, built in place of the medieval one, was completed in 1618, which is also attested by an inscription on its façade. The same manuscript mentions that the original church had been small and narrow, which is why Count Domenico Mini (1596-1598) decreed on September 11, 1600 that it should be demolished in order to build a new one.
The author argues that the present appearance of the church stems only from the beginning of the second half of the 18th century and probably results from an intervention directed by Ignacije Macanović. According to the visitation report of Bishop Didako Manola from 1756, the church was derelict and had to be renovated, which is why the bishop ordered the reconstruction works.
The upper part of the façade, with its frame of arches/curves with volutes above the corners, is almost identical with the façade of the former Healthcare O ce (O cium salutis) in Trogir, built by Ignacije Macanović shortly before 1753, and so is the decorative manner of alternating longer and shorter sides of stones on the edges of the belfry. The stone globe attached to an iron spike on the façade of Our Lady of Carmel is analogous to the same motif in the cornice of the Healthcare O ce. Ignacije Macanović applied similar curved arches that end the semi-circular
cornice in the parish church of Nerežišće on the island of Brač, where the semi-circular cornice is above the main nave, while the side naves feature concave curvatures. Further analogies include the façade of the unfinished parish church of St George in Drvenik Veli near Trogir, traditionally believed to be work of Ignacije Macanović, and the façade of the parish church of Our Lady of Annunciation in Milna on the island of Brač, which ends with concave and convex curvatures, work of Ivan Macanović, Ignacije’s father, from 1733. The vase on top of Our Lady of Carmel in Trogir shows analogies with the vases-lamps on top of the façade of the parish church in Nerežišće, where Ivan and his son Ignacije worked together. One may therefore suppose that Ignacije Macanović and his assistants, including some who were his relatives, worked on the baroque adaptation of the church and belfry of Our Lady of Carmel in Trogir. It is not known whether Ignacije’s father Ivan, with whom he had built the parish church of Kaštel Štafilić, was still living at the time. That church, completed in 1775, likewise had large thermal windows, one in each of the sidewalls.
Incorporation of a spolium – relief from a medieval sarcophagus – also points to the Macanović workshop, as they often used spolia in their decorative projects. It has been observed that Ignacije Macanović preferred ancient spolia, but also used younger ones, not only as building material, but also as elements in new decorative arrangements with a sense for the semantic qualities of antiquity. Incorporating spolia so as to create a sort of pastiche is typical of Ignacije Macanović: thus, the apse of the parish church in Kaštel Štafilić contains an early Christian cross; in an economy building in the courtyard of the Garagnin palace in Trogir, pointed tops of Gothic windows were used to create baroque openings with curved frames; and a similar collage technique is also manifest at the Mainland Gate in Trogir, which features a Gothic statue of St John of Trogir.
Keywords
church of Our Lady of Carmel; baroque alterations; Ignacije Macanović
Hrčak ID:
170756
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2016.
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