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The Finest 18th Century Art Commission in Rijeka: the Orlando Family and the Presbytery of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary’s Assumption

The town of Rijeka reached the peak of its prosperity in the 18th century, which coincided with the increased political and economic interest of the Hapsburg’s Court for the Mediterranean Sea. The economic development resulted in rapid growth of the urban population and in the concurrent increase of its wealth. The Orlando family was one of the most prominent families that constituted the new urban elite of Rijeka. They became Rijeka citizens and in 1715 Carniolan nobles. They eventually decided to crown their new social status by financing the reconstruction of the presbytery in Rijeka’s most important church - the Collegiate of St. Mary’s Assumption, making it thus a family chapel. Simone Orlando bequeathed an important sum of money for the reconstruction of the presbytery and for the erection of its main altar with the family grave in front of it. After his death in 1719, his son Antonio, the most prominent member of the family and the manager of the office of the Vienna Eastern Company in Rijeka, took care of the execution of his father’s will. Thanks to him, in 1726, the new lavishly adorned presbytery with the marble altar was finally finished. The author of the altar is stone-cutter and altar builder Luka Mislej from Ljubljana. Sculptures, above all the four imposing marble statues of saints, patrons of the members of the Orlando family, adorn the altar in the most exquisite way. These are St. Simeon the Apostle, St. Anne, St. Margaret and St. Anthony of Padua, excellent works by Venetian master Jacopo Contieri. The upper altar painting is a signed work by Cristoforo Tasca, Venetian master with Bergamasque origins, who also painted for the Court of Vienna. The noble Orlando family had intense connections with the Duchy of Carniola, especially its capital Ljubljana. The then Rector of the Jesuit Collage, Zaharia Gladič was from Rijeka. Some hitherto unknown archival documents thus shed new light on relations between the Orlando and the Gladič family, suggesting that Zacharia was the most probable intermediator between the Orlandos and the artists that executed the altar in the presbytery of the Collegiate Church in Rijeka. This venture became, thus, one of the most sumptuous artistic donations on the eastern Adriatic coast during the 18th century. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the circumstances, motives and ideas of this significant commission and to demonstrate specific relations between donors and artists. It will also discuss the importance of the family and business relationships underlying this prominent commission, as well as the role of intermediaries responsible for suggesting the names of the artists involved in it, active in Rijeka, Ljubljana and Venice.

Orlando, Rijeka, Ljubljana, Baroque, Habsburg Empire, Luka Mislej, Jacopo Contieri

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