Saturday, October 20, 2012

Exhibition on medieval Croatia at Musée de Cluny

Following an exhibition on the territory of Slovakia in the Middle Ages (D'or et de feu, 2010), as well as an exhibition at the sister museum of Musée de Cluny, the Musée national de la Renaissance at the Château d'Ecouen on Renaissance in Croatia, the Musée national du Moyen Âge now presents an exhibition on Croatia in the Middle Ages.

Starting from 1102, the kingdom of Croatia lost its sovereignty and was ruled throughout the Middle Ages and later in the form of a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary. The northern part of present-day Croatia, Slavonia, was part of Hungary proper, while the region of Dalmatia often changed hands between Venice and Hungary. At the time of king Louis the Great, Hungarian power was restored in Dalmatia in 1358 by the Treaty of Zadar. History and art in the territory of Croatia is thus inseparably connected to the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, evidenced by various works in the treasuries of Croatia originating from the centers of the Kingdom, including royal gifts - such as the series of treasures donated to Zara/Zadar by Louis the Great and his wife, Elisabeth. The object selected for the poster of the exhibition - the 14th century mitre from the Treasury of Zagreb cathedral is just such an object, likely donated to the cathedral by Louis the Great. However, it is still not entirely sure, whether this precious work - reworked in 1549 - was originally made in Hungary or Venice. Restored during 2005, the object was also shown in the 2006 exhibition dedicated to King and Emperor Sigismund, the successor of Louis the Great.

Mitre from the Treasury of Zagreb cathedral, 14th century 


The present exhibition features about 40 select works of art, including reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, warrior equipment, and jewellery. It was organised as part of an ongoing Croatian festival in France, called "Croatie, la voici", which runs from September 2012 to January 2013. The festival is the result of a Croatian-French strategic partnership signed in 2010 by the presidents of the two countries, and the exhibition was also opened by the presidents. The exhibition, titled "Et ils s’émerveillèrent…" - Croatie médiévale opened on.October 10, and will remain on view until January 7, 2013. The exhibition is accompanied by a small catalogue. You can read a little more on the exhibition in the official press release of the museum (pdf), or on the website of Croatian Tourism Office, but overall, very little is available on the exhibition online so far. A slideshow of the exhibition is available on the Flickr-site of the cultural festival, also embedded below.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Art around 1400 - Current exhibitions

In 2012, a number of exhibitions were dedicated to the period around 1400, the period of the International Gothic. Some of these are still open - in fact, one is about to open this week. These exhibitions each focus on one geographical area - but together they demonstrate the richness and variety of this extremely creative period of European art history. When we were preparing the Sigismundus-exhibition of 2006, originally we planned to show some true European highlights of this period - the period when Pisanello, Ghiberti, the young Donatello, Masolino and Massaccio, Claus Sluter, the Limbourg brothers or Robert Campin were all active - but works from this period are simply too fragile and precious to gather in one exhibition. However, if someone gets a chance to visit all the exhibitions listed below, he or she could get a very good impression of the main trends of the period.

Gentile da Fabriano: Adoration of the Magi, 1423 
Let us start with the exhibition still on view for a few weeks at The Uffizi in Florence (until November 4). The exhibition titled The Gleam of Gold - The International Gothic Style in Florence, 1375-1440, intends to reconstruct the panorama of Florentine art in the wonderful and crucial period that extended roughly from 1375 to 1440. The exhibition, set out in chronological order, starts with the work of the greatest artists working in the tradition of the late 14th century. Another section focuses on the achievements of Lorenzo Ghiberti, one of the leading players on the Late Gothic scene in Florence who, in the early part of his career, trained virtually all of the city's most important artists in his workshop for the first Baptistry door. The exhibition ends with Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano, on display for the first time since its recent restoration. The exhibition is part of the 'Un anno ad arte' series, which has a separate website, with photos of key works on view. You can also read an overview of the exhibition here and in the New York Times.


Bernard Martorell: Trial of St, George,
 1435

Earlier this year (from 29 March to 15 July 2012), the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona held the exhibition Catalunya 1400 - The International Gothic Style. This was the first major exhibition on one of the most creative cycles in the history of Catalan art, around the turn of the 15th century. Beside great masterpieces by the most important Catalan artists of all time, the exhibition, showed the renewal of the miniature; presented the retable as the distinctive expression of Catalan painting; and it highlighted the importance of the arrival of European artists in Catalonia with the resulting French influence on Catalan culture. One of the stars of the exhibition were undoubtedly the the four panels with narrative scenes from the Retable of Saint George by Bernat Martorell, now in the Louvre. The exhibition includes at the same time a carefully chosen display of sculptures, items of precious metalwork and liturgical textiles.

You can get a PDF-format press overview of the exhibition here. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.






Sunday, October 07, 2012

On the trail of St. Elisabeth in Marburg

A few weeks ago I had a chance to walk around Marburg, the burial place and the center of the cult of St. Elisabeth of Hungary. Elizabeth was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, of the Árpád dynasty and his wife Gertrude, from the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran. In 1211, the four year old Elisabeth was taken to the Thuringian court, to be raised with his intended husband, Hermann of Thuringia. Soon after she left (in 1213), her mother was killed by rebellious Hungarian lords. As Hermann passed away as well, Elisabeth in the end was married to his brother, Ludwig (in 1221). The couple had three children, but Ludwig passed away on a crusade in 1227. By this time Elisabeth started following Franciscan ideas of poverty, and was strongly influenced by the ascetic Master Conrad of Marburg. In 1228, in the Franciscan house at Eisenach Elisabeth formally renounced the world, and became one of the tertiaries in Germany. In the summer of 1228 she built the Franciscan hospital at Marburg and then devoted herself entirely to the care of the sick. She passed away in 1231, at the age of only twenty-four.


Her ascetism, her charitable acts as well as many miracles at her gave quickly led to her canonization (1235), and one of the most beautiful Gothic chruches in Germany was soon built over her grave in Marburg by the Teutonic Knigths. Elizabeth became one of the most popular female saints of the entire Middle Ages, venerated especially in Germany, Hungary and Italy. You can read more about her life in the Catholic Encyclopedia, and you can read her legend as it was incorporated into the Legenda Aurea. Medieval images of her and her legend also abound in these regions. 2007 marked the 800 birthday of Elisabeth, and was marked by a series of exhibitions and events, the largest of them being the Landesausstellung at Wartburg. As I think both her life and the images depicting her are quite well-known, I will not go on about this subject - the purpose of this post was to share some images I took in Marburg, especially in the Elisabethkirche. You can see these below.