The Romanesque Wooden Doors of Split Cathedral - Research, Conservation and Protection 2014 - 2018

Split its advantages could not be used because the basic construction of the grid
of planks was placed crosswise, and the dimensional movements of the planks
were cancelled out.

When, at the end, we add together the widths of all the reliefs (the direction
of the growth of the tree) and add to them the parts removed by sawing (26 x 5
mm (the width of the saw), which comes to about 13 cm), we obtain 1550 cm or
15.5 m. Calculating the wooden material in terms of the average height of a walnut
tree (at that time about 15 m, today about 20 to 30 m61) and the relation between
height of bole to height of tree (about one to two), in total for the making of the
figural reliefs, it would have been necessary to have 6 planks 260 cm long (50 cm
wide and 5 cm thick), or 4 planks 390 cm long or 3 planks 520 cm long. To be
stable, such planks would have to be cut radially or diametrically (the centre of
the bole was about the centre of the panels). Not in a single panel are there any
radical cracks, and I conclude that the wooden bole was about 120 cm wide or
that the planks were perhaps tangential and, firmly fixed into the construction of
the door, and so kept their flatness. In any case, such a width of the planks is pos-
sible if the planks are sawn in either direction, since a walnut tree can easily attain
more than a metre around. If we calculate that about two thirds of the diameter
of the tree is usable, whether the planks are radial or tangential, according to the
average height of a walnut tree – objectively speaking, just one single tree might
have been used for the making of all the reliefs.62

Wild-growing walnut (Juglans regia L.) spread from today’s Afghanistan (and
is also called Persian walnut) and by the medieval period had covered only just the
area of south-east Europe with a slender belt of the inland part of today’s Croatia.
North of the Alps, it had been taken by the Romans, and further grew either wild or
in cultivation. It is important to know that there is no such thing as a wild walnut
forest, and that these trees always grow at considerable distance from each other,
and are always awesome examples of particular beauty and monumentality.63 The
use of wood in the art of the High Middle Ages must be particularly and integrally

61 R. B. Ulrich, o. c. (11), p. 253; https://pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?LatinName=
Juglans+regia (posjećeno 18. 6. 2018.); https://www.plantea.com.hr/orah/ (accessed 19.
6. 2018).

62 From an analysis of a CAT image of segments of a painted crucifix of the early 14th
century from the Church of St Andrew on Čiovo I concluded that all the segments were part
of the trunk of the same tree. I believe that in this region, where the making of an artwork
was carefully prepared and was never a matter of routine, it is very possible that for this
work a special batch of wood material was ordered, specially chosen boles that were then
cut and worked, and carved, all as part of the same task.

63 Today in the world the biggest anciently cultivated walnut forest is in Kyrgyzstan.
It is presumed to have been planted by Alexander the Great: The trees are the remnants
of the tree species Juglans regia. http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/inside-the-worlds-
largest-walnut-forest.

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investigated in the wider context of the Mediterranean basin64 since the walnut
used on the Split doors is also the oldest proven example of the use of the wood
on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. Here we have therefore briefly considered
walnut planks from the 15th century onward, when in Dalmatia we find a large
number of artistic and use objects made of this wood. For an earlier period, we
have just a few historical sources about the beginnings of the cultivation of the
tree, first for the nuts, and later for timber too. It is written that walnut trees were
planted in the hinterland of Dubrovnik at the latest from the 13th century.65 Walnut
is not mentioned in studies of medieval furniture of northern Europe. For carving,
maple is preferred, used in this country for the making of the choir stalls of Split
Cathedral.66 In the art to the north of the Alps walnut was introduced in a big way
at the same time it did here, in the art of the Renaissance.67

PAINTING AND DECORATING OF THE DOORS

Finally, created and produced in the way described, the doors were im-
pregnated and lavishly painted. Skipping on this occasion all of the mentions
of the painting of the doors in authors who have dealt with them68, since in the

64 S. Bottema, »On the history of the walnut (Juglans regia L.) in southeastern Eu-
rope«, Ada Bot. Neerl., 29, 5-6 (November 1980), pp. 343-349; a wider historical context
of the development and use, from a different perspective: A. F. Smith, »Historical Virtues
of the Walnut«: http://andrewfsmith.com/wp-content/themes/wooden-mannequin/pdf/
WalnutArticle.pdf.

