Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2020.4
Ciborium by Marko Andrijić in Korčula Cathedral: A Study of the Original Appearance
Goran Nikšić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5260-6555
Abstract
The most prominent member of a large family of stonemasons, and certainly the greatest stonemason and builder from Korčula, Marko Andrijić learned his trade not only in the workshop of his father, the famous stonemason Andrija Marković, but also working on numerous commissions throughout Dalmatia and all the way to Italy. In his home town of Korčula, he gained fame by working on the modernization of the city fortifications and the cathedral, which is why the Venetian government appointed him lifelong protomaster of all public buildings.
His work on the completion of the bell tower on the Cathedral of St. Mark stands out, because he did it in an unprecedented way, combining an octagonal loggia with a dome, lantern and promenade surrounded with a balustrade that served as an observatory. In addition to the bell tower, Andrijić transformed the entire cathedral: he placed vaults above the side aisles and galleries above them, raised the nave, and decorated the upper part of the façade with richly carved stonework. He added a sacristy to the cathedral, a ciborium over the main altar, and a bridge over the street towards the bishop's court, and built a tomb for Bishop Malumbra. In 1486, Andrijić agreed to design and build a magnificent ciborium above the main altar of the cathedral. The extraordinary proportions and brilliantly executed details of the ciborium, combining the Gothic and Renaissance styles, surpass local significance. This was the first time that a classical pillar with entasis and genuine Corinthian capitals, as well as composite capitals with dolphin and siren motifs, had appeared in Croatian art. The ciborium's appearance was significantly changed during the complete redesign of the cathedral’s interior in the Baroque style, undertaken by Bishop Josip Kosirić at the end of the 18th century. In order for a sculpture of the Risen Christ to be placed on top, the upper tier of the ciborium roof was replaced with awkward, curved stone elements that belonged to older church furniture and had been re-carved to fit the ciborium. Joško Belamarić found the final tier of Andrijić's ciborium roof in the lapidary of the abbey collection, turned upside down and converted into a baptismal font. This discovery made it possible to make an ideal reconstruction of the original appearance by completing the natural sequence of four openings in the surface of the first-tier of the ciborium roof to one opening the surface of the fourth-tier. In order to re-establish the integrity of Andrijić's masterpiece, and taking into account the angle of parts of the roof on the ciborium and its proportions, a draft was made with the reconstructed missing elements: eight segments of the third-tier roof and the small dome.
After the upper part of the ciborium was disassembled to preserve the stone and consolidate the structure, all the stone elements, holes for fixing metal joints, traces of masonry tools, damage, re-carving and shortening were inspected and analysed in detail. A stonemason's mark was found on the upper surface of the architrave, which determined the position of the elements of the first tier of the roof, which, according to the original design, should have been about 9 cm wider on all sides. It was concluded that the perfectly carved lower part of the ciborium was made by Marko Andrijić in his workshop, and the inferior roof was made by stonemasons who did not understand his design. In order to understand what exactly happened and to be able to make the right conservation decision on how to restore the ciborium, it was necessary to return to the original construction contract, kept in the Zadar State Archives. A complete transcription and translation of the contract, with the payments written in the margins, was made. Master Marko Andrijić committed to carving a ciborium of stone from Vrnik and based on the design he had made, in the following two years for the price of one hundred and fifteen ducats. If he failed to complete the ciborium within the agreed time, the master had to pay a fine, but he was allowed to let other master stonemasons complete the work in that case. Judging by the recorded payments, the construction of the ciborium took six years instead of two, and Marko did not pay a fine, and he even received about seven ducats more than the agreed price. The excess payment probably relates to the statues of the Annunciation, which had to be contracted subsequently with an annex that has not yet been found. After about two-thirds of the ciborium was complete, the work was stopped, and after more than two years, work was continued, probably by one of Marko's brothers, but he was not up to the task. Due to an error in transferring the dimensions and angle of inclination of the roof surfaces from the draft, the replacement masters had to re-carve the already-executed elements of the first-tier roof and improvise to fill the resulting cavities. As a result of these errors, the roof of the ciborium was narrowed and lowered. However, viewed as a whole, the proportional system of the ciborium, consisting of four rectangles of the golden ratio placed one above the other, is not significantly affected by a small but proportional reduction in the dimensions of the roof. Between 2014 and 2019, the Croatian Conservation Institute repaired the damaged elements, carved the missing parts, and re-assembled and connected the upper part of the ciborium with metal clamps filled with lead, with all the necessary reinforcement of the structure. After more than two centuries, the best work of Korčula's architectural and stoneworking art was once again made whole.
Keywords
ciborium; Korčula Cathedral; Marko Andrijić; contract; iconographic content; original appearance
Hrčak ID:
250628
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2020.
Visits: 1.809 *