Review article
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2020.9
Significant Examples of Photo Documentation of Movable Heritage in the Split Conservation Service until the mid-20th Century
Ivana Čapeta Rakić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4594-2774
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Department of Art History, Split, Croatia
Ružica Gabelica
orcid.org/0000-0002-1947-4156
; Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Conservation Department in Split, Croatia
Abstract
During this research, based primarily on preserved material kept at the Conservation Department of the Ministry of Culture in Split, it was discovered that some of the earliest examples of photographs documenting movable heritage before and after conservation include two photographs of the choir benches from the Hvar Cathedral. One photograph is of a drawing of wooden choir seats made by Giovanni Smirich (Ivan Smirić) in 1888 before their restoration, and another photograph shows choir benches after the restoration. The photographs were taken by Tommaso Burato, a photographer from Zadar, and they were the result of his work with the conservation service. Burato also photographed choir benches from the Franciscan church in Zadar, and one of those photos is kept at the photo archive of the Conservation Department of the Ministry of Culture in Split. Between 1889 and 1893, Josef Wlha (1842-1918), photographer and correspondent member of the Central Commission in Vienna, visited Dalmatia where he photographed a significant number of cultural monuments, including various items belonging to movable heritage. During this research, a complete list of photographs Wlha made during his stay in Dalmatia was documented. His photographs of Buvina’s door occupy a prominent place in Split. These photographs are invaluable because they are the reason we know what part of the door looked like before the 1908 renovation carried out by Anton Švimbersky. Apart from Buvina’s door, Wlha also photographed movable heritage in Split, although there was still no significant documentation of paintings at the time. For now, the earliest two known examples of Wlha’s photographs have been singled out - Sacra Conversazione by Božidarević (Đorđić altarpiece) photographed in the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik, and Our Lady of Sorrows painting from the Benedictine monastery in Zadar, at the time believed to have been painted by Titian. Photographs by traveling photographers from the late 19th and early 20th century also sporadically documented movable heritage in Dalmatia, but their photographs were not systematic documentation associated with inventory and recording the condition of art before and after restoration. Such processes, in the context of development of the Split conservation service, are associated only with (amateur) photographer Ivan Znidarčić, a museum assistant, sent by Don Frane Bulić to a photography course in Vienna, probably with the intention to frequently use his services to photograph cultural heritage in Split and Dalmatia. Nevertheless, the number of photographs in the Conservation Department connected with Znidarčić is not particularly large. In 1907, he once again photographed Buvina’s door before the restoration, and in 1908, he took photographs of several sections of the door during and after restoration. His photograph of the altarpiece in the parish church in Brusje, probably taken because of the 1912 restoration of the painting, should also be mentioned. The more frequent practice of using photographs as carriers of information on the condition of heritage was brought about by the cooperation between the Office with the restorer Matej Sternen from Ljubljana. Matej Sternen (1870–1949), in addition to being well known for his drawings and paintings, also pursued restoration and photography. He photographed the polyptych of Nikola Vladanov from Šibenik before and after restoration, and he used one photograph of the existing condition of the polyptych to mark in red the damage to the gilded frame for which he proposed a replacement with newly made parts. In addition to photographs, Sternen sent negatives of photos from Ljubljana to Karaman in Split. Karaman also worked closely with prominent Split photographer Dragutin Karl Stühler. He made photo documentation of heritage until his death in 1954. The number of photos he took is enviable. Despite close cooperation with conservators in Split, it is interesting that Stüler was not part of the large-scale project of systematic inventory and photographing old paintings of historical and artistic value in Dalmatia. The project was started by the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1930, and this extensively conceived venture, as well as its actors, was covered on several occasions. Among the very interesting photo documentation of movable heritage in the first half of the 20th century, a number of photographs taken in 1944 and 1945 during the evacuation and return of the monumental painting “Last Supper” from the refectory of the Franciscan monastery in Hvar stand out. The process of developing photo documentation of movable heritage in Split and Dalmatia is evident from the information mentioned in this article. The importance of this type of documentation has been recognized by numerous art historians, including Cvito Fisković. After the activity of the Split conservation service was renewed at the end of the war, he warned the Ministry of Education, Department of Culture and Arts in Zagreb that the Conservation Institute in Split did not even have the basic instruments for measuring and photographing monuments, or even a camera, even though Stühler was already working for the Institute (i.e. Archaeological Museum) and was to perform his duties at the Art Gallery. However, Stühler died suddenly in 1954, and Ivo Munitić was hired as the institute’s photographer. Work on the records and documentation of monuments became somewhat easier, since at that time the Institute received the first camera and off-road vehicle. A new chapter in documenting movable heritage in Split and Dalmatia began when the Restoration Workshop was founded as part of the Conservation Institute.
Keywords
photography; movable heritage; conservation; restoration; inventory; documentation
Hrčak ID:
250640
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2020.
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