At the exhibition and in the accompanying catalogue everything known to date about Božidarević is set down. But some new discoveries are also put forwards, about the painter’s birth, his work, the clients for his paintings and the locations for which the works were commissioned. Some unclear points in the previous readings of the archival records have been put straight.
Only four works from the whole of the oeuvre of Nikola Božidarević have come down to us. Three are on show in the Museum of the Dominican Priory in Dubrovnik, and the fourth is in the Dubrovnik Church of Our Lady of Danče. A triptych from the Church of St Mary od Špilice on Lopud is considered to be a work by the workshop of Božidarević, and according to recent discoveries, he added parts to the icon Virgin and Child from the Church of St Nicholas at Prijeko. The rest of the oeuvre has been lost, and our knowledge of it is derived from the contracts kept in the Dubrovnik State Archives.
It has been impossible to borrow the original artworks, which are in the permanent display of the nearby Dominican Museum and on the altars of two churches, and accordingly we have used full-sized copies of them. The original of the Prijeko icon is, however, exhibited here. As for the paintings that are no longer in existence, they are represented by the contracts, either in the original or in a copy.
Especially shot for the exhibition is a documentary film dedicated to Nikola Božidarević and his extant works. Today’s greatest Božidarević scholars, Dr Joško Belamarić and Academician Radoslav Tomić, discuss them „in situ“.
The exhibition is organised to mark the 500th anniversary of the painter’s death, with the goal of recalling this important and extremely precious segment of the Dubrovnik and Croatian artistic heritage, and of raising the awareness of the importance and magnitude of Božidarević’s contribution to the Renaissance art of Dubrovnik and Croatia, and making its own contribution to the better understanding of his life and work.
PROJECT HEAD - Pavica Vilać
EXHIBITION CONCEPT - Pavica Vilać
EXPERT ADVISOR - akademik Radoslav Tomić
AUTHORS OF TEXTS - dr. sc. Vedrana Gjukić-Bender, akademik Radoslav Tomić, dr. sc. Zoraida Demori Staničić, prof. dr. sc. Sanja Cvetnić
AUTHOR OF CATALOGUE ENTRIES - dr. sc. Vedrana Gjukić-Bender
TRANSCRIPTION OF CONTRACTS AND TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN - Vesna Rimac
AUTHORS OF VIDEOS - dr. sc. Joško Belamarić, akademik Radoslav Tomić
EXHIBITION CURATORS - Pavica Vilać, Vedrana Gjukić-Bender
VISUAL SETUP- Rašić+Vrabec
PHOTOGRAPHERS - Božidar Gjukić, Damil Kalogjera
VIDEO - Novena d.o.o.
INSTALLATION TEAM - Nikša Uhodić, Željko Ćatić, Pasko Burin, Mišo Lečić
The exhibition and catalogue have been produced with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.
The catalogue is available in the museum shop of Dubrovnik Museums.