The Baroque Artistic Legacy of Confraternities in the Croatian Franciscan Province of Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Abstract

During the 17th and 18th centuries, confraternities in continental Croatia acted as commissioners of art—altar sculpture, paintings, and liturgical furnishings—but their overall contribution to the visual and cultural identity of this area has been less thoroughly researched than the confraternities’ legacy in Adriatic Croatia. Thus, the aim of this essay is to offer insight into the significant heritage of lay confraternities in the Croatian Franciscan Province of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Essential facts about the history of the foundations and the activities of the confraternities in this Franciscan Province may be obtained by collecting data presented in a series of important publications on the friaries and churches of the Province by Friar Paškal Cvekan. Based partially on his studies of the archives in Franciscan conventual houses from Trsat and Zagreb in the territory of Croatia, to Bač and Subotica in the territory of Serbia, and complemented by my own archival and on-site research, this essay provides a topographic overview of the confraternities’ achievements in art patronage in the Province. The discussion of the patrons, artists, and workshops, as well as the stylistic identity and iconography of individual works, reveals significant new aspects of the religious and artistic heritage of Northwest Croatia.