Original scientific paper
Ad imitationem angelicæ, apostolicæque coronæ Vngaricæ: A Contribution to the Iconography of the Crown on the Images of the Holy Kings in Zagreb Cathedral
Danko Šourek
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za povijest umjetnosti
Abstract
The characteristic shape of the crown in the paintings of the former altar of St Ladislaus from Zagreb Cathedral (Ivan Eisenhart, c. 1690) inspired an interesting iconographic and cultural-historical interpretation. For Zvonimir Wyroubal the tall, rounded crown at fi rst represented a historical interpretation of the crown of Croatian national rulers, while Anđela Horvat recognized its immediate model in the crown of the reliquary bust of St Stephen the King in the treasury of Zagreb Cathedral. Both authors stressed the symbolic importance of the crown in the eyes of its contemporaries, in the course of the historically turbulent 17th century. The reliquary bust of St Stephen came to Zagreb from Rome in 1635, as a gift of Cardinal Francesco Barberini. The person who brought the precious gift – historian, Bosnian bishop and Zagreb canon Ivan Tomko Mrnavić – made a note of the event in a book De sacris Ecclesiarum ornamentis published in Rome the same year (1635), remarking that the reliquary crown was made »on the model of the angelic and apostolic crown of Hungary«, and that it was »a superb and exquisite Roman work comparable in quality to the reliquary itself«. However, the formal model of the reliquary crown can be traced to the crown of the Prefect of Rome, a specifi c ceremonial head cover customary in Rome during the 1630s. This crown – in its most extravagant form – was designed by the famous architect and painter Pietro da Cortona for the Prefect of Rome Taddeo Barberini, brother of Cardinal Francesco and nephew of Pope Urban VIII. In terms of iconography, the Zagreb reliquary crown is closer to the »angelic and apostolic crown of Hungary«, i. e. its contemporary description by Péter Révay in his De sacræ Coronæ Regni Hungariæ (1613), with the same misinterpretations of the original form of the Hungarian Crown of St Stephen. An interesting combination of tradition and modernity, the crown played an important role in the formation of the specific local iconography of the Holy Kings Stephen and Ladislaus as protectors and founders of the Zagreb Diocese.
Keywords
Holy Crown of Hungary; angelica et apostolica corona; St Stephen King of Hungary; Ivan Tomko Mrnavić; Francesco Barberini; Zagreb Cathedral
Hrčak ID:
188427
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2011.
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