Prehistoric art

The Neolithic inhabitants of the Adriatic Coast and those on the Pannonian plain, developed their cultures within the boundaries of present-day Croatia. The Neolithic is marked by the production of ceramics and sculptures with human and animal themes presented as symbolic art. In contrast to the cave paintings of the palaeolithic age, in the more settled agricultural age, pottery became the main art form, with stylised forms and was primarily ornamental in character. Neolithic artists did not merely imitate or reproduce, but created new forms by inscribing geometrical patterns and decorations.^[1]

Danilo pot, showing spiral patterns

• Starčevo culture (a Pannonian plain culture) had characteristically fine red and ochre ceramics.
• Istrian culture (named after the Istrian peninsula) whose characteristic stone houses (Bunja) built using only dry-stone construction (suhozid).
• Sopot culture and Korenovo culture (named after the towns of Sopot and Korenovo in Slavonia) with original ceramic pots decorated with flat parallel lines, curves or V-shaped cuts.
• Danilo culture (found on Adriatic coast and islands) was rich with fine dark ceramics decorated with engraved geometrical motifs, spirals and meanders.
• Out of this culture developed the Hvar culture (after the island of Hvar) that is linked with Neolithic Greek cultures.^[1]

There are also Neolithic excavation sites in Ščitarjevo near Zagreb, Nakovanj on the Pelješac peninsula and elsewhere.

Copper Age

Vučedol Dove, the distinctive bird-shaped pot of the Vučedol culture

Ceramics of the Vučedol culture (named after Vučedol in eastern Slavonia) during the transitional Eneolithic period (3500-2300 BC) are of extraordinary quality with black colour, high glow and specific decorative geometrical cuts encrusted with white, red or yellow colours. The influence of metal working techniques can be seen as potters construct with sheets of clay giving distinct edges where surfaces meet and the final pot is burnished for a gleaming look.^[1]

Neolithic figurines in moulded clay were stylized versions of human (particularly female) figures, and animals. The distinctive Vučedol Dove is a pot in the shape of a bird, somewhat stylized, with impressed patterning around its body, a double-headed axe (labrys) on its neck and three legs for stability.^[1]

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age Vinkovci culture (named after the city of Vinkovci) is recognizable by its bronze fibulas that replaced previous objects like bone needles and buttons.

Illyrian Iapydes (Japodes) ceramics and metalwork

The Bronze culture of the Illyrians, ethno-tribal groups with distinct cultures, and art forms started to emerge from the cultures of the Copper Age. These Illyrian ethno-tribal areas were found in present-day Croatia, and Bosnia and Hercegovina. From the 7th Century BC, iron replaced bronze for tools and implements, only jewellery and art objects were still made out of bronze. The Celtic Hallstatt culture which bordered the Balkan region where the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups were living influenced them, but the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups formed their regional centers slightly differently. In the northern Balkan Peninsula, the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups had the cult of the dead, as evidenced from the richness of and care for burial sites, from which burial ceremonies are deduced. These burial sites show a long tradition of cremation and burial in shallow graves. In the southern Balkan Peninsula, the Illyrian tribes buried their dead under large heaps stone, or earth tumuli (known locally as gromile). The Illyrian Iapydes (or Japodes) tribes had an affinity for decoration with heavy, oversized necklaces made with yellow, blue or white glass paste and they are known for their large ornamented bronze fibulas,^[1] spiral bracelets, diadems, and helmets made out of bronze. Small sculptures of jade made from the archaic Ionian plastic are also found in Japodian tribal areas. Numerous monumental sculptures are preserved, as well as walls of a citadel called Nezakcij near present-day Pula, one of the numerous Istrian cities from Iron Age.

Arrival of the Celts

The 4th century BC saw the first Celts arrive into the Illyrian areas of the Balkans; with them they brought the technique of the pottery wheel, new styles of fibulas and different bronze and iron belts, which the local Illyrian tribes had not previously developed. The Celts also mixed with the Illyrian tribal groups in Slavonia, Istria, and Dalmatia.

