From its very beginnings as medium of artistic expression, photography drew professionals and amateurs alike. At the end of the 19th century amateur involvement in photography gained momentum, particularly among the well-educated and well-off members of the higher social classes. Dubrovnik was no exception, and its social elite left an indelible trace on the history of amateur photography in Croatia.
In the holdings of the Collection of Photographs and Photographic Materials of the Cultural History Museum in Dubrovnik there are over 2,000 works created by amateurs at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century.In this thematically heterogeneous material, which covers a wide range of motifs, such as family celebrations, trips, everyday life, the making of the bypass and the Feast of St Blaise, a large unit the authors of which were connected by family or friendship is particularly prominent. Well-regarded physician Jero Pugliesi stands out within this group, or rather, is the hub around which the unit and the present exhibition are formed.
Jero Pugliesi was born on December 30 1862 in Trieste, where his father, Vlaho, was a sea captain who sailed for Lloyd. He graduated from secondary school in Dubrovnik in 1880 and enrolled in the medical school in Vienna and Graz, taking his degree in 1885. In a decision of the Land committee of December 7, 1886, he was appointed assistant physician in the Provincial Hospital in Dubrovnik. He was driven by an insatiable desire for improvement in the profession and asked for a period of leave for one year in order to tour the leading hospitals and medical faculties; he took it in the second half of 1889 and the first half of 1890, spending time in Naples, Rome, Milan, Berlin and, which certainly needs highlighting, visited the famed university hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris.
As well as being engaged in medicine, Jero Pugliesi found time for various other matters to which he turned for his personal satisfaction. It his known that he had various tools and was skilled in carpentry. He was a good steward on the family properties in Slano and Zaton. He introduced into Slano a contemporary manner of soil management for the growing of olive trees and grapevines. He brought the production of olive oil and wine up to date and took part in the production of brandy. Jero Pugliesi loved music, to which he turned for relaxation and leisure. He played the violin and his wife Marija the piano. Ivan Čižek, the kapellmeister of the city’s orchestra taught Pugliesi the cello and they soon founded a string quartet.
Jero Pugliesi was a classic example of the man of learning at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a visionary and in first place in many things. He was among the first to acquire a motorboat and to take a serious interest in photography. Several hundred positives and negatives of his that tell of his impassioned involvement with photography over not quite three decades are kept in the Collection of Photographs and Photography of the Cultural History Museum. We do not know the precise time when he developed an interest in the medium of photography but the earliest photographs handed down to us date from the 1880s. Readable from the really broad thematic and visual contents of his photos are at once realism, particularly in the photographs of patients, people from the environs and from religious processions as well as a consciously artistic approach that prevails in the landscapes. Occasionally taking Pugliesi’s place behind the lens were Augusto Mayneri (1849 – 1913), the only one apart from Jero to sign his artworks, Jero’s wife Marija (1864 – 1914) and his brother Antun Pugliesi (1858 – 1927). As physician and respected citizen Jero Pugliesi was present in all aspects of the cultural, social and economic life of Dubrovnik. Unlike his brother Antun, Jero was little involved in politics and was more inclined to art and working in the managements of many companies and institutions.
Jero Pugliesi died on January 12, 1907 in Vienna where he was being treated for cancer of the stomach. We learn from the periodical Srđ that “a great multitude of citizens from all walks of life who loved and respected him during his lifetime followed the coffin. A requiem mass was sung for him in the Church of the Friars Minor. All the shops shut down of their own will in sign of mourning.” The many friends of Pugliesi told of their great loss, the most poignant words being those of Ivo Voinović addressed to Antun Pugliesi: “My poor good Toni. Who shall tell you of all our grief at the death of our beloved Jero. The Lord knows and sees what I felt for him! For so many years, he was a true and dear friend. A good part of my soul and my art developed in concert with his noble artistic nature. We understood and loved each other! And now it has all come to an end." With the untimely death of Jero Pugliesi, those closest to him lost a dear family member and friend, and we have been deprived of an insight into the further development of an amateur photographer with an undeniable talent.