Vranić, I. Izidor Kršnjavi and beginning of arts and crafts movement in Zagreb in the 1880s

Modified Date
Published Date:
Title of the article Izidor Kršnjavi and beginning of arts and crafts movement in Zagreb in the 1880s
Authors Vranić, Igor — Ph. D., researcher, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In the section Miscellanea / Miscellanea
Year 2017 Issue 1 Pages 128-144
Type of article RAR Index UDK; BBK UDK 94(497.5); BBK ТЗ(4ЮЧх) Index DOI 10.21638/11701/spbu19.2017.108
Abstract

Aim of the paper is to show development of arts and crafts movement in Zagreb. Main idea behind the paper is to contextualize arts and crafts movement in Zagreb with other similar movements in the Habsburg Monarchy and elsewhere in Europe by pointing out to the political ideas behind the movement. Special emphasis is given to Arts Society and its founder Izidor Kršnjavi, Arts and Crafts Museum, Crafts school, and the first art exhibition in Zagreb.

Members of the Art Society considered themselves to be at the crucial turning point of national history. Their role was to preserve the rapidly disappearing national culture which was believed to represent authentic voice of the nation, and to have economic benefits from it. Such ideas were a mixture of (alternative) modernism and antimodernism; antimodernism in terms that there was an idea of decline of national culture in previous times which should be restored. The restoration was imagined to be done in an alternative way by the creation of a small wealthy class of craftsmen and artists, unlike in the West where the big factories dehumanized people and created proletariat. In order to fulfill their duty, the Arts Society established institutions, organized exhibitions and lectures, so they could educate the wider population and a new class of artists and craftsmen. The Arts Society promoted ideals of patriotism and morality through its projects, institutions and education, with the main aims to representing the nation and to legitimize the Monarchy. The Arts and Crafts museum, and the Craft school were following more or less the official policy of the Monarchy in establishing multi-national nation of various cultures, that is, multicultural political nation. One piece of evidence for such claim surely are awards that Kršanjavi and Bolle received from Franz Jozef for their efforts in establishing the School and the Museum. Also, they were sponsored by ban Hedervary who was working on the pacification of the Triune Kingdom. Kršnjavi, as many other intellectuals from the Monarchy previously schooled in Vienna, can be seen as some kind of liberal monarchic patriot with the aim to establish economically and culturally self-sufficient nation which would peacefully coexist with other nations and cultures of the Monarchy.

Keywords Izidor Kršnjavi, historicism, Croatian Arts Society, Habsburg Monarchy
Full text version of the article. Article language English
References
  • Alexander, Edward P.; Alexander, Mary. Museums in motion. An introduction to the history and function of museums. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2007. 366 p.

    [Anonimous Author]. Uspjeh naših umjetnika, in Prosvjeta. 1896. Vol. IV. No. 11 (in Croatian).

    Bazin, Germain. The Museum Age. New York: Universe Books Publ., 1967. 303 p.

    Damjanović, Dragan. Arhitekt Herman Bolle [Architect Herman Bolle]. Zagreb: Leykam International Publ., 2013. 680 p. (in Croatian).

    Damjanović, Dragan. Iso Kršnjavi i arhitektura historicizma u Hrvatskoj [Iso Kršnjavi and the architecture of historicism in Croatia], in Mance, Ivana; Matijević, Zlatko (eds). Iso Kršnjavi — veliki utemeljitelj [Iso Kršnjavi — great founder]. Zagreb: Institut of the History of Art; Croatian Institute of History Press, 2015. P. 240–256 (in Croatian).

    Gänger, Stefanie. Relics of the Past: The collecting and study of pre-Columbian antiquities in Peru and Chile, 1837–1911. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 311 p.

    Gervits, Maya. Historicism, nationalism, and museum architecture in Russia from the nineteenth to the turn of the twentieth century, in Visual Resources: An International Journal on Images and Their Uses. 2011. Vol. 27. No. 1. P. 32–47.

    Hurt, Douglas R. Agricultural museums: A new frontier for the social Sciences, in The History Teacher. 1978. Vol. 11. No. 3. P. 367–375.

    Jirsak, Libuše. Izidor Kršnjavi und die Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte [Izidor Kršnjavi and the Vienna School of Art History]. Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska Publ., 2008. 272 p. (in German).

    Kršnjavi, Izidor. Dvije radnje o umjetnosti [Two studies on art]. Zagreb: Tiskom Dioničke tiskare Publ., 1876. 178 p. (in Croatian).