Greek colonies

Greek sailors and merchants from the Greek City States of the south of the Balkan peninsula reached almost every part of Mediterranean including the Adriatic Sea coast of present-day Croatia. Other Greeks came from Syracuse on Sicily in 390 BC to the islands of Vis (Issa), Hvar (Pharos), and Korčula (Corcyra Nigra) founding city-states amongst the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups. Trading cities were founded on the Adriatic Coast such as Tragurion (today called Trogir), Salona (today called Solin near present-day Split), Epetion (today called Stobreč).^[2]

4th-century BC Praxitelean bronze head of a goddess wearing a lunate crown, found at Issa (Vis, Croatia)

These Greek cities were laid out geometrically and had villas, harbours, public buildings, temples and theatres. Pharos and Issa were strong Greek City States that showed their independence with their own coinage and maritime fleets. Unfortunately, besides painted pots and ceramic tanagra sculptures, there are few remaining daily living materials from this culture. Two of those are: the Croatian Apoxyomenos, and the Bronze head of goddess Artemis from the Greek City State of Issa, which dates from the 4th century BC. Another example is a stone relief of Kairos (god of joyfulness) from the Greek City-State Tragurion, which dates from the 3rd Century BC, and is associated with the famous Greek sculptor Lysippos.^[2]

But aside from the superficial contact of trade and warfare, life for the Greek colonists was isolated from the surrounding Illyrian peoples. The Hellenistic culture of the Greek enclaves existed in parallel with the late iron age culture of the wider Illyro-Celtic population. On the mainland the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups were organizing their centers. Illyrian art became influenced by Greek Art, and the Illyrian ethno-tribal groups copied the styles and methods of the Greeks.^[2] This can be seen, for example in the Daors tribe of the Neretva Delta.

Roman urbanization

In the 3rd century BC, the Romans took over the Greek colonial cities and by the 1st century BC had also subdued the Illyrians, and organized the entire coastal territory by setting up urban cities. Following the conquest, the area became a province of the Roman Empire. Numerous rustic villas, and new urban settlements (the most impressive are Verige in Brijuni, Pula and Trogir - formerly Tragurion) demonstrate high level of Roman urbanization. There were at least 30 urban cities across Istria, Liburnia and Dalmatia with Roman citizenship (civitas). The best-preserved Roman grid-pattern street layouts (decumanus/cardo) are those in Epetion (Poreč) and Jader (Zadar). The best preserved Roman monuments are in Pola (Pula); founded in the 1st century dedicated to Julius Caesar, it is full of classical Roman art such as: stonewalls, two city gates, two temples on the Forum, and remains of two theatres, as well as the Arch from the year 30 AD, and the temple of Augustus build in 2-14 AD, and finally the Fluvian Amphitheatre (so called – Arena) from the 2nd century.^[2]

The Salona girl, marble head from Salona, 3rd century AD (archaeological museum, Zagreb)

By the 3rd century AD, Salona was the largest and most important city of Dalmatia, with 40,000 inhabitants. Nearby, the Emperor Diocletian, who was born in Salona, built his retirement palace (in approx 300 AD), one of the largest and most important monuments of late antique architecture. On its pathways, cellars, domes, mausoleums, arcades and courtyards can be seen numerous different art influences from the entire Empire. Some of the sculptures are: the head of a boy, girl and a woman from Salona, monumental figure of Minerva from Varaždin, the head of Hercules from Sinj, sculptures of Roman emperors from Nin and Vid near Metković, damaged sculpture of emperor in Zagreb Museum etc.

In the 4th century Salona became the centre of Christianity for the entire western Balkans. It had numerous basilicas and necropolises, and even two saints: Domnius (Duje) and Anastasius (Staš). One of the few preserved basilicas in western Europe from the time of early Byzantium is the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč from the 6th century.

The early Middle Ages brought the great migration of the Slavs and this period was perhaps a Dark Age in the cultural sense until the successful formation of the Slavic states which coexisted with Italic cities that remained on the coast, each of them were modelled like Venice.

• 
  Pula, the arena
• 
  Zadar, Roman column
• 
  Split, Diocletian's Palace

Early Middle Ages

Croatian interlace relief with inscription of king Držislav, Kapitul in today's Knin, 10th century

In the 7th century the Croats, with other Slavs and Avars, came from Eastern Europe to the area of the former Roman provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia and Istria where they live up to the present day.^[3] The Croats were an Iron Age nomadic culture, so avoiding the urban centres they instead settled in the countryside around the Roman cities, for example on an island in the river Jadro near Roman Salona.^[4]

Croatian dignitary, 11th century, Knin area

During the 7th and 8th centuries there was a trend of constructing smaller buildings from the material and decorative elements of ruined older Roman buildings. During the 9th century, parallel with the establishment of Croatian principalities, new architecture of pre-Romanesque characteristics emerged. It was based on numerous influences of which the Frankish and Byzantine were the strongest. Gradually those inherited influences evolved into a more original form of architecture.^[5] Altar screens and carved stone windows in those churches were decorated with the shallow interweaving ornamentation which we call Croatian interlace. In general, the appearance of interlace reliefs in a building indicates a date before 1100.^[5]

Motifs of this interlace are often of classical origin (waves, three-string interlace, pentagrams, net of rhomboids etc.), but while in Roman art it was only used as a frame, here it covers the entire surface. The sheer number and quality of these stone monuments indicates a rich masonry tradition with numerous masters and workshops on the east coast of the Adriatic. Croatian interlace was originally painted in bright colours of red, blue and yellow. Since the wall paintings that are mentioned in several literal sources (for example the portraits of the Trpimirović dynasty in the church of St. George in Putalj above Kaštel Sućurac) are not preserved, they are only type of pre-Romanesque Croatian painting.

