Paolo Veneziano’s arbor crucis in Dubrovnik and the Rhetoric of the Frame in the Mid-Trecento

Matko Marušić

doi:10.1515/ZKG-2022-4003

Article

Paolo Veneziano’s arbor crucis in Dubrovnik and the Rhetoric of the Frame in the Mid-Trecento

Matko Marušić
Matko Marušić is a research associate at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb – Cvito Fisković Centre in Split. He earned his doctoral degree at the Postgraduate Program of Medieval Studies at the University of Zagreb in 2019. His research focuses on the devotional culture of the Adriatic region in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with a particular interest in the topographical reconstructions of the Holy Land and verse inscriptions on monumental crosses.

Published/Copyright: November 23, 2022

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From the journal Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Volume 85 Issue 4

Abstract

The paper analyzes the wooden frame of Paolo Veneziano’s monumental Crucifixion, the largest trecento composition in the Adriatic to survive, on the triumphal arch of the church of St. Dominic in Dubrovnik. By including the scrolls’ foliage, the Old Testament prophets, and censing angels, this frame transforms a stylistically inventive yet typologically conventional “croce dipinta” into one aligned with the iconography of the arbor vitae by way of an unprecedented shift of attention to its margins. The full power of the Crucifixion is vested both in the body of the crucified Christ and its frame. At the same time, its overarching theme of the genealogy of Christ and his Passion can be subject to different readings, i.e. “doctrinal,” “liturgical,” or, as the paper tentatively proposes, “Dominican.”

I am grateful to Ivan Viđen for his kind invitation to climb the scaffolds erected in the Dominican Church and to study Paolo’s Crucifixion at close range. His assistance during my research in Dubrovnik was also instrumental. Irena Šimić, Joško Belamarić, Boris Dundović, Ana Jordan Knežević, Pasquale Francesco Antonio Giambò, and Juliusz Raczkowski provided valuable assistance in putting together the illustrations.

About the author

Matko Marušić

Matko Marušić is a research associate at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb – Cvito Fisković Centre in Split. He earned his doctoral degree at the Postgraduate Program of Medieval Studies at the University of Zagreb in 2019. His research focuses on the devotional culture of the Adriatic region in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with a particular interest in the topographical reconstructions of the Holy Land and verse inscriptions on monumental crosses.

Photo Credits: 1 Photo Archives of the Institute of Art History, Zagreb (photo: Milan Drmić). — 2–9 © Dean Tošović, Foto Adria. — 10 from: exh. cat. Restituzioni 2018 (as in note 19), 255. — 11 from: Guarnieri 2006 (as in note 21), 181. — 12 from: Nesi 2011 (as in note 28), 27. — 13 Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino. — 16, 19 Archivio Fotografico – Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. — 16 Biblioteca Comunale Augusta, Perugia. — 18 Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan. — 20 Photo collection of the Permanent Exhibition of Religious Art, Zadar. — 21 Library of the Franciscan Friary, Dubrovnik (photo: Stipe Nosić). — 22 Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). — 23 © Juliusz Raczkowski.

Published Online: 2022-11-23

Published in Print: 2022-12-16

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ZKG-2022-4003