The work of Cvito Fisković in preservation and restoration of the historical painting and sculpture on Croatian coast

Šustić, Sandra. (2016). The work of Cvito Fisković in preservation and restoration of the historical painting and sculpture on Croatian coast. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Philosophy.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij povijesti umjetnosti) [mentor Babić, Ivo and Belamarić, Josip].

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Abstract

Cvito Fisković was born on Christmas Eve 1908 in Orebić, Croatia. He received the B.A. degree in Art history, Archeology and Italian language in 1932 and the Ph.D. degree in Art history from Faculty Of Humanities And Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in 1937. From 1936 he worked at Archaeological Museum in Split as probationary employee, and from 1939 as a curator. In this period he was an assistant of Ljubo Karaman, one of the most prominent Croatian art historians and conservators. In 1942 he joined Partisan movement. In 1944 he was send to Lecce, Italy where he was an officer responsible for the connection between Anglo-American and Yugoslav command in Bari. From 1944 to 1955 he was Director of Education Department of ONOOD and from 1945 to 1977 he served as the Director of Conservation Institute for protection of cultural heritage in Dalmatia. Since 1958 he was a full member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. His bibliography counts more than 700 bibliographic units, among which are number of books, scientific papers, catalogues, conference proceedings etc. Among many acknowledgements for his efforts in the promotion of Croatian art and culture, he received AVNOJ award in 1977, which was the most prestigious award in Yugoslavia. Due to his efforts, many monuments and artworks in Dalmatia have been analyzed and restored in second half of the 20th century. Although this issue was often described by the Croatian experts, it was not systematically formulated and presented, particularly in the context of protection of movable cultural heritage, until now. Conservation activities and restoration projects of Cvito Fisković were investigated in four major archives in Split, with the objective to determine the methods and strategies that he applied and developed, in particular the establishment of the first restoration workshop in Split. His first tasks in preservation of movable heritage during the SecondWorldWar, such as the evacuation of monumental painting from the Franciscan monastery in Hvar to Italy, were examined. Many unknown details were discovered in this process. In addition his management of the Institute has been evaluated, as well as the main features of his work (archival research and scientific documentation). Furthermore, the circumstances in which the first restoration workshop in Dalmatia was founded were reviled. The results of this investigation have indicated that he initiated and developed an entirely new method of action - interdisciplinary collaboration of art historians and restorers, with the aim to provide a systematic evaluation and protection of artworks. The use of traditional techniques and materials of the workshop have been clearly elaborated and discussed. The scope of the presented case studies in the second part of the thesis, covers the period from the 12th to the 19th century. Restoration projects conducted on paintings from Blaz Juraj, Paolo Veneziano, Nikola Bozidarevic, Tripo Kokolja, Nicola Grassi, Santa Croce, Matej Poncun among others, were reported here. Again, archival records revealed many unknown informations about the conducted interventions, as well as interesting facts, such as the reasons why the systematic restoration of Baroque paintings started at the end of the 1960’s. Finally, the efforts of Cvito Fisković in promoting cultural heritage in Croatia and abroad were thoroughly analyzed. This includes number of given public lectures, participation on many conferences and collaboration with electronic media. Moreover, the launch of the first scientific journal in the field of art history in Croatia called „Prilozi povijesti umjetnosti u Dalmaciji” was highlighted as well. Besides this kind of public outreach, Cvito Fisković was engaged in the organization of multiple art exhibitions. Special attention is given to several restoration exhibitions organized in Split from 1968 until 1977. This thesis clearly shows that Cvito Fisković has played an crucial role in the establishment and improvement of heritage protection of artworks in Croatia, where he modernized the achievements of his predecessors and extended the art-historical analyses of the treated artworks.

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