In Focus To See

2020

Fragments of the Past of the Imperial Palace in Split

The exhibition presents fragments of the architectural and decorative elements of Diocletian’s Palace. 

The Palace of Diocletian, built between 295 and 305 AD, is the largest and best-preserved example of Roman palatial architecture. In 1979, the palace was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is significant for its masonry construction techniques and the decorative repertoire of the tetrarchy period. Each building within the palace complex had a differently carved decoration relating to its intended function. This meant that tetrarchic art adorned public buildings and entrances, while religious decorative ornamentation covered temples and sepulchral decoration embellished the mausoleum of Diocletian.

During his reign, Emperor Diocletian (284–305) reorganized the fiscal, administrative, and military system of the Roman Empire and introduced tetrarchy. He is known for the last persecution of Christianity, which became a threat to the Tetrarchic ideology due to its rapid expansion. After his abdication, Diocletian retreated to his magnificent palace, where he died in 313. Later, in the 7th century, inhabitants of Salona, destroyed in the invasions of the Avars and Slavs, took refuge within the palace. In that transformation from the imperial residence into a Late Antique Christianized city, much of the decorative and sculptural architecture was discarded or reutilized as a building material. The old walls and columns were incorporated into new structures.

This story of the palace is illustrated by the objects found during numerous archaeological excavations—notably of the southern part of the complex where the Emperor's apartments were located and the cellars below them. In total, 53 movable stone monuments are on display for the first time.

A Story of Remembrance – Hermann Weissmann’s heritage in the Osijek Museum institutions

The Museum of Slavonia presents the valuable collection of Dr. Hermann Weissmann (1884 – 1942/1943), a Jewish lawyer from Osijek, who, amid World War II and the Holocaust, partly donated and partly stored the objects from his collection at the Museum of Slavonia in an attempt to save lives of his family. The collection includes art objects, paintings, and graphics, as well as the numismatic collection and library. The exhibition is carried out within the framework of the project Rediscover, expose and exploit the concealed Jewish heritage of the Danube Region. It tells the story of a man and his family, touching on the subject of difficult heritage—the persecution of Jews during the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), and the role museums played at the time. 

After the passing of the racial laws, the dislocation of Jews and the nationalization of their property started. In 1941 Weissmann wrote to the mayor of Osijek, and the county prefect, offering his library and art collections to the City of Osijek in exchange for permission to stay in his apartment. Thus begins the bureaucratic procedure for the donated objects to be listed so a donation contract could be composed, as recorded in the documents presented at this exhibition. The City of Osijek ordered Josip Bösendorfer, the director of the Museum of Slavonia at the time, who was active in rescuing seized Jewish and Serb property, to compose the list.

Weissmann and his family—wife Tessa and daughter Zdenka—did not manage to escape the tragic end. In 1942 they were deported to the Tenja concentration camp near Osijek to be transferred by train to Auschwitz. However, it is not clear whether the Weissmann family perished in Auschwitz. Dr. Weissmann's heirs, two surviving brothers and nephews contacted the Museum in 1947 over the property.

Thematically, works of art from Dr. Weissmann's collection can be divided into two categories: ones of a more intimate character with scenes of interiors or nudes, predominantly in oil on canvas technique, and exhibited in his home at Gajev Square 4, and depictions of city views—mainly graphics and drawings—adorning his office at Radićeva street 9. He also visited auctions and sales exhibitions abroad and most often collected works by contemporaries, European painters, and Croatian graphic artists.

The Weissmann numismatic collection contains Celtic, Roman, and Byzantine coins, as well as coins of Bosnian King Nikola Iločki. It also includes the most comprehensive collection of coins of the Republic of Ragusa, from the Middle Ages to the fall of the Republic in Napoleon's time. One of the more valuable items within the collection is the Levantine thaler of the Venetian Republic.

Dr. Weissmann's rich and diverse library consists of almost 4,000 volumes. The research of the apartment of Hermann's brother Karl, now owned by the Vekić family, led to the findings of Tessa's cookbook and daughter Zdenka's picture book. Books owned by other Jewish families were also found in Karl's library, which opens the possibility of further research on Jews in Osijek.

Ars et Virtus. Croatia–Hungary. 800 years of common heritage

When Ladislaus I of Hungary established the Diocese of Zagreb, he laid the foundations for the development of the capital of Croatia. His heir Coloman was crowned in Biograd in 1102 as King of Hungary, Dalmatia, and Croatia, marking the beginning of the Hungarian-Croatian state union. In the dynastic union from 1102 to 1918, Croats and Hungarians both benefited from the coexistence—the longest and most peaceful one in Europe. The exhibition will give insight into contacts in the sphere of culture and fine arts, showcasing chronologically some of the greatest works of art from the Hungarian-Croatian heritage from the Middle Ages to 1918. 

Some of the objects on view are the Chest of Saint Simeon, as one of the most beautiful goldsmith monuments from the late Middle Ages; the oldest surviving work of easel painting—‘Crucifixion’ by G. F. Tolmezzo; a golden deer once owned by the Zrinskis; antependium from the 14th-century Benedictine church in Zadar, now housed in the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest. Also, visitors will be able to see never exhibited Croatian flag from the middle of the 17th century with the Latin inscription ‘Croatiae’ and the checkered coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia, borrowed for the first time from the Private Foundation of the Esterházy family in Austria, as well as the helmet and saber of Nikola Zrinski (1508–1566) from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A real treat is ‘Dubravka,’ the monumental painting by Bukovac, which came into the possession of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest with the purchase of the Hungarian government from the Millennium Exhibition in 1896.

The Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb, and the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, organized the exhibition jointly at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia on the occasion of the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2020.

 

From Imagination to Animation – Six Decades of Zagreb Film

For historians and critics of animation, the term Zagreb School of Animated Film is referring to the group of animators who worked in the Zagreb Film’s Studio for Animated Film, using the technique of cel animation, but with every one of them having their unique style and vision. It was not long after the founding of the Studio in 1956 that international success came. Vatroslav Mimica was awarded the Venice Grand Prix for his 1958 animated short film The Loner, and in 1962 Dušan Vukotić became the first non-American Oscar winner for his animated short The Substitute. Zagreb Film also produced four animated shows: Hound for Hire, Inspector Mask, Professor Balthazar, and The Little Flying Bears.

Building on that reputation, Zagreb has become recognizable for its long tradition of animation, and every year since 1972 has been hosting Animafest Zagreb, one of the four biggest festivals of animated film in the world.

To learn more, visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, which has put together the most extensive exhibition on Zagreb and Croatian animation to date, presenting more than 200 animated films, many original drawings, archival materials, and objects.