Illuminated page from Vekenega's evangelistary, c. 1096

Sometimes the interlace was replaced by Biblical figures (as in the altar screen of the Sveta Nedjelja Church in Zadar), but the figures are flattened and depicted with stylized graphic lines. From Crown Church of King Zvonimir (so-called Hollow Church in Solin) comes the altar screen with the figure of the Croatian King on the throne with Carolingian crown, a servant by his side and a bowing subject. Linear cuts representing the folds of the robes are similar to the lines on their faces, and also on those on the frame. Today the board is a part of Split cathedral baptistery.^[5]

Out of the crafted objects of the time, many reliquaries are still preserved.^[6] Believed to have magical powers of healing, they were usually shaped for the body part they contained.^[7] That is why the relic of Saint James's head in Zadar is shaped like a head; the tube part has section with stream of arcades with single saint in every one, while a dome-like cover is decorated with medallions bearing symbols of evangelist and Christ on the top.

A significant number of church codices from this time have survived. In Zagreb there is a Liber psalmorum which was illuminated in Benedictine style by prior Majon for archbishop Paul of Split (c. 1015–1030). In the Vatican there is a Breviary, also in Monte Cassino Benedictine style (initials of intertwined leaves, interlace and animal heads) which originates from monastery of St. Nicola in Osor. The same style of illumination we can found in Breviars in Trogir, Šibenik and Dubrovnik but there are many that were recorded (like 47 books in only one church in monastery of St. Peter in Seka) but not preserved.

Romanesque art

Trogir Cathedral: March is shown as a Roman soldier (the god Mars)

Early Romanesque art appeared in Croatia at the beginning of the 11th century with the introduction of monasteries and churches by the Benedictian order of Monte Cassino.^[8] Two important churches of the time are St Benedict (later St Euphemia) in Split, and St Mary in Zadar, while St. Peter in Supetarska Draga on the island of Rab (11th century) is the best preserved church of the type in Croatia.^[8]

Many cathedrals can be found along the Croatian coast and nearby lands: in Istria, Dalmatia, and Primorje. Cities such as Poreč, Rab, Zadar, Trogir and Split were built along the Dalmatian coast with stone houses and large imposing churches with three naves, three apses, columns, arches, arcades and a wooden roof. Cathedrals were built in Senj, Krk, Rab, Zadar, Trogir, Dubrovnik and Zagreb.

In Croatian Romanesque sculpture, there was a move away from interlace to figurative reliefs (for example the reliefs in St Domenica’s in Zadar).^[8]

Two outstanding works of Romanesque sculpture date from the first half of the 13th century: the wooden entry doors of the Split cathedral by Andrija Buvina (1214) and the main portal of Trogir cathedral done by Master Radovan (c. 1240).

Carved wooden doors on the Cathedral of St. Duje, Split by Andrija Buvina

Carved wooden doors from the Romanesque period are relatively rare, as few of them have survived. Buvina’s huge double doors depict the life of Christ in 28 relief panels, each set within a double frame with interwoven vines and scrollwork ornamentation. The scenes are an original design, drawing their inspiration equally from the art of Western miniatures and Eastern Byzantine icons. The carving is precise and clean, leaving each scene easily understood. Also in Split cathedral, the carving on the wooden choir stalls dates to the mid-13th century, with beautiful Romanesque motifs of interwoven vines, figures of saints and a small beastiary. An early Gothic feature here is the introduction of a woodcarver at work, possibly a self-portrait.^[8]

Trogir cathedral, Radovan's portal

Although the main portal of Trogir cathedral was not completed until the 14th century, it is clearly Romanesque in form, but with a new Gothic humanist tendency in the carvings.^[8] The date for the portal is generally given as 1240, which is when Master Radovan carved his name as part of the latin inscription. The portal has a semi-circular tympanum set within a recessed frame with rounded arches in the Romanesque style. The large main figures are sculptures of Adam and Eve, borne on lions supported by plinths. Scenes from the life of Christ from the Annunciation to the Resurrection appear in the arches above the door, with the Nativity occupying the central position of the tympanum, which was unusual for the time. It is a reflection of the spirit of the new Gothic age to replace the dire warning of the Last Judgement above the doorway, with a message of love and hope.^[8]

