engleski

The Feast of the Ancient Water-Gods in Ceremonial Halls of the Dubrovnik Elite

In the age of the Renaissance stone basins were often the most representative part of the interior decoration of palaces in Dubrovnik and villas of its surroundings. From the middle of the 16th century, as a prominent decorative feature of stone basins a head of the bearded man with dolphins or scrolls appeared. This figure, as well as the specific shape of basins to which it was applied, became common and in time replaced all other motifs and shapes. Although the ancient origin of the motif has long been observed, it has not yet been interpreted more closely. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to present the results of the more detailed research, based equally on the examination of written sources, as well as on the analysis of the iconographic type itself. According to the research, the motif of the bearded man is in fact a representation of the sea-god or the water-god Oceanus and/or Achelous, which stands pars pro toto for the mythological narrative of the 'Banquet of the Oceanus/Achelous' or the 'Feast of the water- gods'. As we shall argue, reduced in the form of the mask, as the symbol of the ancient narrative, representation of the Oceanus and/or Achelous was deliberately chosen with regards to the function and the importance of the space in which it is most often found – main/ceremonial halls or dining rooms of palaces and villas. Certain variations of the representation will, also, be explained, with the attempt to establish its relative chronology, based on the typology of stone basins. Ultimately, this representation of the ancient myth on stone basins of the 16th and 17th centuries will be observed in the context of written works of the Dubrovnik humanists, which jointly point to the simultaneous adoption and assimilation of classical tradition and the implementation of new meanings on the ancient model. Although the same transformation of the narrative into the symbol has occurred already in the Antiquity, when the head or bust of the Oceanus and/or Achelous frequently adorned triclinia and representative halls for gatherings and banquets in baths, ambiguity in mythological narrative as well as the multiplicity of its usage in art experienced re-interpretation and re-contextualization in Renaissance and Baroque Dubrovnik.

15th-16th c. Dubrovnik, palaces and villas, stone basins, Ancient water-gods, Oceanus/Achelous, classical tradition, Ancient Illyricum, Dubrovnik humanists

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