65 J. Lučić, »Grane privrede u dubrovačkoj Astareji (do u polovicu XIV stoljeća)«,
Anali JAZU, X (1966), 11, p. 141; J. Lučić, Obrti i usluge u Dubrovniku do početka XIV
stoljeća, Zagreb, 1979, pp. 38, 40.

66 C14 analysis carried out shifts the dating of the choir stalls of the cathedral toward
the middle of the century. They are made of maple wood (Acer L.), the first and only di-
agnosed example in this country of the use of its use in the artistic working of wood. The
use of maple in medieval woodwork and furniture making was common, and next to oak
and walnut was the wood most often used. Its properties included strength, compactness,
even structure, and was thus useful for carving and turning.

67 P. Tangeberg, Holzskulptur und Altarschrein, Callwey, München, 1989, pp. 5-6, 18.
68 Eitelberger does not mention the paint of the doors, while Jackson writes: »The
whole of the carving was once gilt, and the ground picked out with red, as may be seen from
traces remaining in the upper part of the doors where the lintel has sheltered them from the
weather« (T. Graham Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria, vol. II, Oxford, 1887, p.
48). On the watercolour of Zečević, there are no traces of paints. In several microsections
I found secondary layers of pigment: orange, red, blue and gold. The visible of the basic
colours, visible to the naked eye, is described by Lj. Karaman, o. c. (3), p. 6: »This is the
same harmony of colours with which the Greek masters painted... and with which the Croa-
tian carvers sometimes enlivened their interlacing carving... the carving of wooden frames
of Gothic polyptychs«. Judging from these traces, up to the renovation of 1908 on every

145

descriptions­it might have been any historical layer or interpretation concerned,
we have engaged primarily with the registering of the microscopic remains of
paint on the doors and the comparisons of descriptions and looking for particles of
pigment on the segments of the door sawn off. In the first phase, of the review of
the surface in the search for particles of pigment on the relief, we tried to identify
them in situ. On the doors there is practically no straight surface, and search with
microscopes, even small digital microscopes, in the VIS, UV and IR spectra was
without success, since over the particles there was the thick layer of secondary
materials from 1908 which make their functional use impossible. At the end, with
an 8x magnifying glass and a high powered beam of a caving lamp, between the
layers of stain, wax and filler, under an exactly determined enlargement and angle
of light, the particles shined out in clear colours and the identification of the palette
of the painter began, together with the way in which he built individual colours
and tones, how he demarcated the surfaces, shaded hands and faces, gilded and
polished the golden surfaces. With XRF in situ the selected samples were analysed,
but because of the high quantity of lead and heavy metals in the secondary layers
the results were irrelevant. Still, in some places they did help in the detection of
some pigments, which were then sampled. In their current form and condition to
find and identify the composition of the base and the palette of the painter and
to virtually reconstruct the original painting as a whole is impossible, since the
remains of paint particles are sporadic. Still, they were brought together at about
the middle of the left leaf, where we managed to find and completely interpret three
fields, and in part three more (fig. 18). The conclusion about the painting of the
door is as follows. The figural reliefs were richly painted with a set of pigments,
used to colour drapery, animals, objects, furniture, plants and architecture, without,
as it seems, any half-tones or shading. Recorded here were white (lead white),
blue (azurite), light and dark red (vermilion, red ochre, crimson lake), grey (lead
white, organic black and additions), dark green (orpiment, indigo and azurite),
black (organic) yellow (orpiment, iron ochre) and gold. The flesh colours were of
several tones in a number of shades, depending on the kind and role of the person.
The faces and hands were shaded by the gradation of redness. These eyes were
painted, like the irises. The background of all the scenes is blue, which was found
in tiny fragments on three fields. All the other segments of the doors were painted
in combinations of rhythms of red and gold: the slanting frames interweave these
two surfaces in various rhythms and combinations, straight frames, the circles of
spheres and the spheres themselves were red, like the background of the reliefs
of all the ribs. All the high reliefs of the ribs were gold, and the human figures on

panel there were at least 10 or so square centimetres of polychromy, preserved mainly in
the upper panels, and more on the right hand leaf. On the left leaf there are far more tiny
fragments and particles. Since they did not hinder the perception of the pure wood, they
were saved from being scraped off. I found such particles on that leaf.

