Croatian Art - The Nineteenth Century

The Nineteenth Century

In Austrian countries on the beginning of 19th century (to which Croatia belonged than) building in Classicistic Manner prevailed. In Croatia most prominent architect was Bartol Felbinger who also built City Hall in Samobor (1826) and Januševac Castle near Zagreb.

Romantic movement in Croatia was sentimental, gentle and subtle – real image of bourgeoisie's humble and modest virtues. In architecture there were simple decorations made of shallow arch like niches around windows, while the furniture was of mildly bended Biedermeier furniture, and even in dressing the cheaper materials with cheerful colors prevailed. So, it is no surprise that instead of representative portraits in Croatia miniature portraits are preferred.

At the end of 19th century architect Hermann Bolle undertook one of the largest projects of European historicism – a half-kilometre long neo-renaissance arcade with twenty domes on Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj.

At the same time the cities in Croatia got important urban makeover. But whit size and importance the urban regulation of Downtown Zagreb (largely the work of Milan Lenuzzio, 1860–1880) is revolutionary. Between Zagreb's longest street – Ilica, and new railway the new geometrical city was built with large public and social buildings like neo-renaissance building of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU - learned society promoting language, culture, and science from its first conception in 1836; the juxtaposition of the words typically seen in English as "Arts and Sciences" is deliberate, F. Scmidt, 1884), neo-baroque Croatian National Theatre (HNK, H. Helmer and F. Fellner, 1895), and to that date very modern Art Pavilion (1898) with montage construction of steel and glass – Croatian "Crystal Palace", and finally the masterpiece of Art Nouveau – The National Library (Lubinski, finished in 1912). This urban plan is bounded with series of parks and parkways decorated with numerous fountains, sculptures, avenues and gardens (known as "Green Horseshoe") making Zagreb one of first cities build according to new European art theory of "city as a work of art".

Pseudo building that emphasizes all three visual arts is former building of Ministry of Prayer and Education in Zagreb (H. Bolle, 1895). Alongside with rooms in Pompeii style and renaissance cabinet, the large neo-baroque "Golden Hall" was painted with historic compositions by Bela Čikoš-Sesija (The Baptism of Croats and Split Council), Oton Iveković (Meeting of Koloman and Croatian Nobility), Mato Celestin Medović (The Arrival of Croats), Vlaho Bukovac (Frantz Joseph in Zagreb) and decorated with reliefs by Robert Frangeš-Mihanović. "The Golden Hall" becomes unified monument of its age, one of few in Europe.

Realism appeared in bourgeois portraits by Vjekoslav Karas. The characters of his portraits are true expressions of their time. Realistic landscapes are linked to certain parts of the country – Slavonian forests by artists of Osijek school, Dubrovnik in works of Celestin Medović, and Dalmatian coast in works of Menci Klement Crnčić.

In sculpture the hard realism (naturalism) of Ivan Rendić was replaced by art nouveau composed and moving reliefs by Robert Frangeš-Mihanović.

Vlaho Bukovac brought the spirit of impressionism from Paris, and he strongly influenced the young artists (including the authors of "Golden Hall"). Right after he painted the screen in HNK in Zagreb with theme of Croatian Illyrian Movement, and symbolic portraits of Croatian Writers in National Library, he founded The Society of Croatian Artists (1897), so called "Zagreb's colourful school". With this society the Croatian Modern Art started. On the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest they were able to set aside all other artistic options in Austria-Hungary.