Croatian painters and Academy of Fine Arts in Munich

A couple of days ago I took a trip to Zagreb to see several exhibitions. One of those was “Croatian painting and Academy of Fine Arts in Munich”, which took place at Art Pavillion. In the following days I’ll upload here the photos I have taken there.

First of those is large painting “The Coronation of Ladislav of Naples”.

It is a work of the leading Croatian history painter of the period Mato Celestin Medović. Notice the interesting compositional devices. I could talk about it longer, but suffice it to say that the canvas is vertically and horizontally divided in two halves, with many smaller subdivisions, interlocking shapes (triangles, for instance). Notice the nice, large heart shape which links king and queen.

Next one is “Sirmium Martyrs”, from 1896.
The painting’s subject are martyrs from roman city Sirmium (who were Christians). They were sculptors and artisans who refused to participate in making of the sculpture of roman god Asclepius. In this large vertical composition Medović again suggested large cross-shape in the middle. The sculpture of Asclepius is compositionally cut below the head, which conveys a message of inferiority of pagan gods. Medovic spent 12 years as a friar in a convent, btw (before he went to Italy and later to Munich’s Academy).

Click to enlarge (the left photo is just for gaining a picture of the painting’s size).

Below is “Bacchanal”, Medović’s diploma work which won him the silver medal in 1893. It measures 2 x 3.5 meters.

Here is short TV footage on Medović:
http://www.mojnet.com/video-mato-celestin-medovic-slikar/073c6804fbeb2c9e1d16
Play button is “hidden” at the lower part of the screen.

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