146

them had flesh colours. Gold leaf was applied to a red-brown ground, and was
very thin, unpolished.

The identification of the pigments was carried out in association with Cris-
tina Thieme, who has investigated the technology of medieval paintings on our
coast, while in the science laboratory of the Croatian Conservation Institute the
stratigraphy of the microlayers was identified, as well as the basic materials and
pigments. It was not possible to ascertain traces of protective coatings, or of
binders, because of the contamination of the layers and the permanent chemical
changes they had undergone. The doors were, in conclusion, richly painted in
their entirety in harmony with the iconography of the reliefs and the meaning of
the figures, framed with a two-colour frame of relief bands that were gilded and
created a marked reflection of the light and thus remained in the foreground, just
like the golden decorative frames of the coffers (fig. 19). From a distance, they
spoke out just in the same way that the pages of medieval books spoke out: large,
open and easily readable, visible and clear from each point around the cathedral
and in front of it, from the Peristyle and from the Baptistery. Each detail in which
the doors were thought out, created and worked, and at the end painted, was sub-
ordinated precisely to this.

UNITING THE RESTORATION OPERATIONS, RESEARCH
AND DOCUMENTATION

New technical data about the Romanesque wooden doors of Split Cathedral
have been passed through a specially designed research prism and reflect in fact an
enchanting multitude of nuances, hints and circumstances, almost in an encounter
with every context that they touch: historical, technical painterly, sculptural... Al-
though in all with their identity transformed, the doors, in their concrete physical
form, in the size, composition, construction, selection and working of the wood, the
composition of the iron, the tool marks and the final working of the wood, in the
particles of pigment and their micro-remnants, all between steel screws, nuts, metal
plating and clamps, somewhere in the in-between zones of wood soaked in the
oil, wax, greasy filler, stain and varnish of the restoration of Antonin Švimberský,
under the layer of dust and grime that we have removed, still reveal clear data. By
the reading of them, which is possible thanks to the accumulated knowledge of
the present day, the research methodology and the analytical tools, we are able to
conjure up a virtual image of their former and original glory, as well as a picture
of the craft and skill of their creator, Master Andrija Buvina, and a vision of the
city in which he worked and dwelled.

147

DRVENE ROMANIČKE VRATNICE SPLITSKE KATEDRALE
– ISTRAŽIVANJE, RESTAURIRANJE I ZAŠTITA 2014. – 2018.

Sažetak

Konzervatorsko-restauratorski projekt Hrvatskog restauratorskog zavoda
obnove monumentalnih romaničkih drvenih vratnica splitske katedrale 2014. –
2018., otkrio je i predstavio svijet gradbenih materijala i umjetničkih tehnologija
13. stoljeća u Splitu: svijet konstruiranja, izrade i oblikovanja vratnica, te svijet
materijala, recepata i tehnika njihova prepariranja, oslikavanja i pozlaćivanja.
Zbrajanjem takvih pojedinačnih tehničkih podataka uspjeli smo dosadašnju sliku
vratnica zamijeniti novom, virtualnom ali stvarnijom, istinitijom i točnijom.
Slika koju donosimo predstavlja monumentalni oslikani reljef u jedinstvu slike i
skulpturalne obradbe, koja je bila tako svojstvena romaničkoj umjetnosti, a gotovo
je nestala u nizu restauratorskih postupaka Antonina Švimberskog 1908. godine,
koji je Buvinine vratnice transformirao optički, fizički i kemijski, odstranjujući
pri tome njihovu polikromiju, kovane čavle zamjenjujući mesinganim vijcima...

