Mirko Rački

Mirko Rački (1879 – 1982)  graduated from the Teacher’s Academy in Zagreb. He then went to the private art school of H. Strehblow in Vienna, then studied at the Academy in Prague under Vlaho Bukovac and in Vienna under W. Unger. His painting activity encompasses a period of almost eight decades. He lived in Munich from 1907 to 1914, then in Rome, Geneva, Zagreb, and finally in Split. In 1941 Rački was admitted into the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The pre-eminence of idea in the work of art, which Rački has pointed out repeatedly whenever he had spoken about art, resulted out of the formation of his artistic position, influenced by European Symbolism at the turn of the century. His most productive period was when he lived outside Croatia, but he was in permanent contact with Croatian artists (particularly with Izidor Kršnjavi and Ivan Meštrović),
Rački’s most important body of work is connected to Dante’s The Divine Comedy and he was occupied with these motifs until the end of his life.  Some his works were published in the collector’s edition of the Divine Comedy from 1934 in Bergamo, Italy.