Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2023.3
Gold ornamented draperies as a source of new knowledge about the painting of Nikola Božidarević
Mara Kolić Pustić
orcid.org/0009-0005-9215-4983
; Hrvatski restauratorski zavod, Restauratorski odjel Dubrovnik
Sažetak
Conservation and restoration of the Annunciation (1513), a painting by Nikola Božidarević from the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Dominican Monastery in Dubrovnik, started in 2019 at the Dubrovnik Department for Conservation of the Croatian Conservation Institute. In view of the complex state of preservation of the artwork, detailed interdisciplinary research is being carried out at the same time as the conservation. The paper presents new knowledge about gold ornamented drapery made using the painted hallmarked water gilding technique, on both the Annunciation painting and other paintings by Nikola Božidarević. The Annunciation altarpiece has been restored several times. During the 1897 restoration in Vienna under the Zentralkommission für Denkmalpflege, the ornamented draperies were painted over with a brown-gold layer, and the ornaments were redrawn. It was discovered that the ornament on the drapery of Archangel Gabriel was almost identical to the original, while the newly-drawn ornament on the mantle of the Virgin was significantly different. Subsequently-applied materials were removed in stages. During the first phase, the brown-gold layer between the lines of the ornament was removed in order to reveal the level of preservation of the gilding and possible traces of the original ornament. During this process, the pale light-blue lines of the original ornament were revealed, among which the motif of a fan-shaped row of acorns filled with a circular hallmark could be discerned. The ornaments and the way they were hallmarked were studied in detail on all preserved paintings by Nikola Božidarević. It was found that, very consistently and systematically, some elements of the ornament were filled with a circular hallmark and others with a rod-shaped one, while certain zones between the lines of the ornament were not hallmarked. Božidarević repeatedly drew the same ornament pattern, for example on the mantles of the Virgin on the Triptych of the Bundić family (1502–1508) and the Virgin with Saints (1517) altarpiece from the Church of St Mary, on Danče. This ornament contains a motif of a fan-shaped row of acorns, like the one on the original mantle of the Annunciation Virgin. It was studied in detail, and its hypothetical template was created. Following the positions of the circular hallmark and traces of the drawing of the original ornament on the mantle of the Virgin in the Annunciation painting, it was discovered that the mantle was also based on a common template. Preliminary comparative research of ornament motifs included comparisons with ornaments on paintings by Božidarević's contemporaries in Italy, where he spent seventeen formative years, with drapery ornaments of Božidarević's Dubrovnik predecessors, and with Renaissance gold-silk ornamented velvets. Remarkable similarity is noticeable between the ornamental composition on the chasuble from the liturgical set of Bishop Giuliano della Rovere, from the Treasury of the Cathedral of St Eusebius in Vercelli, and ornaments on three paintings by Božidarević: the dalmatic of Archangel Gabriel on the Annunciation painting, the mantle of St Augustine on the Triptych of the Bundić family from the Dominican Monastery Museum in Dubrovnik, and the mantle of the Virgin on the Triptych for cobbler Juraj Božidarević (1513) from the Church of Our Lady of Špilica, on the island of Lopud. Links with Božidarević's execution of ornaments, i.e. the method of hallmarking and glazing of gilded surfaces, were established through comparisons with the finesse of making gold-silk ornamented fabrics (bouclé, alluciolato, alto e basso). The research resulted in the discovery of another group of draperies with the same pattern on three altarpieces, two of which are the work of Nikola Božidarević: Holy Conversation (1513) from the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik, with the ornament of the Virgin's mantle, and the altarpiece Virgin with Saints in Danče, with the mantle of Pope Gregory. The third one is the Triptych of the Lukarević family (1512–1515) from the Dominican Monastery Museum in Dubrovnik, the work of Mihajlo Hamzić and his collaborator, Pietro di Giovanni, with the same pattern of the ornament from the chasuble of St Nicholas in the central field of the triptych. Archival material tells us that Mihajlo Hamzić, together with his brother Jakov, was involved in the fabric trade, funded by Dubrovnik nobles. It is therefore possible that the fabric samples that the Hamzić brothers sold (not necessarily in the extremely valuable gold-silk velvet technique) could have served as an additional source of inspiration for the repertoire of ornamented draperies in the paintings from the time of Božidarević and Hamzić.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
312333
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.12.2023.
Posjeta: 147 *