engleski

Late Gothic and Renaissance Venetian Velvets in Croatia

When speaking of Gothic and Renaissance velvets of Venetian provenance preserved in Croatia, it is worth pointing out that plain cut crimson velvets prevail among the examples published up to this day. Furthermore, amongst the plain cut velvets known from the scholarly literature, the example that stands out is the one preserved on a mitre in the cathedral of St Lawrence in Trogir, dating to the first half of the 14th century (AA.VV. 2001 ; Davanzo Poli 2009 ; Spiandore 2014), followed by a cope, two dalmatics, a chasuble and two lectern covers from the same cathedral (AA. VV. 2001 ; Pavičić 1998 ; Demori Staničić 2003-2004) as by the cope from the Dubrovnik cathedral (Ivoš 2014) and some other examples of minor dimensions. Aside from these, a valuable cope from Žminj in Istria was presented (recently restored at the Croatian Conservation Institute in Zagreb), which can be compared to the ones in Trogir and Dubrovnik as well as to the cope in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice (Davanzo Poli 2014). However, even though the foreign scholars are most likely familiar with the most of the above mentioned examples, a significant number of patterned Venetian velvets in Croatia remained unknown to the international researchers of historic textiles. The main goal of this presentation was to provide an elementary insight into the (mainly) unpublished, so far documented material: 'a inferriata' velvets with 'de 'cammini' pattern, polychrome velvets, pile-on-pile velvets and luxurious ciselé and bouclé velvets (both of 'de'cammini' and 'a griccia' pattern typology). The majority of these date from the middle or from the second half of the 15th century. However, Croatian collections also house Venetian velvets dating from the first and from the second quarter of the 15th century, that remained unnoticed by the domestic researchers. All velvets were shown together with the comparative examples preserved both in Italian and other collections worldwide, while their argued Venetian provenance was additionally supported by the construction, appearance and the width of their selvedges. Moreover, one brief part of the presentation was dedicated to selected cases of depictions of Venetian velvets in Renaissance paintings in Croatia. Finally, the conference audience was presented with the case of the valuable pile-on-pile 'a inferriata' velvet with 'a griccia' pattern that has been the part of the Textile Collection of the Palazzo Madama Museum in Turin since 1958, but had previously belonged to the parish church in Kanfanar (Istria). This claim, recently published by the author, is now strengthened by some newly discovered archival records.

velvet; plain cut velvet; patterned velvet; Gothic; Renaissance; Venice; Croatia; liturgical items; Renaissance painting; art market

Sudjelovanje na međunarodnoj konferenciji je ostvareno uz potporu The Pasold Research Fund (u ovo vrijeme pri Sveučilištu u Edinburghu, Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo) te zaklade International Trust for Croatian Monuments (London, Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo)