Artworks Catalogue

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)

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

  1. 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

  1. Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
  2. Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
  3. Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2020)
  4. Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
  5. Marija Gorica, Parish Church of the Visitation of Mary, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Ivan Marinković, 2021)
  6. 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

Sources and Bibliography

  1. Archive of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 64/XX, 1808
  2. Archive of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Canonical visitations, Katedrala Archdeaconry, protocol 67/XXII, 1820
  3. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Doris Baričević, Propovjedaonice 18. stoljeća kontinentalne Hrvatske, katalog, PhD Thesis, Zagreb, 1971
  4. Đurđica Cvitanović, Župna crkva sv. Marije od Pohoda u Mariji Gorici, in: Kaj, 3, 1992, 75–89
  5. Doris Baričević, Članovi kiparske obitelji Straub u Hrvatskoj, in: Peristil. Zbornik radova za povijest umjetnosti, 35–36, Radovan Ivančević (ed.), Zagreb, 1992–1993, 193–218
  6. Paškal Cvekan, Samostan Gorica – Brdovec, Virovitica, 1994
  7. Croatian Conservation Institute, Miroslav Pavličić, Izvješće o provedenim konzervatorsko-restauratorskim radovima na skulpturama sa kućišta orgulja, oltaru Sv. Ivana Nepomuka i oltaru Presvetog Srca Isusova iz ž. c. Majke Božje od Pohođenja, Marija Gorica, Zagreb, 2013
  8. Ministry of Culture of Republic of Croatia, Conservation Department in Zagreb, Radovan Karković, Izvještaj o obavljenim konzervatorsko-restauratorskim radovima na dijelovima propovjedaonice župne crkve BDM u Mariji Gorici (hitna intervencija), Zagreb, 2014
  9. Croatian Conservation Institute, Mirjana Jelinčić, Domagoj Mudronja, Laboratorijsko izvješće br. 158/2018, Zagreb, 2018
  10. Croatian Conservation Institute, Margareta Klofutar, Laboratorijsko izvješće br. 163/2018, Zagreb, 2018
  11. Croatian Conservation Institute, Mirjana Jelinčić, Ana Bogi, Domagoj Mudronja, Laboratorijsko izvješće br. 9/2019, Zagreb, 2019
  12. Doerner Institut, Ursula Baumer, Patrick Dietemann, Research report, München, 11/11/2019

Notes

1 Canonical visitations, Katedrala Archdeaconry, 64/XX, 1808, 306: "Hic ex ligno affabre factum, variis figuris verbi divini annunciationem repraesentantibus ornatus, firmus, occidentem versus." (Transcribed by Šime Demo); Paškal Cvekan, 1994, 46; Doris Baričević, 1971.

2 In 1820 it was further described: "Suggestus est ex ligno molli affabre factus ac munificentia denati episcopi Diakovariensi Chiolnich erectus. Collocatus est in corpore ecclesiae ex parte epistolae, ascensu commodo et suo crucifixo provisus." Canonical visitations, Katedrala Archdeaconry, 67/XXII, 1820, 572 (Transcribed by Šime Demo); Paškal Cvekan, 1994, 46; Doris Baričević, 1971.

3 Bishop Josip Anton Čolnić (Vivodina, 1699 – Đakovo, 1773) was a former parish priest of the nearby parish of Brdovec, and also a cousin of the bishop of Zagreb Franjo Thauszy who had given commissions to Franz Anton for Vugrovec (1759), Pakrac (1760), Kloštar Ivanić (1761), Cernik (1761). Doris Baričević, 1992–1993, 198, 207, 208, 211, 212, 214.

4 Đurđica Cvitanović, 1992, 82–83.

5 Margareta Klofutar, 2018. In paint layer a protein-based binder (probably skin glue) and natural terpen resins, as well as a small amount of oil, were identified using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) on sample extracts (KBr pellets technique). The other identified material are calcium carbonate (CaCO3), calcium sulphate dihydrate (CaSOx 2H2O), barium sulphate (BaSO4) and lead white.

6 Mirjana Jelinčić, Domagoj Mudronja, 2018; Mirjana Jelinčić, Ana Bogi, Domagoj Mudronja, 2019. Microsamples were investigated by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.

7 Ursula Baumer, Patrick Dietemann, 2019. The samples were extracted in solvents and extracts were analysed with gas chromatography (GS) and gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with and without derivatisation. A small sample was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A particle was pressed onto the UATR unit and measures in reflection (range 4000-650 cm-1).

8 Radovan Karković, 2014.

9 Miroslav Pavličić, 2013, 33.