Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2016.7
New Insights into the Furnishings of the Parish in Margečan
Ksenija Škarić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4496-6010
; Croatian Conservation Institute, Department for Wooden polychrome Sculpture, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
It is impossible to achieve the sustainability of conservation without an insight and realistic assessment of the situation in the field. Hence, the acquaintence of the conservator with the artwork’s context, and also the monitoring of the condition in the field during and after the project should be part of the standard procedure. While the narrowing of focus is a highly important and necessary phase of the conservation research, an insight into the context is both complementary and corrective. It is an indicator of the complexity of conservation as a discipline which at the same time must combine views measured on a meter-, millimeter- and micro-scale that have to be valid on their own and be in tune with each other. Therefore, the former practice of acquainting the conservator with the artwork at the “operating table” is far from ideal. An overview of the condition in the field will not only draw attention to the conservation issues, even the urgent ones, but also allow the widening of knowledge of the heritage material, as can be seen in the Croatian Conservation Institute project focusing on the Gothic statue of Our Lady of Radovan but also including the parish furnishings. As the previous renovations of the church and its affiliated chapels were connected, the artworks have been relocated from one building to another. Thus the two statues from the parish church in Margečan probably originate from the chapel in Bela, from the former altar of St. John of Nepomuk, erected in 1729. They can be typologically linked to the earlier-known works of Varaždin sculptor Johann Adam Rosemberger. Although damaged and lacking attributes, the statues can be interpreted, according to how they were carved and postured, as depicting St. Barbara and St. John the Evangelist. The Gothic statue of Our Lady of Radovan has to a great extent been degraded by a recent renovation. Conservation research indicated that the statue had in the past undergone multiple renovations, whereby the Virgin’s crown was replaced with a new one on at least two occasions. The most recent renovation in 1997 saw at least one historical layer of painting removed and the sculpture fully repainted, repeating to some extent the found late 18th-century polychromy. Given that the latter is preserved only in fragments, it was for the time being decided against the removing of the 1997 repolychromy and its presentation.
Keywords
Margečan; Radovan; Bela; Johann Adam Rosemberger; Gothic sculpture; conservation research
Hrčak ID:
171694
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2016.
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