Between Connoisseurship and Technical Art History: Monumental Crucifixes in Croatia (13th–16th Centuries)

About the Project
The Crux project investigates the corpus of painted and carved monumental crucifixes in Croatia created between the 13th and 16th centuries. Through bibliographic, field, and archival research, a comprehensive corpus of crucifixes (approximately 100 examples) will be established, enabling an extensive study of their social, sensory, experiential, and semantic polyvalence.

The project, which involves early-career researchers, is based on the premise that new knowledge can only be generated through an interdisciplinary approach combining the work of art historians and conservator-restorers. Therefore, alongside analyses of style, iconography, and the social and historical circumstances surrounding the creation of the crucifixes, the project proposes their parallel examination in light of technical research results, such as identifying the type and age of the wood, the pigments used in painted layers, the history of alterations to the painted surface, and transformations over time in general.

By adopting this approach – positioned between connoisseurship and technical art history – the project will contribute to overcoming the gap between traditional understandings of the disciplines that study and interpret artistic heritage, a divide that still partly dominates research on early sacred art.

Through research workshops, an international conference, conference presentations, a monograph, and an extensive critical catalogue of crucifixes, the project will generate new knowledge relevant not only for further research but also for the more concrete social valorization and restoration of some of the oldest surviving wooden artworks in Croatia.

Published papers and project results can be followed through the CroRIS system.

Principal Investigator
Dr. Matko Marušić, Institute of Art History

Research Team
Valentina Baradel, PhD, University of Padua
Danijel Ciković, PhD, University of Rijeka
Đurđina Lakošeljac, PhD, University of Zadar
Žana Matulić Bilač, PhD, Conservation Department Split, Croatian Conservation Institute

Project acronym: Crux

Project duration: 1 April 2026 – 31 March 2031

This Installation research project is carried out with the support of the Croatian Science Foundation and is conducted under the reference number UIP-2025-02-6234.

#Crux #IPU #HRZZ

Cover illustration: Emanuel Vidović, Split Cathedral VI, 1939 (National Museum of Modern Art; photographed by Goran Vranić, inv. no. MG-2087).