Radovan: scenes of everyday life butchering the pig (above) and making sausages

Down both sides of the portal is a sequence of reliefs representing the months of the year. The figures here are particularly animated, and the scenes are taken from contemporary life. For example, December is shown as the month to butcher the pig and make sausages, followed by January where an old man sits by the fireside cooking, while a young man pours wine from an amphora in a reference to Aquarius the water carrier. The realism of such scenes, and the representation of everyday life of the people is a move to Gothic ideas, with its focus on contemporary humanist issues and real characters.^[8]

Paintings in Croatia from this time include frescoes, paintings on wood panels and illuminated manuscripts. The early Romanesque frescoes in St Michael in Ston date to the 11th/12th century, and are related to the Benedictine Abbey of St Michael on Monte Gargano. Sadly only fragments of the Ston frescoes still survive, a series of biblical figures, portrayed full-face, dressed in richly ornamented robes. In typical early Romanesque style, the figures are static, described with lines, without much depth or form in the background.^[9] The Zadar Benedictine church has 12th century frescoes in a similar style, but not so brightly coloured and less linear. Meanwhile in Istria, there are different fresco styles and influences to be seen from the 12th century. The western Ottonian style of art (St Michael int Kloštar at Lim Bay), Byzantine Comnenian style from the Aquileia workshop (St Jerome’s church in Hum), and a combination of both western and Byzantine styles (St. Foška at Batvači near Peroj).^[10]

Paintings of the time on wood were generally icons of the Virgin Mary with Child or of the Crucifixion. There are six surviving Romanesque Virgin with Child icons in Croatia, the oldest of which is the Madonna from Saint Sylvester’s Church on the island of Biševo (1220), now in Hvar Cathedral^[11] The figures of mother and child are Byzantine in style, combined with a typical Romanesque use of line and colour. Two painted crucifixes from the Franciscan Abbey in Zadar are even older, as are some early Romanesque crucifixes from Istrian churches.^[8]

Although the oldest illuminated miniature in Croatia dates from the 8th century,^[12] they are extremely rare until the 11th century. Examples from around that time include the Šibenik Sacramentary and Evangelistary written in Carolingian minuscule, and fragments of a Evangelistary from Rab written in Beneventana. The illuminations in these manuscripts are just simple initials with scrolls and animal heads, but by the 13th century, manuscripts from Trogir, Split and Zagreb contain much more complex illustrations, including entire Biblical scenes taking up most of a page.^[8]

Gothic art

Decorative carvings by Juraj Dalmatinac on Šibenik Cathedral) are a successful fusion of gothic and renaissance styles

Gothic art in the 14th century was supported by a culture of city councils, religious orders (such as the Franciscans), and the nobility. It was the golden age of free Dalmatian cities that were trading with Croatian feudal nobility in the continent. Urban organization and evolution of Dalmatian cities can be followed through the continued development and expansion of Rab and Trogir, the regulation of streets in Dubrovnik, and the integration of Split.

At the end of the 15th century, the majority of the coastal region was administered by Venice, and churches, palaces, cloisters, loggias, clock towers and fountains began to appear, which were influenced by Venetian Gothic: not just in structure and construction, but on the emphasis of decorative elements. The master of the Gothic style was Juraj Dalmatinac (George of Dalmatia), builder of Šibenik Cathedral.^[13] The form and the decorative elements of the Cathedral, such as a remarkable frieze decorated with 71 sculptured faces of men, women, and children, illustrates the successful fusion of Gothic and Renaissance art.^[14] The cathedral also shows the considerable interchange of art and architecture knowledge between Northern Italy, Dalmatia and Tuscany in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[14] Juraj Dalmatinac also worked in Split (Chapel of St. Anastasius in the Cathedral), Dubrovnik, Zadar and Ancona, while his followers spread the Venetian Gothic style throughout the whole of Dalmatia.

