Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2016.9
Nicola Grassi‘s Paintings and the Comissioners in Croatia
Višnja Bralić
; Croatian Conservation Institute, Division for Movable Heritage, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article presents results of the research into the works of Venetian painter Nicola Grassi (1682–1748) in Croatia, following the completion of conservation work and revalorisation of his painting depicting the Annunciation with Saints from the Cathedral Treasury in Krk. The introduction outlines the characteristics of Grassi’s Rococo painting and the painter’s reception in 20th-century art history. The author supplements an overview of fortuna critica for the Trogir cycle and individual pieces from Hvar and Osor with new insights into their visual and stylistic features, including information on the commissioners. A more precise chronology is proposed for Grassi’s paintings in the Trogir Benedictine Convent, dating them to the second half of the 1720s and separating their commission from Monteventi’s stucco renovation of St. Nicholas’ church from 1740–1742. The canvas depicting a levitating saint from the Franciscans’ collection in Hvar is recognized as an episode from the life of St. Peter of Alcantara, a Spanish mystic and founder of “the barefoot Franciscans”. An interpretation of the recent history of the Krk painting and the consequences of retailoring the format are supplemented with insights into the context of the Krk commission and a detailed analysis of its visual features and iconography. The painting is dated around 1740.
A so far unpublished painting of St. Catherine of Alexandria from the parish church in Sot on the former Ilok estates of the Princes of Odescalchi expands the circle of Grassi’s commissioners to what were frontier territories of the Habsburg Monarchy of the period. The inscription PAROCHIA SOTTENSIS / ANNO 1747 confirms that the antependium still stands in its original location. From the elegant posture and a lively gesture of the saint leaning casually against a wheel, the symbol of her martyrdom, we can discern characteristics of Grassi’s late and often unconventional works. The bright, pastel tones and sketch-like rendering of the figures link it to the 1742 altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with Saints from the parish church in Fielis di Zuglio and the Virgin with Saints from the painted antependium of the main altar of the church of S. S. Michele Archangelo in Formeasa di Zuglio. The right of patronage over the church in Sot, consecrated in 1742, belonged to the Princes of Odescalchi who provided it with furnishings. Judging from the inscription and the visitations of Bishop John Baptist Paxy, the antependium of the main altar was procured thanks to Livio Erba Odescalchi.
Keywords
Venice; 18th century; Rococo painting; Nicola Grassi; Trogir; Hvar; Osor; Krk; Ilok; Sot; Giovanni Milanese; Pietro Antonio Zuccheri; Livio Erba Odescalchi
Hrčak ID:
171696
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2016.
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