Original scientific paper
Paintings from the Estate of Cardinal Juraj Haulik in Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s Collection
Ljerka Dulibić
; Strossmayerova galerija starih majstora HAZU, Zagreb
Iva Pasini Tržec
; Strossmayerova galerija starih majstora HAZU, Zagreb
Abstract
After the death of Cardinal Juraj Haulik (1788–1869), his estate was offered at an auction which enabled Franjo Rački to purchase eleven paintings for the collection of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer. On the basis of contemporary press reports, the paper reconstructs the course of the auction which lasted for ten days and attracted numerous prospective buyers from the country and abroad. It furthermore analyses the manuscript inventory of Haulik’s estate preserved in the Metropolitan Library in Zagreb. Apart from furniture, clothes and liturgical vestments, the document lists groups or types of items, including library books and other valuable objects. Section number 9 itemizes a total of 140 artworks. An insight into the said document enables precise identification of paintings acquired for the collection of Bishop Strossmayer, of which the authors provide a thorough art-historical analysis. The holdings of the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts today include the Portrait of a Young Poet by an unknown Flemish 17th-century painter, Salome with the Head of St John the Baptist by Florentine Baroque painter Onorio Marinari, Peasant Courting an Older Lady after Adriaen van Ostade, Man Reading and Woman at Table after David Teniers the Younger, while Modern Gallery in Zagreb preserves the painting Hector’s Departure by Italian 19th-century painter Francesco Hayez. The remaining five paintings (three by Zasche, one by Karas and one by Slovakian painter Eduard Spiro) could not be located. In view of a possible discovery of these and other paintings from Haulik’s estate sold at the 1869 auction to Croatian or foreign buyers, the paper includes a transcription of Haulik’s inventory. With its detailed and precise account, the said inventory remains a testimony of Juraj Haulik’s intense collecting activity, revealing him as potentially the first genuine collector in inland Croatia.
Keywords
Josip Juraj Strossmayer; Juraj Haulik; Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters; art collections
Hrčak ID:
136375
URI
Publication date:
17.3.2015.
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