Detaljno detektiranje sićušnih ostataka preostale polikromije i njihovo ana-
liziranje; proučavanje tragova na 65 preostalih segmenata od 132 ispiljena pri-
godom restauracije vratnica 1908. (i zamijenjenih replikama); analize fotografija
Jozefa Wlhe snimljenih u krstionici, dok su vratnice 28 godina čekale obnovu;
zatim kronologija niza zahvata rekonstruirana temeljem dosjea koji se čuvaju u
HDA u Zagrebu; analiza novootkrivenih restauratorskih nacrta – nastala je nova
slika vratnica. Konzervatorsko-restauratorski dio projekta na vratnicama in situ,
bio je fokusiran na odstranjenje nataloženog materijala od 1908. godine do danas,
na njihovu forenzičku analizu radi shvaćanja uvjeta u kojima se do danas nalaze.
14 C analize provedene na pet uzoraka otvaraju nova pitanja o dataciji gradbenog
i konstrukcijskog sklopa. Identifikacija drva hrasta za izradu osnovne rešetke vrat-
nica, a oraha za rezbarene trake i figuralne reljefe omogućila je daljnje poveznice
sa srodnim djelima umjetnosti Europe i Mediterana, a studija o tragovima na drvu
je precizirala čak 25 različitih alatki kojima su vratnice istesane i izrezbarene,
što nas je potaklo na popisivanje alatki za obradu drva na području Dalmacije
od rimskog do industrijskog doba. Detekcija vrsta punila i razumijevanje palete
pigmenata Andrije Buvine otvorila je nove poglede na istraživanja romaničkog
slikarstva u Splitu i u Dalmaciji.

Ključne riječi: romanička drvena vrata; Andrija Buvina; Split; katedrala;
konzervacija-restauracija; tehnološka i povijesna istraživanja; virtualna rekon-
strukcija

148

Fig. 1. The Romanesque doors open wide today, Ž. Matulić Bilač, 2016
149

Fig. 2. The closed doors in the portal of the mausoleum (photographic montage),
Ž. Matulić Bilač, 2018

150

Fig. 3. The doors of the Lateran Basilica, an example of Antique doors in the portal
of a mausoleum (photographic montage), Ž. Matulić Bilač, 2018

151

Fig. 4. Detail of the frame of a coffer with traces of a wooden peg,
segment labelled 52L, Split, Muzej Grada, G. Tomljenović, 2018

Fig. 5. Romanesque wooden peg in the original straight frames
(segment from Split, Muzej Grada), G. Tomljenović, 2018

152

Fig. 6. The Massacre of the Innocents, J. Wlha, 1899

Fig. 7. Healing the Man Blind from Birth, HR-HDA-958-017,
I. Znidarčić, 1908

153

Fig. 8. Structural assemblage of the doors. Mladen Čulić, ideal reconstruction
of the original polychromy based on Žana Matulić Bilač’s research

Fig. 9. Conjuring up the procedure in which the doors were computer-painted,
M. Čulić, 2018

154

Fig. 10. Detail of Buvina’s doors, Petar Zečević, 1846 (foto R. Matić, 2018)

Fig. 11a. Original fixing element of the Fig. 11b. Original fixing element of the doors
doors labelled NEP 16, Split, Muzej
Grada, G. Tomljenović, 2018 labelled NEP 16, Split, Muzej Grada1, 55
G. Tomljenović, 2018

Fig. 12. Drawing of the doors with the surviving elements by
A. Švimberský (1909) and mapped by Ž. Matulić Bilač (2018)

156

Fig. 13. Results of radio-carbon AMS analysis (four curves of samples of Buvina’s doors
and one of the choir stalls of Split Cathedral), I. Krajcar Bronić, 2018

Fig. 14. Doors without the coffers (photographic montage) together with their normal
appearance, Ž. Matulić Bilač, 2018
157

Fig. 15. Oak segment from Split, Muzej Grada,
labelled NEP 6, G. Tomljenović

Fig. 16. Bevelled frame labelled 52L, Split, Muzej Grada, G. Tomljenović, 2018

Fig. 17. Right hand leaf of the doors after conservation-restoration operations,
R. Matić, 2017

158

Fig. 18. Virtual image of the proven polychromy by M. Čulić based 159
on Ž. Matulić Bilač’s research (2018)

Fig. 19. The Massacre of the Innocents, a virtual reconstruction of the pigments
by M. Čulić based on Ž. Matulić Bilač’s research (2018)

160

SADRŽAJ

Proslov (Joško Belamarić i Guido Tigler) / Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Vratnice Andrije Buvine – slike / Master Andrija Buvina Doors –
illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Joško Belamarić: Andrija Buvina – Painter and Woodcarver, a Master 25
Rooted in the Historical and Artistic Reality of the Split and 69
Dalmatia of the 1200s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Andrija Buvina – drvorezbar i slikar, majstor ukorijenjen u splitsku

i dalmatinsku povijesnu i umjetničku stvarnost početka 13. stoljeća.

