ivan mestrovic (croatian 1883-1962)5

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sandamichaela-2632033-ivan-mestrovic5/

Ivan Mestrovic was born in Vrpolje in 1883. After apprenticeship in the stonemason’s workshop of Harold Bilinic in Split, in 1901 he entered the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts where he stayed until 1906. Exhibiting with the artists from the Viennese Secession group he acquired affirmation already during his studies. Since 1908 he worked in Paris in his studio, where he produced a considerable part of the grandly conceived architectural and sculptural piece, Vidovdan Temple. These works were repeatedly exhibited and got the highest award at the World Exhibition in Rome in 1911, where they won the first prize for sculpture. Ivan Mestrovic stayed for four years in Rome studying sculpture of antiquity. He was totally infatuated with Michelangelo, whom he considered the greatest sculptor of all time. During World War I he exhibited in England in 1915, at the Victoria and Albert Museum.Mestrovic's dream of a Yugoslavia united and strengthened against outside forces, was shattered in 1941 when Germany invaded. In the following years the artist resisted both Fascism and Communism and is remembered as a hero of Croatian nationalism. After the Second World War, Ivan Mestrovic left for the United States. Since 1946 he worked as a professor at Syracuse University and later became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. He died in South Bend, Indiana, in 1962.He never again lived in Croatia as he refused to live under Communism. However, in accordance with his wishes, he was buried in the The Most Holy Redeemer church he had built in Otavice. Moreover, he bequeathed his homes and studios in Zagreb and Split as well the chapel in Otavice to the Croatian people, together with the majority of his sculpture. The bequest now forms the Ivan Mestrovic Museums in Croatia

Meštrović’s Crikvine

Kaštilac is a beautiful

seaside estate on the southern

slopes of Marjan Hill in Split.

Meštrović bought the estate with his

brother and remodeled it creating an impressive

architectural in an idyllic

environment

The name Crikvine

(churches in Croatian)

originates from the sculptors belief that the

estate was built on the remains of

old churches

The religious complex Crikvine-Kaštilac in Split is part of the bequest he left to his homeland

The Meštrović's Crikvine - Kaštilac, a 16th-century summer house bought by Meštrović in 1939 and converted into a chapel.

Job

Inside lies what is arguably the artist's most

stunning creation, a cycle of 28

wooden reliefs based on the life

of Christ

The main exhibition space, the Church of the Holy Cross in the western part of the complex,

displays the works done in wood

The carvings were done between 1917 and 1954, and like his home, were made a gift to the Croatian people

Racic mausoleum in Cavtat

Racic mausoleum in Cavtat

The mausoleum of the well-known ship-owners family Račić from Cavtat was built on St. Rock's cemetery. Its construction took place in 1921, on the place of St. Rock's church from 15th century, following the will of the testatrix Marija Račić

The mausoleum was built from the white stone from Brač in the form of cupola. In the whole building no other material but stone was used, except bronze for the door, the bell and the Angel.

On the bell founded by Meštrović's design we find his beautiful reflection: "Comprehend the secret of love, you will solve the secret of death and believe that the life is eternal”

The bronze door has relieves of the four Saints: Rocco & Sava and Cyril & Method.Inscriptions in old Glagolitsa alphabet (similar to the Cyrillic one) surround each of the saints in rectangular fields

For this Mausoleum in 1925 Meštrović was given Grand Prix of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes Paris (there were 15,000 Exhibitors)

Everybody had abandoned St.

Rocco except for a dog - superbly

sculptured - leaning to him

devotedly attached

The whole mausoleum is

full of symbolic

representing three basic stages of

human fate: birth, life and

deathCarved relief of Marija

All of Racic's foursome family had died within a short interval of time: father Ivo (a merchant), mother Mare, daughter Marija and son Eddy

The Soul of the Deceased

The Eagle one of the symbols of four evangelists on the floor

Marija Banac (Racic) was a friend of Ivan and his first wife Ruza Klein

Marija Banac (Racic)

Marija Banac (Racic)

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, the final resting place of Ivan Meštrović and his immediate family 

is an impressive piece of architecture located on Paraćeva glavica, a small hill near Otavice.

The inside of the Tomb is adorned with stone sculptures of religious motives done by Meštrović’s students using the sculptor's plaster models. 

The grave of Mestrovic was desecrated by the Serbs in his birth place Otavice during the 1991-1995 occupation of the Krajina region. Some of the original pieces of art from the Mestrovic Mausoleum were damaged, and some were stolen and transported to Belgrade

Nativity

Ceiling

Text and pictures: Internet Copyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasandahttp://www.authorstream.com/sandamichaela/

Sound: Croatian Baroque Ensemble Adrian Butterfield - Leclair Violin Concerto in F

For more about the artist please click on images