Ars Adriatica, No. 6, 2016.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
„Temporibus domini Iohannis episcopi..." – On the Beginnings of Pre-Romanesque Sculpture in Boka Kotorska
Meri Zornija
; Odjel za povijest umjetnosti, Sveučilište u Zadru
Sažetak
This paper focuses on a series of pre-Romanesque fragments found in Kotor, Bijela, Tivat, Vijeće Brdo, and the islets of Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Rock (Gospa od Škrpjela) in Boka Kotorska, which have been attributed to a highly skilful stonemason workshop based in Kotor, for which the name Stonemason Workshop from the Time of Bishop Ivan of Kotor has been proposed. Their common stylistic features, the repertoire of motifs, and masterful stonemasonry in high-quality marble indicate an early phase in the formation of the pre-Romanesque style in the Eastern Adriatic, in the spirit of early Christian art found elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Chronological orientation points provided by the triple mention of Iohannes, the first historically documented bishop of Kotor, have served as a framework for dating them to the last quarter of the 8th and the early 9th century as the bishop participated in the last ecumenical council in Nicaea in 787, together with bishops Ivan of Split, Laurence of Osor, and Ursus of Rab. His name has been recorded in remnants of liturgical furnishing found in some of the oldest ecclesiastical buildings in Boka. He may be considered as the promoter of church reform in his diocese, which at that time did not result in the construction of new churches, but exclusively in the restoration of the existing, early Christian ones by means of adding new liturgical elements, such as altar railings and ciboria. Special attention has been paid to analogies with similar sculptures that adorned the cathedrals of other Dalmatian and Istrian cities at the time, particularly those in Zadar, Osor, Rab, and Novigrad. These analogies include the almost exclusive use of high-quality marble, monumental dimensions of cathedral plutei, similarities in the stonemasonry technique, and the use of identical compositions and motifs, such as sinusoid foliage with large trefoil or whirling rosettes, knotted circles with indented leaves or a specific version of geometric interlacing. These motifs are limited almost exclusively to urban localities and the period between late 8th and early 9th centuries, when there was a wave of restoration of early Christian cathedrals. This supports the presumption that there was a group of masters active in these centres, using the same models. Their work reveals the same visual language that inspired the Stonemason Workshop from the Time of Bishop Ivan of Kotor.
The sudden emergence of such masterful sculpture indicates that the original impulse for the development of pre-Romanesque sculpture in Boka Kotorska may have come from the travelling masters coming from a northern Adriatic centre, who were commissioned by the ecclesiastical elite to work in Dalmatian cities. By training the following generations of artists, they made an impact on the formation of local stonemason workshop during the 9th century, when the pre-Romanesque sculpture matured in our coastal cities and soon penetrated the hinterland, establishing itself among the recently converted Slavic population. This completes the picture of the genesis and evolution of pre-Romanesque art in the Eastern Adriatic, divesting at least the second half of the 8th century from that unfavourable attribute of the “dark ages”.
Ključne riječi
Stonemason Workshop from the Time of Bishop Ivan of Kotor; early pre-Romanesque sculpture; Kotor; Boka Kotorska; Second Council of Nicaea; 8th century
Hrčak ID:
170699
URI
Datum izdavanja:
19.12.2016.
Posjeta: 2.063 *