Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Baptismal pool in the Baptistery of Split
Tomislav Marasović
; HR, Split, Marasovića 8
Sažetak
The baptismal pool in the Baptistery of split is among those monuments that have inspired the greatest attention in the historiography of Croatian art, with varied opinions and interpretations stretching back to Eitelberger, who first published it in 1861, and continuing to the present day. It is composed of12 marble slabs, 6 of which on the eastern side of the pool were carved in shallow relief, characteristic in terms ofthe carving, the stylization, and the interlaced motifs of the altar screen of a pre-Romanesque church to which they must originally have belonged. Particular interest was aroused by the slab with a relief of a ruler on a th rone.
Researchers who have studied these reliefs offered their many and entirely varied opinions about the most important questions related to the pluteus with the image of the seated ruler. Considering that the slabs were subsequently used to coat the baptismal pool, the first question to arise was the original provenience of these slabs.
Since the figure ofthe ruler on a throne is the iconographically most interesting detail of the entire composition, from the very beginning of research, the question has naturally arisen as to whether this figure represents a heavenly or secular ruler. The authors who decided for this second possibility necessarily had to broaden the question to include the identification ofthis ruler.
Varied interpretations also were offered for the entire scene, ranging from a "handing over ofkeys"(traditio legis) or aparable about a merciless debtor, to a crowning, aproskinesis, or an image of a "right/ul king".
The period oforigin ofthe other reliefsfrom the baptismal pool is obviously related to the previOUS questiOns, and this is seemingly least in question at present, thanks to historical and artistic analyses dating the reliefto the middle or the second half of the 11th century. The problem nonetheless remained of dating the relief more specifically in the framework ofseveral decades within this Period.
Starting from Dyggve's discovery of Zvonimir's coronation basilica in Solin and his claim that the same sculptural-masonry workshop had also produced the reliejs in Split, the author has attempted to rework part ofthis theSiS, which would place all ofthe Split reliefs originally in the altar screen in Solin, and to seek a different origin for the slabs from the Baptistery. Aprecondition for any new conclusions was an exhaustive study of the slabs themselves. This offered a series ofnew data about the dimensions ofthe plutei and about their refashioning prior to secondary use in the baptismal pool.
The iconographic reinterpretation of the plutei from Split has led the author, like several others addressing with the same topic, to the conclusion that the figure depicted was the Croatian King Zvonimir. This would make the hypothesis most convincing that the slabs of the altar screen, which were subsequently used for the baptismal pool in the Split baptistery, were ordered put into place by the archbishop and metropolitan Lawrence on the occasion of Zvonimir's coronation, perhapsfor the Synod of 1075 or after the coronation itself, ordering the reliejs to be made by the same master craftsmen who had caroed the screen of the Solin basilica. Through comparison of a fragment from the Split cathedral (today in the Archaeological Museum in Split) with the slabs of the baptismal pool, the author recognized sections of the same altar screen., lending weight to the hypothesis that all ofthe slabs in the Baptistery were originally from the Cathedral.
Following up such conclusions, the complex stratigraphy ofthe stone furnishings ofsplit Cathedral is noted, and the author identifies three different developmental phases in the formation of the interior in the framework of the early Middle Ages.
Tbe first phase (7th-8th centuries) should be related to the very transformation of the Mausoleum of Diocletian into the main church ofSplit, along with the activities ofthe first archbishop john ofRavenna or his first successors.
Tbe second stage shows marked traits of mature interlaced ornaments ofthe 9th or 10th centuries, and if a later boundary is accepted in this span, the renovation could be related to the activities ofArchbishopjohn, son ofTvrdak, and the organization ofthe synods ofSplit in 925 and 928.
Tbe decoration of the preserved fragments of liturgical furnishin/?s in the third phase ofdevelopment would indicate the second half of the 11th century, when the church in Split was led by Archbishop Lawrence, and so the six plutei, today part of the baptismal pool in the Baptistery ofSplit, would belong to the third renavation of the interior of the Split Cathedral.
For a more complete study of the altar screen of the Split CathedraIfrom the end ofthe third quarter ofthe 11th century (as well as the furnishings from the previOUS phases), further research will be necessary, particularly the study and recording of the earlier paving, which is not currently available. Further study will probably show in a more complete manner the form of the altar screen and the afmngement of the slabs.
All the plutei of the third early mediaeval phase of the stone furnishings ofthe Split Cathedral exhibit the characteristics ofpreRomanesque interlaced sculpture, and only the main pluteus with the figure of the Croatian king gives notice of a new protoRomanesque artistic form of expreSSion. Tbus the entire screen cannot be considered early Romanesque but rather atransitory monument on the boundary oftwo stylistic periods, such as certain other structures or sculptural works that were created at the end uf the early Middle Ages, in aperiod when the Romanesque gradually penetrated into these regions, but the pre-Romanesque style had not completely died out.
Tbe removal of the early mediaeval screen was most prubably cau.sed by the placement ofthe Romanesque chair seats in the mid 13th century, and at this point the baptismal pool of cross shape cou.ld have been formed from the reused slabs, at the site ofan earlier poul of the early mediaeval BaptistelJ!. Detailed study of the slabs has prOVided answers about the process of utilizing earlier material in the formation of the baptismal pool.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
93335
URI
Datum izdavanja:
12.9.1997.
Posjeta: 3.902 *