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Varaždin Cathedral, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)

Pulpit in Varaždin Cathedral, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)

Location

Croatia, Varaždin County, Varaždin

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Katedrala Uznesenja Blažene Djevice Marije)

Artwork

Pulpit in the Varaždin Cathedral

Type

Pulpit

Dimensions

Height: 530 cm, width: 215 cm, depth: 390 cm

Critical History

In 1761 Varaždin Cathedral received a pulpit commissioned in Graz for a total price of 700 forints.1 Miroslav Vanino reports that it was painted to imitate marble and was decorated with small statues, ribbons, and little shields.2 Based on the preserved relief, the sculptor could have been Phillip Jakob Straub while the polychromy is attributed to Franz Karcher, a painter from Graz.3 The pulpit was damaged in the fire of 1776, after which the painter Josephus Sartori made a cost estimate for the marbling and the gilding of statues, clouds, and ornaments, as well as the canopy and its background.4 In 1808 the pulpit was described as made in soft wood, lacking crucifix and with empoverished canopy.5 Original sculptures, canopy and most of the shields from 1761 are non existent.

Construction / Execution

The doors to the staircase were fitted by the decorative whrought ironwork.

Components

Carpentry: Rostrum construction; Author: Philipp Jakob Straub (Wiesensteig 1706 – Graz 1774); Completed: 1761; Technique(s): sawing; Material(s): wood
Whrought ironwork: Material(s): iron
Carpentry: Construction of canopy; Completed: 1776 –
Sculpture: Relief “Jesus calms the storm” and ornamentation; Author: Philipp Jakob Straub (Wiesensteig 1706 – Graz 1774); Completed: 1761; Technique(s): wood carving; Material(s): wood
Polychromy: Polychromy of rostrum; Author: Franz Karcher; Completed: 1761; Technique(s): oil gilding, tempera, water gilding
Polychromy: Polychromy of canopy; Author: Joseph Sartory ( – Varaždin ca. 1780); Completed: 1776 –; Technique(s): oil gilding, water gilding; Material(s): gold leaf, silver leaf

Conservation-restoration

Future restoration

Strategy: removing dirt

Approach to the presentation of losses

Reintegration of lacunae – mimetic: total

Reintegration of losses – other: total

Reconstruction of losses: total

Treatment Description

There is no record of the recent restoration.

Images

Varaždin Cathedral, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Varaždin Cathedral, pulpit (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Pulpit in Varaždin Cathedral, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Pulpit in Varaždin Cathedral, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Pulpit in Varaždin Cathedral, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)
Pulpit in Varaždin Cathedral, detail (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2018)

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Catalogue entry prepared by Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić

Recommended citation: Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić, Pulpit in the Varaždin Cathedral, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 25/10/2025) URL

Sources and Bibliography

Archive of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Canonical visitations, Varaždin Archdeaconry, protocol 173/XIV, 1808
Miroslav Vanino, Povijest Isusovačke crkve u Varaždinu (1632.–1773.), in: Katolički list, 42, 43, 44, Zagreb, 1917, 503–504; 512–513; 527–527
Ivy Lentić-Kugli, Prilog istraživanju dokumentacije o pavlinskom (bivšem isusovačkom) sakralno-samostanskom kompleksu u Varaždinu, in: Isusovačka crkva i samostan u Varaždinu. Prilog istraživanju. Mala biblioteka Godišnjaka zaštite spomenika kulture Hrvatske, addition to 13/1987, Ivy Lentić-Kugli, Silvije Novak, Doris Baričević, Radovan Ivančević (ed.), Zagreb, Republički zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture, 1988, 3–26
Doris Baričević, Barokno kiparstvo sjeverne Hrvatske, Zagreb, Školska knjiga; Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2008

Notes

1 Miroslav Vanino, 1917, 513: "non desunt statuae, lemnisci, scutula suo ordine optime disposita. Graecensium artificum praeclarum sane est momentum."

2 Ibid.

3 Doris Baričević, 2008, 362–365

4 Ivy Lentić-Kugli, 1988, 10: „Von der zu S. Maria als bei denen Ex-Jesuiten an der verbrenten Kanzel, wie auch Hl. Grab... was an vergoldarbeit... die Kanzel, zwey neue Figuren sambt wolcken, und Zierathen samt Figuren, von welchen missen ney vergoldet werden, der döckl... marmosiert samt Rürckwand... die Kanzel samt Figuren ausgebessert. Vergolt arbeith Summa 180 fl., bey den Hl. Grab die Dompa zu marmorisieren und zu gleichen die Stiegen anzustreichen.“ (15^th May 1776)

5 Canonical visitations, Varaždin Archdeaconry, 173/XIV, 1808, 53: "De Cathedra. Est in hac Eccla filiali Cathedra ex ligno moli facta, marmoreo colore intincta in parte Evangelii muro adhaerens, in statu sat commodo, sed Crucifixo, et Copula destituta, ad quam etiam non incommodus accessus est."