Stručni rad
THE ROMANESQUE PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL OF ST DOMNIUS IN SPLIT – RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION-RESTORATION OPERATIONS
Ana Doljanin
Sažetak
During research into and the documentation of the as-found state of the pulpit, various forms of inorganic soiling and mechanical damage were found. It was held to be necessary to define and classify them, and to determine their origin, which was executed with visual and microscopic examinations, sampling and analyses of the dirt. Apart from this, more than 30 different types of soiling were sampled, described, photographed through a microscope and saved. Laboratory analyses showed that on the surfaces there were various kinds of waxen and resinous coatings. On the whole, they related to operations of an aesthetic character, for the pulpit to obtain to an extent the appearance of age and the shine of stone after the cleaning. In most places the original polish of the stone is very well preserved; it gave the surfaces a fullness of colour and a high polish. All the carved shapes were well preserved precisely because of this reason. The penetration of aerosols, dust and other dirt through the micropores of the stone was thus prevented. Water, turpentine gel and white spirit had the primary role in removing the dirt and the coatings from the surfaces.
During the operations, what was going on between the joined elements was explored, particularly in places invisible to the eye, where the old craftsmen had stabilised the structure with the use of iron clamps or ties. The existence of many iron elements was ascertained; only of those that were visible, more than sixty were counted. All the accessible and revealed iron elements were cleaned and conserved.
As part of the research works, more than fifteen types of reutilised ancient stone from quarries that ceased production in Late Antiquity were recorded and processed typologically. It could be concluded that all the kinds of stone were secondarily used from the decorative material of Diocletian’s Mausoleum and surrounding structures that had been broken off / pulled down. The slabs of the pulpit screen have dimensions that are similar to those of some of the marble slabs that were incorporated into the later medieval paving of the cathedral, and are similar in dimensions and thickness to the material from which the second medieval inventory of the cathedral was made. The slabs probably belonged to the original paving of the mausoleum’s niches, or were used for similar purposes.
Microscopic recording and analysis of the pigments and gilding and reinterpretation of the results led to the conclusion that the original appearance of the pulpit in the Romanesque had a certain order. Painted decorative stone was visible on the bodies of the columns, while the capitals and base of the columns/balusters were gilt. On the bodies of the columns, the varied colours of the marbles used achieved colourist expressiveness, alternating green, red, light pink, blue and grey surfaces.
Within the lunettes, gilding and polychromy appeared in greater abundance. Unluckily, no traces in the context of the polychrome and gilding of the big capitals were discovered. Nevertheless, analogously to the capitals of the Trogir pulpit and ciborium, they too must have been gilded. At the end it is possible approximately to reconstruct the appearance of the pulpit in the late Romanesque when it was created. From this attempt at the reconstruction of the lost layer it is possible very easily to visualise how opulent and many coloured the whole inventory of the cathedral was, starting with Buvina’s door, the pulpit, the former ciborium, the choir stalls and screens, and then later with Bonino’s and George of Dalmatia’s chapel. Because we know from the archiepiscopal visitations what a huge amount of candles lit the cathedral’s altars, it is not hard to imagine the kind of problems the clerics had while maintaining these artworks that over the course of time darkened and lost their shine. As well as darkening, these layers also flaked off, and then were repaired, and at the end, when they had acquired a very unprepossessing appearance, were deliberately removed from the stone surfaces, which is also to be discovered from historical sources. At the end until the current time only the few it had not been possible to remove and those that were in awkward places remained. Still, thanks to technology, laboratory and instrument techniques, it can be said that almost all of it has been preserved.
Ključne riječi
Romanesque pulipt; St. Domnius’ Cathedral,; Split; research; conservation; restoration
Hrčak ID:
212741
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.6.2018.
Posjeta: 1.740 *