Remains of Dubrovnik's past
Occupied since Neolithic times, the city site has revealed precious stone sculptures. The great earthquake that struck the city in 1667 unfortunately wiped out many cultural assets. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the Archaeological Museum, formerly called the Patriotic Museum, gathered collections bequeathed by Dubrovnik families. Among the oldest pieces are Roman capitals and architectural elements from temples. Some sculptures and ceramic fragments from later periods, up to the beginning of the Middle Ages, are on display.
The city of Ragusa
The city-state of Ragusa, founded in 1358, was for centuries a bridge between the Eastern and Western worlds. The Byzantine influences visible in the first religious works were followed by the imprint of Venetian painters in the 13th century. The art did not reach a quality comparable to the works of the Venetian or Florentine masters. Nevertheless, Dubrovnik's painting flourished, reflecting the city's prestigious past.
The Franciscan order and the city's noble families owned a number of Italian Renaissance masterpieces (Caravaggio, Titian), which disappeared in the course of history, especially during the earthquake of 1667. Several Italian masters reside in Dubrovnik at the invitation of the government and local patrons.
Dubrovnik School
In the 13th century, the Dominican monks who had just arrived in Dubrovnik began the construction of the monastery, which lasted for almost two centuries. The Dominican monastery (Dominikanski samostan) thus bears the trace of the various styles which followed one another: Romanesque, Baroque then Gothic. Without forgetting the reconstructions following the earthquake. A hint of oriental influence remains perceptible in the ornamentation. In the cloister, the museum of the Monastery houses religious objects, superb religious sculptures, but especially paintings of the Dubrovnik school, which includes painters of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Although there are very few testimonies of this school, we know that it is based on the following painters: Lovro Dobričević, of whom three works have survived and are publicly available (the polyptych in the Dominican monastery, the polyptych in the church of St. Mary in Danče and some panels of the polyptych - portrait of St. Blaise - located in the Franciscan monastery [Franjevčki samostan] in Dubrovnik). His son Vicko Lovrin made a polyptych in the 16th century that is in the church of Our Lady of the Snows (Gospa od Snijega) in Cavtat.
A key figure in this Ragusan school, Nikola Božidarević was a member of Dobričević's workshop. He follows the tastes of the rather conservative Ragusan patrons, and his creations are more Byzantine than Renaissance. Only one triptych has come down to us (currently in the church in Danče), as well as three works preserved in the museum of the Dominican monastery (Dominikanski samostan).
Finally, Mihajlo Hamzić was Andrea Mantegna's apprentice in Italy. He is credited with The Baptism of Christ exhibited in the Rector's Palace (Knežev Dvor) as well as a triptych in the Dominican Monastery representing St. Nicholas.
Byzantine influence
The interior of the church of the Dominican monastery is dominated by the large wooden crucifix painted by Paolo Veneziano (c. 1290-c. 1360). The first known Venetian painter, he made his career in the 14th century. His art is strongly impregnated with Byzantine codes (frozen posture, use of gold), Venice being then a place of commercial and cultural exchanges. However, this crucifix attests to a change in Veneziano's style. A certain flexibility characterizes his Christ with features full of humanity.
In Dubrovnik, the Byzantine past (9th-12th century) has left little evidence. The main influence of the Byzantine school remains the art of icons. Painted on wood, these small representations with a religious vocation are characterized by the abundance of golden tones and the use of simplified and even forced forms. The Museum of Icons, attached to the community of Serbian Orthodox Churches, is housed in a four hundred year old building. Its collection includes icons painted between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Five centuries of religious art are told on the walls of this former private residence.
Baroque and classicism
The evolution of the arts in Dubrovnik becomes indissociable from the tendencies which characterize the rest of Croatia from the moment when the city is not any more at the top of its glory. From the seventeenth to the eighteenth century, the Baroque developed in Croatia and the appearance of illusionist painting. A baroque which is expressed perfectly in the architecture of Dubrovnik, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1667.
The beginning of classicism is in the 19th century, followed by the appearance of the Biedermaier style, specific to Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The representative of the period is the Croatian Vjekoslav Karas. In the second half of this century, we see the appearance of historical painting, closely related to the revival of national consciousness (Quiquerez, Mašić, Iveković) and especially Mato Medović (1857-1920). This artist from Pelješac, author of the historical painting The Arrival of the Croats, will nevertheless end up devoting himself to coastal painting in his native village.
