Location
Croatia, Zagreb County, Marija Gorica
Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary (Župna crkva Pohoda Marijina )
Artwork
Pulpit in the Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary in Marija Gorica
Type
Pulpit
Dimensions
Height: 550 cm, width: 225 cm, depth: 178 cm
Inscriptions
- CVIVs / VIDes Inslgne/Is MVn/IfICe eXtrVXI / beatae VIrgInIs honorI (in the cartouche)
Critical History
The pulpit was donated by Josip Antun Ćolnić, the bishop of Đakovo and Bosnia diocese, in 1762 to then Franciscan monastery in Marija Gorica, as evidenced by the inscriptions with the chronogram (Ins. 1) and bishop's coat of arms. The first written record is found in the records of the canonical visitation in 1808,1 followed by the one in 1820.2 Doris Baričević attributed the pulpit and its sculptures to Franz Anton due to similarities to his other proposed works.3
Construction / Execution
The pulpit is situated on the right side between the chancel and the nave, and approached from the stairs in the sacristy. The central high relief on the body of the pulpit portrays the scene of the twelve-year-old Jesus preaching in the temple. The side panels are painted on wood, depicting the Betrothal of Mary to Joseph, and the other the dream of Saint Joseph.4 It is very lavishly decorated with rocaille carved ornaments, cartouches, volutes and alike rocaille motifs. On the canopy is a figure of Holy Father in Gloria with putti and rays, supported by large ornamental volutes. On the cornice of the canopy is a figure of the Dove of the Holy Spirit, whereas a small putto carrying a crucifix sits on the cornice of the body of the pulpit. Between the canopy and the body of the pulpit is a rear panel with a painting of Saint Anthony of Padua surrounded by a carved curtain and two flying angels holding the bishop's coat of arms.
Components
- Carpentry
- Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774)
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Technique(s): sawing, wood carving
- Material(s): limewood, softwood
- Sculpture
- Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774)
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Technique(s): wood carving
- Material(s): limewood
- Painting
- Saint Anthony of Padua
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Painting
- Betrothal of Mary to Joseph
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Painting
- Dream of Saint Joseph
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Polychromy
- Completed: 1762
- Patron(s): Josip Antun Ćolnić, bishop
- Technique(s): tempera, water gilding
- Material(s): barium sulphate, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate dihydrate, colophony, gold leaf, lead white, natural terpen resin, oil, proteinaceous binders, Prussian blue, red bole, red ochre, sandarac, silver leaf, yellow bole
- Polychromy
- Repolychromy of the sculpture of angel with Crucifix
- Completed: ca. 1889
- Material(s): lead white, ultramarine, vermillion
Comment
Not only the sculptures, but also the consoles were carved from limewood.5 Apart from the angel with the Crucifix which was repolychromed once, other surfaces show polychromy dating from 1762. The ground was executed in two layers of different microscopic structure and composition. Apart of gypsum, an addition of lead white was detected in the upper ground.6 The blue glaze on silverlief is resin-bound, with Prussian blue used as pigment. The major binding component is colophony, with only small amounts of sandarac and mastic.7
Conservation-restoration
- 1997
Treatment Description
Due to the construction's instability, the canopy with its figural and ornamental elements, as well as the rear panel with its painting, figures and decorations, were dismantled in 1997. They are currently stored in the nearby parish house.
- 2003
Treatment Description
The lower part was fixed after it was damaged in the course of the renovation of the interior.8
- 2014
Strategy: preserving one or several repolychromies, removing dirt
Treatment Description
Minimal conservation works were carried out in 2014 by Radovan Karković, the private restorer, on the dismenteled elements.9
- 2018 – present
Strategy: preserving one or several repolychromies, preserving varnish
Approach to the presentation of losses
Reintegration of lacunae – mimetic: total
Reintegration of losses – other: total
Materials: 3M Spray Mount, acetone, acrylic, Aquazol 200, balsa wood, black bole, Bologna chalk, Brij 30, calcium sulphate dihydrate, demineralized water, dry pigments, ethyl alcohol, gelatin, gold leaf, gold powder, gouache, Japanese tissue, Laropal A 81, limewood, Marlipal® 1618/25, Paraloid B-72, phenolic microbaloons, Plextol D 498, PVA adhesive, rabbit-skin glue, red bole, Shellsol T, triamonium citrate, watercolours, wood, wood powder, wooden pins, yellow bole
Treatment Description
During 2018, the Croatian Conservation Institute took over for preliminary examination part of the dismantled artwork from the parish hall, within the framework of the international project Tracing the Art of the Straub Family. On this occasion, surface cleaning and consolidation of the wood and polychromy were executed. The dismantled parts were examined, which included microscopic examination, sampling and laboratory analysis of the materials. Translated archival material was also examined.
In 2019, conservation and restoration work began in the Croatian Conservation Institute workshop and in situ. In the workshop complete conservation and restoration work was executed on the sculpture of God the Father with an angel, the gloriole, five volutes, the small roof of the canopy, the coat-of-arms of Bishop Josip Anton Čolnić, the angels carrying the arms, and the dove with the sun rays. Impurities were mechanically and chemically removed with maximum preservation of the original varnish. The wood and polychromy were consolidated. The broken parts were glued together and the missing parts were reconstructed with carvings in wood. A layer of gesso was applied to the new wood, on which the missing polychromy was reconstructed. The restored parts of the canopy were installed in the church as part of the in situ work carried out between 9 and 25 October 2019.
Work on the pulpit body and structural parts of the canopy included the mechanical and chemical removal of impurities, consolidation of wood and polychromy, gluing applications that had broken off and reconstructing missing parts in wood carvings.
Part of the artwork and documentation were presented to the public at the exhibition The Height of the Baroque Era: The Art of the Straub Family in the Former Zagreb Archdiocese, held at Domitrović tower in Zagreb rom 19th September to 3rd November 2019.
In 2020 the rear panel with a painting of Saint Anthony of Padua was restored and installed, together with the coat of arms and the two angels. The in situ work carried out between 31 August and 11 September 2020 included reconstruction of the missing gesso. The work was headed by Ksenija Škarić.
Images
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2020)
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
- Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
Catalogue entry prepared by Martina Ožanić and Ksenija Škarić
Recommended citation: Martina Ožanić and Ksenija Škarić, Pulpit in the Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary in Marija Gorica, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 09/12/2024) URL