Guido Tigler: Andrea Buvina era anche un intagliatore o solo un pittore? . 71
Je li Andrea Buvina bio i drvorezbar ili pak samo slikar?. . . . . . . . 117

Žana Matulić Bilač: The Romanesque Wooden Doors of Split
Cathedral – Research, Conservation and Protection 2014. – 2018.. . 119
Drvene romaničke vratnice splitske katedrale – istraživanje,
restauriranje i zaštita 2014. – 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Franko Ćorić: Master Buvina’s Door – A Unique Testimony to
the Paradigm Shift in the Theory of Monument Protection and
Methodological Experimentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Buvinine vratnice – jedinstveno svjedočanstvo promjene paradigme
u teoriji zaštite spomenika i metodoloških postupaka. . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Charles Indekeu: Traceological Investigation of the Wooden Door of
the Split Cathedral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Traseološko istraživanje drvenih vratnica splitske katedrale. . . . . . 209

Daniela Matetić Poljak: Ornamentalni korpus Buvininih vratnica. . . . . . 211
The Ornamental Corpus of Buvina’s Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Judit Gál i Mirko Sardelić: Archbishop Bernard (1200-1217) between
Split and Hungary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Nadbiskup Bernard (1200. – 1217.) između Splita i Ugarske. . . . . . 270

Branko Jozić: Iluminirani kodeks 626 C iz Riznice splitske stolnice –
zagonetke i gonetanja. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Il codice miniato 626 C nel Tesoro della cattedrale di Spalato –

enigmi e congetture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

481

Radoslav Bužančić: .Andrija Buvina and Radovan. The Salvation Message
on the Portals of the Split and Trogir Cathedrals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Andrija Buvina i Radovan. Poruka spasenja na portalima splitske i
trogirske prvostolnice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Gaetano Curzi: Medieval Wooden Doors in Central Italy:
a Reconsideration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Srednjovjekovne drvene vratnice u srednjoj Italiji: ponovno
razmatranje. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Regina Urbanek: The Romanesque Wooen Door Leaves in St. Maria im
Kapitol in Cologne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Romaničke drvene vratnice iz crkve sv. Marije u Kӧlnu. . . . . . . . . . 393
Xavier Barral i Altet: Bernardus faber me fecit, Giraldus me fecit:
la revendication des portes romanes en bois ornées de ferronneries. 395
Bernardus faber me fecit, Giraldus me fecit: prilog vrednovanju
romaničkih drvenih vratnica sa željeznim ukrasom . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Luca Mor: I dolenti in legno di Cividale del Friuli. Per una ricomposizione

(inderogabile) con il crocifisso del duomo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Drvene skulpture ‘ožalošćenih’ iz Cividale del Friulija. Za
ponovno (obvezujuće) ujedinjenje s raspelom iz katedrale. . . . . . . . 439
Ivana Svedružić Šeparović: Drveni gotički stropovi u Splitu, primjeri iz
palače Papalić i palače Grisogono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Wooden Gothic Ceilings in Split, Examples from the Palaces Papalić
and Grisogono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Kazalo osobnih imena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Kazalo geografskih pojmova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

482

KNJIGA MEDITERANA 110

Izdavači
KNJIŽEVNI KRUG SPLIT

Ispod ure 3, Split
INSTITUT ZA POVIJEST UMJETNOSTI

Ul. grada Vukovara 68, Zagreb

Za izdavače
NENAD CAMBI
KATARINA HORVAT-LEVAJ

Internet knjižara na adresi
www.knjizevni-krug.hr

Lektura
ELIZABETA GARBER

Prijevod na engleski jezik
VIVIAN GRISOGONO
KARLA KATALINIĆ
GRAHAM McMASTER

SARAH RENGEL

Likovno rješenje korica
VANJA KOVAČIĆ

Računalni slog
Književni krug Split

Tisak
Dalmacija papir, Split
Naklada: 300 primjeraka
ISBN 978-953-163-497-7 (KKS)
ISBN 978-953-7875-75-6 (IPU)
Tiskanje ove knjige novčanom su potporom pomogli
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i Grad Split
Tisak dovršen u travnju 2020.

483