The conference book and exhibition cataloque, whose material and content is designed to present new insights and information acquired over the four years of multidisciplinary research, which included conservation and restoration of the...
moreThe conference book and exhibition cataloque, whose material and content is designed to present new insights and information acquired over the four years of multidisciplinary research, which included conservation and restoration of the wooden doors of Split (lead by Žana Matulić Bilač in Croatian Conservation Institute). One of the most important and intriguing pieces of Croatian and European medieval heritage, these have, surprisingly, not been a subject of scientific and technical study until recently. The latest conservation was carried out in situ, with the research focusing on original portions of the doors, which were sawn off and replaced with replicas during a major restoration in 1908. The originals lay forgotten in the Split City Museum’s depot and the Archaeological Museum, having been left untreated in the mentioned restoration, and thus offering us precious opportunity for contemporary “forensic” analyses.
Andrija Buvina’s doors are a kind of icon that we all know well at first glance. For over 800 years they have stood in their original location. Only recently, however, have we been able to reconstruct their long lost appearance, based on the information obtained from their structure and the parts that were sawn off. These proved to be a veritable historical treasury of medieval sculpting and painting materials, a complete glossary of traces left by the tools used in the doors’ making. A series of experts of various specialties, from Croatia and abroad, took part in the effort. Scientifically, this brought about the discovery of, e.g., numerous new insights into the chemical composition of the doors; in technical terms – the ways they were constructed and painted, as well as the complete range of tools used in their making. We established some strong and diverse links that demonstrate the deep rootedness of this ancient piece in the rich artistic history of Split, in its spatial and historical identity, with influences that can be traced along the coast of medieval Dalmatia. On the other hand, by comparing them to similar works, primarily the celebrated doors from Cologne and those of Santa Sabina in Rome, we were able to find many technical and iconographic similarities, again confirming that Buvina’s masterpiece belongs to the same cultural circle of medieval and present-day Europe.
The exhibition will interpret the doors as a portal of exceptional symbolism, an entrance into the cathedral for the townsfolk to whom it had been the only parish for centuries. In addition, the exhibition will highlight the meaning of the doors for the people of today, through the work of a contemporary multimedia artist. Her work will be based on a reflection on the centuries-old dust and patina, a sedimentation of invisible particles of the generations that have passed through this space. The fusion of two quests, the historical and the contemporary, would discretely permeate the entire exhibition, even if the exhibition space would present each individually.
The exhibition would feature an international conference, where participants, renowned Croatian and international scientists and experts, conservators and art historians, would present their research into various aspects of the subject. The plan is to compile their contributions in a book of proceedings featured by a comprehensive exhibition catalogue.
30 posters are envisioned, authored by the head of research and conservation in collaboration with other participants in the project. A virtual reconstruction of the original polychrome appearance of Buvina’s doors, made according to the latest research insights and in a 1:2 ratio, is bound to generate much attention.
Equally interesting to the public would be a recently compiled interactive base of materials on Romanesque art in Dalmatia.
Apart from the original parts of the doors, with beautifully preserved traces of carving that enable a reconstruction of the medieval set of woodworking and carving tools, a single preserved set of such tools uncovered so far would be presented, unearthed from an intact grave of a Roman woodcarver in Zadar. A tombstone from Rab, with the depiction of a shipbuilding tool from the 15th or the 16th century, brings us closer to our time, which will be represented by a selection of tools from the collection of a late-19th-century woodcarver from Split. Also exhibited would be the Matricula of Dubrovnik woodworkers, which illustrate the town’s long woodworking tradition, a continuity of use of various tools from the 14th to the 18th century: visitors will be able to leaf through the registry pages illustrated with miniature drawings.
Along with an overview of blacksmithing tools and a depiction of a blacksmith on Buvina’s doors (the Romanesque choir stalls of Split Cathedral only show the carver’s “self-portrait”), five original nails will also be on display, showing only minimum change over the almost two millennia of the craft, and clearly illustrating an inter-dependence of form and function.
The last exhibit will be the oldest surviving carved and painted wooden artefact in Dalmatia: a wooden beam from St. Donatus’ Church in Zadar, dating from the 9th century. It introduces us to a database of wooden artefacts (following the construction wood of the doors: oak and walnut), from prehistory to modern age, showing us the way into the forests of historical Dalmatia, and over to the islands and their long shipbuilding tradition, the legacy of which are some unique examples of large saws, hammers, files, augers, awls, which would be illustrated by photographs of shipbuilders from the late 19th century – most suggestive images from a long history of woodworking, a craft that has, like so many others, all but vanished before our very eyes.
Finally, paintings on wooden ground will also be on view. We will present a database of medieval painting pigments and materials used on Romanesque doors and choir stalls, and on three icons and three painted crucifixes of the so-called Split School of Romanesque Painting. Viewers will be acquainted with polychrome sculpture, an art almost forgotten today. The unity of sculpture and painting can only be understood through a virtual reconstruction of the original polychromy, in our case, that on the figurative reliefs on Buvina’s doors. These, we are at liberty to announce, will be “presented exclusively” at the end of the painstaking process of research and analysis of their tiny remains, preserved only on several of the 28 figurative reliefs, and demonstrating their former luxuriant and suggestive colouristic shine.
