Preliminary communication
The Infl uence of Ljubo Karaman on Anđela Horvat’s Conservation Work
Ivana Nina Unković
; Hrvatski restauratorski zavod, Split
Abstract
Anđela Horvat dedicated her entire life to the protection of cultural monuments, from the very first days when, in a time of war, she accepted Gjuro Szabo’s invitation to become a research assistant in the Directorate for Cultural Heritage Protection. A month after her appointment, Ljubo Karaman became the head of the Directorate (in August 1941), who modernized the organization of the Directorate’s activities through individual approach to every employee. As a »female conservator« Anđela Horvat was at fi rst considered unfi t for fi eld work, and was assigned to archivist tasks (the Szabo archives and Committee acts from 1910 to 1940). Her persistence and potential were soon noticed by Karaman. She started conducting fi eld trips to different areas of inland Croatia, which resulted in systematic analyses of collected data and continual publication of the results. From Karaman she adopted the moto »to travel, to travel and to travel«, because conservators must maintain constant contact with the area of their jurisdiction and keep track of the events occurring there. The paper pays special attention to their dedication to the drafting of the Book of Regulations for the Preservation of Antiquities and Larger Cities, introduced by Karaman on the basis of his Split experience. Anđela Horvat frequently collaborated with Karaman on the project, bringing up to date the existing books of regulations with regard to current events and situations, such as the Books of Regulations for the cities Šibenik (1931) and Sisak (1948). Anđela Horvat was a true pupil of Karaman and Szabo: she adopted all postulates of Riegl and Dvořák’s school even prior to the publication of Karaman’s Considerations under the Slogan »Conserve, not Restore« (Razmatranja na krilatici »konzervirati a ne restaurirati«), and complemented them by thorough long-term archival research. The author compares their views of the »creative attitude« of conservators in the forementioned Karaman’s essay and in Horvat’s unpublished work Conservation Problems of Sacral Monuments of Zagreb Archdiocese (Konzervatorski problemi crkvenih spomenika zagrebačke nadbiskupije; 1956).
Keywords
Ljubo Karaman; Anđela Horvat’s conservation work; drafting of the Book of Regulations for the Preservation of Antiquities and Larger Cities; slogan »conserve, not restore«; conservation practice laws; activities of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage Protection in Zagreb 1941-1950
Hrčak ID:
188351
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2011.
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