    Kršnjavi, Izidor. Listovi iz Slavonije [The Slavonian papers]. Zagreb: Nakladom piščevom Publ., 1882. 102 p.(in Croatian).

    Kršnjavi, Isidor. Oblici graditeljstva u starom vieku i glavna načela gradjevne ljepote [Forms of architecture in the Old Age and main postulates of architectural beauty]. Zagreb: Society of Art Publ., 1883. 179 p. (in Croatian).

    Kršnjavi, Izidor. Gradjevni narodni styl [Folk style in architecture], in Glasnik Družtva za umjetnost i umjetni obrt. 1887. Vol. 3. P. 1–9 (in Croatian). 

    Krueger, Rita. Czech, German, and Noble. Status and national identity in Habsburg Bohemia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 290 p.

    Levine, Philippa J. A. The Amateur and the Professional: Antiquarians, historians and archaeologists in Victorian England 1838–1886. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 224 p.

    MacGregor, Arthur. Forming an identity: The early society and its context, 1707–51, in Pearce, Susan (ed.). Visions of Antiquity: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1707–2007. London: Society of Antiquaries of London Publ., 2007. P. 45–73.

    MacKenzie, John. Museums and Empire — Natural history, human cultures and colonial identities. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010. 272 p.

    Maruševski, Olga. Iso Kršnjavi kao graditelj — izgradnja i obnova obrazovnih, kulturnih i umjetničkih objekata u Hrvatskoj [Iso Kršnjavi as Constructor: Construction and restauration of educational, cultural, and artistic objects in Croatia]. Zagreb: Društvo povjesničara umjetnosti SR Hrvatske Publ., 1986. 262 p. (in Croatian).

    Mrazović, Ladislav. Umjetničko-obrtnička izložba u Zagrebu [Arts and crafts exhibition in Zagreb], in Vienac. 1879. Knj. 11. Br. 50. S. 798–801 (in Croatian).

    Pajas, Ferdinand. Hrvatsko društvo umjetnosti i njegovo djelovanje od osnutka 1878. sve do konca 1917. godine [Croatian Arts Society and its activities from the establishment 1878 until the end of 1917].Zagreb: Ignata Granitz Publ., 1918. 208 p. (in Croatian).

    Pantelić, Bratislav. Nationalism and architecture: The creation of a national style in Serbian architecture and its political implications, in Journal of the Society of architectural historians. 1997. Vol. 56. No. 1. P. 16–41.

    Rahman, Sabrina Karim. Designing Empire: Austria and the applied arts, 1864–1918. Ph. D. Dissertation. Berkley: University of California Press, 2010. 151 p.

    Rampley, Matthew. The Vienna School of Art History: Empire and the politics of scholarship, 1847–1918. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013. 296 p.

    Smith, Kimberly. Real style: Riegl and early 20th century Central European art, in Centropa. Vol. 5. No. 1. P. 16–25.

    Stråth, Bo. Myth, memory and history in the construction of community, in Stråth, Bo (ed.). Myth and memory in the construction of community: Historical patterns in Europe and beyond. Bruxelles: P.I.E.-Peter Lang Publ., 2000. P. 19–48.

    Sweet, Rosemary. The Incorporated Society and its public role, in Pearce, Susan (ed.). Visions of antiquity: The Society of Antiquaries of London. London: Society of Antiquaries of London Publ., 2007. P. 75–97.

    Tas, Sara. Between patriotism and internationalism. Contemporary art at the Musée du Luxembourg in the nineteenth century, in Journal of the History of Collections. 2015. Vol. 27. No. 2. P. 227–240.

    Tollebeek, Jo. Historical representation and the nation-state in Romantic Belgium (1830–1850), in Journal of the History of Ideas. 1998. Vol. 59. No. 2. P. 329–353.

    Truhelka, Ćiro. Drvorezbarstvo [Woodcarving], in Glasnik Družtva za umjetnost i umjetni obrt. 1886. Sv. 1. S. 14–15 (in Croatian).

    Wallace, Michael. Visiting the Past: History museums in the United States, in Porter Benson, Susan; Brier, Stephen; Rosenweg, Roy (eds). Presenting the Past. Essays on history and the public. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986. P. 137–161.

 

Tags: Croatia, Habsburg Monarchy, Croatian Arts Society, historicism, Izidor Kršnjavi, MISCELLANEA / MISCELLANEA