Croatian medieval heritage in European context: mobility of artists and transfer of forms, functions and ideas (CROMART)

Project Croatian medieval heritage in European context: mobility of artists and transfer of forms, functions and ideas (CROMART), funded by Croatian Science Foundation (Hrvatska zaklada za znanost, HRZZ)

Project duration: 15 June 2014 – 15 June 2018

The project puts Croatia in the focus of European research of the middle ages. The international team will implement already elaborated methodologies combined with new technologies (geo-radar, remote sensing) on the medieval artistic heritage of Croatia as to track and map the changes that occurred in monumental landscape in the time span from late antiquity to the late middle ages. Croatia was a border zone between super-powers: eastern and western Roman Empire; Byzantium and respectively Lombard, Carolingian, Ottonian rule; from the 11th c. on, the powers of the West change: the Papacy and Venice, then Hungary. The ecclesiastical and social elites as protagonists of political and diplomatic activities have always strengthened their power by investing and sponsoring architecture and works of art. Those investors often commissioned works of art in their respective countries or summoned architects, sculptors and painters.

The main goal of this project is to track down those artists who came from abroad as well as those going out from Croatia and to analyse the origins of the forms and functions of architecture built from late antiquity to the late middle ages.

The understanding of the transformation of the Roman world in late antiquity and the early middle Ages, the need to track those changes in a longer time span, even within the growth of the medieval feudal society and to explain the role of the elites becomes fundamental.

To answer those questions large field surveys will be carried on as well as the research of elites as investors and carriers of ideas, forms and functions of ecclesiastical architecture. The team is divided in working groups covering different historical regions of Croatia, submitted to very different influences during the middle ages, as well as covering different chronological sequences. By means of thorough field survey, creating catalogue data of architecture, sculpture and painting, through comparative analysis the goal will be achieved.

Principal investigator:

Miljenko Jurković, PhD, full professor

Collaborators:

  • Xavier Barral I Altet, PhD, professor, Universite Rennes II, Universita Ca’ Foscari Venezia
  • Gian Pietro Brogiolo, PhD, professor, Università di Padova
  • Jean-Pierre Caillet, PhD, professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre
  • Christian Sapin, PhD, professor, CNRS, France
  • Predrag Marković, PhD, associate professor, University of Zagreb
  • Vinni Lucherrini, PhD, professor, Università di Napoli Federico II
  • Alexandra Chavarria, PhD, professor, Università di Padova
  • Jana Marikova Kubkova, PhD, Archaeological Institute, Prague
  • Ivan Matejčić, PhD, assistant professor, University of Rijeka
  • Maurizio Levak, PhD, assistant professor, University of Pula
  • Stefano Riccioni, PhD, professor, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia
  • Angela Borzaconi, Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Friuli Venezia Giulia
  • Jean Terrier, PhD, professor, Université Genève
  • Milagros Guardia Pons, PhD, professor, Universitat Barcelona
  • Carles Mancho, PhD, professor, Universitat Barcelona
  • Marijan Bradanović, PhD, associate professor, University of Rijeka
  • Sebastien Bully, PhD, CNRS, France
  • Morana Čaušević-Bully, PhD, assistant professor, Université de Franche Comté, Besançon
  • Ranko Starac, curator, Pomorski i povijesni muzej Hrvatskog primorja, Rijeka
  • Pascale Chevalier, PhD, assistant professor, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont- Ferrand
  • Maja Zeman, PhD, senior assistant, University of Zagreb
  • Sunčica Mustač, senior adviser – conservator, Conservation department, Pula
  • Krešimir Karlo, senior adviser – conservator, Conservation department, Bjelovar
  • Josipa Lulić, assistant, University of Zagreb
  • Mihailo Milinković, PhD, professor, University of Belgrade
  • Juan Molina, PhD, professor, Universitat Girona
  • Geraldine Mallet, PhD, professor, Université Montpeiller III Paul Valery
  • Enrico Cirelli, PhD, Università di Bologna

ažurirano: 28 Kolovoz, 2015