Recovery of a vandalized canvas painting our Lady of the Rosary from Vrlika (Croatia)

  • Sandra Sustic Hrvatski restauratorski zavod
  • Ivan Rezic Franciscan monastery of Fr. Ante Antić Put iza nove bolnice 10 C, 21000 Split, Croatia
  • Mario Cvetkovic he Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split. Ruđera Boškovića 32, 21 000, Split, Croatia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37558/gec.v18i1.828
Keywords: vandalism of art, war-damaged art, reconstruction, cult image, social value, religious art, painting

Abstract

This study is related to the major recovery project of an 18th century oil painting on canvas depicting Our Lady of the Rosary, the patron saint of the parish community of Vrlika and its surroundings. During the Croatian War of Independence in 1992 it was taken off the main altar and vandalized by the paramilitary units. This resulted in termination of a century long tradition of annual feasts in Vrlika in which the painting was publicly displayed and carried by the townsmen. Based on the available visual materials: a high resolution old black and white photograph and the low resolution coloured one, respectfully, using the computer colorization algorithm, and also relying on detailed visual analysis of the original paint layer, a major reconstruction was carried out in 2017. This research has demonstrated that the recovery of the artworks with dramatic losses is an extremely complex social phenomenon difficult to characterize by any general factor or based on any general approach.

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Author Biographies

Sandra Sustic, Hrvatski restauratorski zavod

Sandra Sustic has a degree in conservation-restoration of easel paintings and polychrome wood at the Arts Academy of the University of Split (UMAS) in 2007 and a Ph.D. in Art History (Department for Protection of Cultural heritage) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia in 2016. Presently, she is head of Šibenik Department for Conservation of the Croatian Conservation Institute, and associate lecturer at UMAS (Department for conservation-restoration). Her fields of research are theoretical and practical aspects of retouching paintings, technical art history, historically informed reconstructions of paintings and history of conservation practice.

Ivan Rezic, Franciscan monastery of Fr. Ante Antić Put iza nove bolnice 10 C, 21000 Split, Croatia

van Rezic is a Franciscan monk, priest and a writer. He graduated at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split in 2009. From the academic year 2011/2012 he attended postgraduate studies at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. In 2015 he gained Master’s Degree in theology with a specialization in spirituality and was the recipient of the Best Student of the Year award. He is currently at the final stage of finishing his PhD at the same University. Since June 2018 he was the educator of Franciscan novices and a lecturer of Franciscan spirituality at the island of Visovac (Croatia). In addition to the activities closely related to the invitation of monks and priests, he published two poetry collections and initiated conservation projects of several sacral artefacts, among which was the canvas painting Our Lady of the Rosary from Vrlika (Croatia).

Mario Cvetkovic, he Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split. Ruđera Boškovića 32, 21 000, Split, Croatia

Mario Cvetkovic received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Split, Croatia in 2005. In 2009 he obtained M.Phil degree from the Wessex Institute of Technology, University of Wales, UK. In December 2013 he received Ph.D. from University of Split, Croatia, for the thesis entitled “Method for Electromagnetic Thermal Dosimetry of the Human Brain Exposed to High Frequency Fields”. He is assistant professor at the Faculty of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and naval architecture (FESB), University of Split. His research interests are numerical modelling including finite element and moment methods, computational bioelectromagnetics and heat transfer related phenomena.

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Published
2020-12-10
How to Cite
Sustic, S., Rezic, I., & Cvetkovic, M. (2020). Recovery of a vandalized canvas painting our Lady of the Rosary from Vrlika (Croatia). Ge-Conservacion, 18, 247-257. https://doi.org/10.37558/gec.v18i1.828
Issue
Vol. 18 (2020): Ge-conservación Nº18
Section
Suplemento
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