Modernism of Vlaho Bukovac
Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922) represents the new trends in Croatian painting in the second half of the 20th century. Born in Cavtat, the Croatian painter trained in Paris, in Cabanel's studio, then taught in Prague. His style, initially academic, evolved towards post-impressionism. In 1882, his Great Iza caused a sensation at the Paris Salon. His painting The Montenegrin Woman was also noticed. He was invited across the Channel where he went several times. He experienced growing success in the late 1880s. He was invited to the Venice Biennale in 1897 and three years later to the Paris World's Fair in 1900. Bukovac moved away from the academicism of his masters to follow the path of the impressionists and modernists. He participated in workshops with the Fontainebleau school. In 1893, Bukovac returned to Croatia, and was one of the most prominent members of the multicolored school of Zagreb. He also founded the Society of Croatian Artists. From 1898 to 1903, he worked in his studio in Cavtat, searching for new chromatic solutions. He was later appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Prague, where he introduced pointillism.
A pillar of the Dubrovnik pictorial renaissance, he was one of the creators of the Zagrebačka šarena škola (Zagreb Multicolored School) and influenced the formation of the Croatian secession (Čikoš-Sesija, Crnčić). You can visit the birth house of Vlaho Bukovac (Kuca Bukovac) in Cavtat.
20th Century Renewal
In the 20th century, Croatia followed the European artistic trends. The instigators of Croatian modernism were painters educated in Munich (Račić, Kraljević, Becić). The works of Ivan Meštrović, a renowned Croatian artist, date from this period.
The Museum of Modern Art (Umjetnička Galerija) or MOMAD presents Croatian artists from the end of the 19th century to around 1970, just a short walk from the Pile Gate. Some international artists are also represented in this collection of three thousand works. Landscapes and realistic portraits of prominent personalities of the region are the dominant themes. Vlaho Bukovac is included, but also Josip Račić (1885-1908). This genius painter, who died at the age of 23, stayed in Paris for a while in 1908. His most famous painting is The Bridge of Arts.
The sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962), attended Bilinić's studio in Split, exhibited in Vienna before going to Paris in 1908-1909. He became friends with Rodin. His sculptures have been exhibited twice at the Rodin Museum. Several of his works adorn the region of Dubrovnik. In particular, he is credited with the statue of St. Blaise at the Pile Gate (Vrata od Pila), as well as the mausoleum of the Račić family in Cavtat.
In the interwar period, Croatia experienced a development of expressionism and cubism (Tartaglia, Šulentić, Gecan). After the war, the school of naive art was founded in Hlebine. In the early 1950s, there was a development of abstract trends.
Contemporary art
Around 1960, the era of the "second avant-garde" began. Local painting was reborn under the impetus of some of these new masters who followed in Bukovac's footsteps, including the trio of contemporary artists Dulčić (1916-1975), Masle (1919-1967), and Pulitika (1922-2006), all of whom were from the Dubrovnik region, who were inspired by local landscapes and motifs and some of whose works can be seen at... the Dulčić-Masle-Pulitika Gallery.
Pulitika's sunny paintings somewhat resemble child's drawings, simple and touching. Pulitika uses blue in many, many pictorial creations. In his Stradun (1972), the white of the cobblestones seems to splash over the rest of the canvas. The artist also painted several female nudes against a Dalmatian landscape background. Masle's painting, slightly more abstract, is also very colorful and uses simple figures. Boats in Dubrovnik's old harbor languish at the foot of the ramparts in Gradska luka (1967).
Ivo Dulčić was born in Dubrovnik in 1916, from a family from Hvar. He is one of the personalities who most influenced Croatian painting in the second half of the twentieth century. Strongly imbued with patriotism, awareness of change, love for his people, humanism and Catholicism, Dulčić is the author of stained glass windows adorning theChurch of St. Blaise (Crkva Sv. Vlaha) in Dubrovnik. From his first self-portraits in 1942 to his last work, The Last Supper in 1975 (destroyed during the 1991-1995 war), Dulčić reaffirms his affection for freedom and his gift for color. His last artistic phase brings him back to the path of figurative art and leads him to produce more stained glass and mosaics.
Nowadays
Today, the artistic development follows the main world trends. In Dubrovnik, there are some original initiatives such as the War Photo Limited Museum. This place is dedicated to photography that realistically testifies to the armed conflicts in the world.
Street art culture is flourishing even if the historic heart of the city is not its favorite playground. The Croatians Lunar and Lonac formed the first urban art tandem. Together, they created a long fresco in Mokosica on the theme of Star Wars, the saga partly shot in the region. On the walls of the local school, you can recognize Lunar's style by the dreamy cat that has become his signature. Next to him, his father-cat in a pilot's outfit plays with an X-Wing. Lonac can be recognized by his hyper-realistic line. This joyful collaboration may set the trend..