Franciscan Monastery, Dubrovnik, 14th century cloister animal carvings

The Franciscan friary, Dubrovnik was built by Mihoje Brajkov of Bar in 1360. Much of the original building was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667, but the cloisters and the carved church portal remain. The lower cloister was built in Romanesque/Gothic style where the capitals are constructed in Romanesque form, but the carvings on them are lively creatures modelled with a Gothic realism.^[15] The portal was sculpted in 1498 in Gothic style by the workshop of the brothers Leonard and Petar Petroviċ. The almost life-sized Pietà in the central lunette is flanked by the figures of St. Jerome (holding a model of the pre-earthquake church) and St. John the Baptist. On top of the lunette stands the figure of the Father Creator. Also in Dubrovnik, the old Rector’s Palace (1435) was built in Gothic style by Onofrio della Cava, who was also responsible for two fountains, which are still in use today.^[13]

Portal of St. Mark's Church, Zagreb with gothic statues

The Church of St Mark in Zagreb was radically reconstructed in the second half of the 14th century in Late Gothic style. The main portal contains a series of carved figures of St Mark, Christ, Madonna and the twelve apostles. On top are the statues of Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus, and below them stand St. Mark and the Lion. The twelve Apostles are placed on both sides of the portal (four wooden statues have replaced original ones which were destroyed). Originally the entire portal was painted in vivid colours. The portal is considered to be the work of sculptors of the Parler family from Prague (end of the 14th century).^[15]

Chest of St Simeon (1380), Zadar by Francesco Milano

One of the most outstanding works of art from the 14th century in Dalmatia is the large silver chest made for the relics of St Simeon in Zadar (1377-1380), with a portrait of the saint himself on the lid. The chest is covered with relief scenes, of which only one (the Presentation in the Temple) is biblical. The St Simeon reliquary crosses the boundary between the western Gothic style and Byzantine.^[15]

Some outstanding Gothic frescoes are still preserved in churches across Istria. The small cemetery church of St. Nicholas in Rakotule contains some early examples of Venetian origin.^[15] Scenes from St Nicholas’ life are depicted in a range of colours and shades, using firm strokes to denote character and volume. The figures are active, and their faces have distinctive features, while details of the background are clearly taken from contemporary life.^[16]

Beram, Dance Macabre

Possibly the best-known series of late Gothic frescoes in Istria is in the Church of St Mary on the Rocks (Sv Marija na Škriljinah) near Beram, dating from 1474. Painted by Vincent of Kastav, the frescoes cover the entire interior of the church in a series of 46 panels. The largest composition (8m long) is The Adoration of the Magi, high on the northern wall. The figures appear three-dimensional, within the illusion of space. Across the back wall, the cycle of life panels conclude with the Danse Macabre (Dance of Death), in which everyone meets their fate - rich or poor, all must die in the end. Scenes of this typically gothic humanist theme were painted in many places across Europe at the time, although not all have survived to this extent. The frescoes of St Marys in Beram remain largely as originally painted, and are amongst the finest works of medieval art in Istria^[17]

Paolo Veneziano, Crucifixion, 1350c Dominican Church, Dubrovnik

A series of paintings of exceptional quality on wood are reliably attributed to Paolo Veneziano one of the best-known painters in the Venetian Republic. His work brings a Gothic element to Byzantine iconography, using long elegant figures and subtle colours in his signature style. His works in Croatia include polyptychs (composite altarpieces), paintings in Zadar and Trogir, and the large Crucifixion in the Dominican church in Dubrovnik, which includes separate panels for the Virgin Mary and St John.^[15]

One distinctive feature of paintings by local artists from coastal Croatia is a red background in place of the costlier gold. The red brings an appropriate warmth to the Gothic style paintings, as the gold would also have had a red under-painting. One such example is the Crucifixion in the monastery church at Tkon (island of Pašman).^[15] There were two trends for paintings on wood in Croatia during the 14th century: one continued with strict linearity to depict volume, while the other used colour to create a more subtle form. In the painting “Mother of God with Child and Donor” in Zadar, the donor himself is shown. As in other European icons of the time, the donor is small. This is an early representation of secular human figures in a religious painting. Such figures were to increase in size, until the human figures achieved their own importance in the Renaissance portrait of the 15th century.^[15] Zadar was an important centre for Gothic culture (and painting in particular), which emanated and spread to other Dalmatian communities.^[18]

Illumination from Hrvoje's Missal written in Split, 1404.

From that time come the two of the best and most finely decorated illuminated liturgies done by monks from Split, – Hvals' Zbornik (today in Zagreb), and Hrvoje's Missal (now in Istanbul). The Missal was written in Split by the resident calligrapher and glagolitic scribe, Butko, in 1404 for Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, Ban (Viceroy) of Bosnia and Duke of Split. The miniatures are believed to have been painted by a local artist and were done around 1407 in Split, as contemporary events and scenery have been incorporated into the illustrations. Amidst the biblical scenes and allegories are two full-sheet paintings with a non-religious subject – the Duke himself as a chivalric knight on horseback, and his coat of arms. Hrvoje's Missal is an important document both for the Glagolithic script and for the introduction of portraiture into what is essentially a religious book.^[15]