Location
Croatia, Zagreb County, Lužnica
Lužnica manor (Dvorac Lužnica)
Artwork
The altar of the Holy Cross of the chapel in Lužnica Manor
Type
High altar
Dimensions
Height: 260 cm, width: 174 cm, depth: 42 cm
Inscriptions
- In Dei nomine Amen./ HoCoratorIVM honorI Ies V/XftICr VCIfIXIaC sanCtI/IoanIs bapt. saCra VIego/Stephan V s Pvcz./Die 11. Julij./ Stephanus Eppus/Belgradiensis (in a framed plate on the predella)
Critical History
The now stolen framed plate on predella held a text signed by Stjepan Pucz, the Provost of Zagreb and Bishop of Belgrade, with the chronogram and date of the consecration of the altar on July 11th 1761, therefore the time when the altar was fully completed (Ins. 1). At the time, baron Ivan Rauch († 1762) was the owner of the Lužnica manor. 1 Mladen Obad Šćitaroci noted that the castle chapel on the first floor preserved the late Baroque inventory.2 In 2012 Doris Baričević proposed an attribution to an artist influenced by Veit Königer.3
There are notable similarities in composition of the altar painting and the image depicted on the 12th Station of the Cross (Via crucis) in the parish church in Marija Gorica, which were donated by the same baron Rauch, as well as the similarities between the polychromy of the altar in Lužnica with one on the pulpit in the parish church in Marija Gorica, as well as with the altars by Franz Anton Straub in Kloštar Ivanić and Pakrac.4
Construction / Execution
The altar is situated in the chapel on the first floor of the manor, meant for the private devotion of the household members. The altar's composition is derived from an aedicule type, but the columns are here replaced with massive, ornamentally carved volutes, on which two large crying angels sit holding the Instruments of the Passion (Arma Christi), a spear and a sponge on reed. The attic zone is entirely built of rocaille volutes and scrolls, which frame a centrally positioned sculpture of St John the Baptist.5
Components
- Carpentry
- Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774)
- Completed: 1761
- Patron(s): Ivan Rauch, noble
- Technique(s): sawing, wood carving
- Material(s): wood
- Sculpture
- Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774)
- Completed: 1761
- Patron(s): Ivan Rauch, noble
- Technique(s): wood carving
- Material(s): wood
- Painting
- The Holy Cross
- Completed: 1761 –
- Patron(s): Ivan Rauch, noble
- Technique(s): oil on canvas
- Polychromy
- Completed: 1761 –
- Patron(s): Ivan Rauch, noble
- Technique(s): water gilding
- Material(s): gold leaf
Comment
Unfortunately, the framed plate was stolen in January 2018.
Images
- Altar of Holy Cross in Lužnica (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
- Altar of Holy Cross in Lužnica, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
- Altar of Holy Cross in Lužnica, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
- Altar of Holy Cross in Lužnica, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Catalogue entry prepared by Martina Ožanić and Ksenija Škarić
Recommended citation: Martina Ožanić and Ksenija Škarić, The altar of the Holy Cross of the chapel in Lužnica Manor, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 22/10/2025) URL
