Original scientific paper
Wood Architecture in the Studies of Anđela Horvat: Style and Timelessness
Sanja Cvetnić
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za povijest umjetnosti
Abstract
Anđela Horvat addressed the key art-historical problems of wood architecture in several studies (1956; 1961; 1964; 1975; 1982), in greater extent than any other art historian before or after her. The study of Croatian wood architecture heritage had been initiated by architects and historians of traditional building, with fi rst studies on the subject published in Viesti društva inžinira i arhitekata (Journal of the Society of Engineers and Architects) in the last decades of the 19th century. Their work was followed by conservators, primarily Gjuro Szabo (1910) through the activities of the State Committee for the Preservation of Artistic and Historic Monuments in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia (Zemaljsko povjerenstvo za očuvanje umjetnih i historičkih spomenika u kraljevinama Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji) and ethnologists such as Ljerka Topali (1941). Anđela Horvat’s approach was marked by the refl ections of Ljubo Karaman on the »problems of artistic periphery« (1963), as well as by his fervent polemics with Josef Strzygowski in the 1930s on the infl uence of wood building on stone building. A special value of Anđela Horvat’s research results lies in the fact that they were based on fi eld records of preserved buildings, but also those known only from archival sources. In this manner she managed to collect data on over one hundred and fi fty wooden buildings, of both sacral and profane purpose. As opposed to the understanding of preserved wooden heritage as »timeless« vernacular architecture, predominant in the studies written by architects, or the concept of wood building as a contemporary folk refl ection of urban models prevailing in ethnological interpretations, Anđela Horvat introduced art-historical methods and standpoints to the analysis of wooden buildings, especially the complex ones, sacral: she distinguished the protagonists of wood building, from patrons to master builders, to the audience and their attitude towards wooden heritage; she analysed the elements of style, the longevity of once adopted models and plan typology. This paper discusses the possible genesis of Anđela Horvat’s interest for the subject of wood building and emphasizes the importance of this part of her scholarly heritage, as well as the unexpected modernity of her views.
Keywords
Anđela Horvat; wooden heritage; inland Croatia; vernacular architecture; style
Hrčak ID:
188277
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2011.
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