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Date

The altar of St Joseph in Vugrovec (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2019))

The sculpture of St Jerome (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)

The sculpture of St Ambrose (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)

Location

Croatia, City of Zagreb, Vugrovec Donji

Parish church of St Francis Xavier (Župna crkva sv. Franje Ksaverskog)

Artwork

Right Side Altar of St Joseph of the Parish Church of St Francis Xavier in Vugrovec

Type

Side altar

Dimensions

Height: 530 cm, width: 310 cm, depth: 49 cm

Inscriptions

OBNOVLJENO DAROVIMA / ŽUPLJANA VUGROVEČKIH / GOD. 1945. 16. SVIBNJA / PO IVANU ROBNIK IZ ZAGREBA / ZA ŽUPNIKA IVANA MITREČIĆ. (on the left side panel of stipes)
Zasche 1858 (on the painting of St Joseph)
1759 (above the entrance towards the old part of the building)
Felix Stuhec / (poz)latio 1897 (on the pulpit)
Renovirat / 1897 / 1/9 W. E. (on the side altar of Our Lady)

Critical History

The church was built in 1759 (Ins. 3) as a donation of the Zagreb bishop Francisus Thauszy, replacing a wooden chapel near the market place on the bishopry estates.1 It was affiliated to the parish of St Michael until 1803 when it became a parish church.2 The church was consacrated along with the three altars by the same bishop on 29th July 1759.3The side altar altar of St Joseph erected before 1765 was a donation of Joseph Vuger (Wuger), the head of bishop Franciscus Thauszy's estates in Pokupsko.4 The design of the altar is similar to the one of the side altars of St George and St Joseph in the Parish church of Kloštar Ivanić, while the statues of St Jerome and St Ambrose are identical in posture5 and is of the similar size as the sculptures of the side altars in Kloštar. Doris Baričević attributed these sculptures to Franz Anton Straub, based on the comparison with the style of his brothers.6 These sculptures were probably originaly positioned lower by the altar painting, since they are of the same size as the sculptures of Moses and Aaron on the corresponding altar of Our Lady. While the painting of St Catherine is stil from the 18th century, the altar painting of St Joseph was replaced in 1858 with the new one by Ivan Zasche (Ins. 2). According to the parish chronicle, the same year all the altars and the pulpit were restored.7 In the canonical description from 1779 the top of the altar was described as bearing rays with the names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,8 which are not anymore existent. It is unclear when the sculptures of St Lawrence and St Martin were added.

The parish chronicle recorded that altars were damaged in the 1880 earthquake and many sculptures fell off. The next year the church and inventory was repaired on the expenses of the archbishop of Zagreb Josip Mihalović.9 According to the conservation-restoration investigations, the high altar was not repolychromed during that renovation, but it was repainted soon after, in 1987, by Felix Stuhec (Ins. 4) and Eduard Wagmeister (Ins. 5).10

The altar was repolychromed again in 1945 by Ivan Robnik on the expense of parishioners (Ins. 1). The renovation of the two side altars together costed 600 000 kn.11

Construction / Execution

With cca. 50 cm in depth, the retable is one of the flatest created by Franz Anton Straub.

Components

Carpentry: Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774); Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): Joseph Wuger, head of bishop's estate; Technique(s): sawing; Material(s): softwood
Sculpture: St Gregory and Ambrose; Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774); Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): Joseph Wuger, head of bishop's estate; Technique(s): wood carving; Material(s): wood
Sculpture: St Lawrence and Martin; Completed: ca. ca. 1760; Technique(s): wood carving; Material(s): wood
Painting: St Joseph; Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): Joseph Wuger, head of bishop's estate; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Painting: St Catherine; Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): Joseph Wuger, head of bishop's estate; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Painting: St Joseph; Author: Ivan Zasche (Jablonec 1825 – Zagreb 1863); Completed: ca. 1858; Patron(s): multiple, parishioners; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Polychromy: Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): Joseph Wuger, head of bishop's estate; Technique(s): water gilding; Material(s): calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate dihydrate, gold leaf, iron oxide, lead white, silver leaf, ultramarine, vermillion
Polychromy: First repolychromy; Completed: 1858; Material(s): barium sulphate, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate dihydrate, iron oxide, lead white, silver leaf, ultramarine, zink white
Polychromy: Second repolychromy; Author: Eduard (Slavoljub, Aloys) Wagmeister ( 1840 – Zagreb 1909); Completed: 1897; Material(s): barium sulphate, brass leaf, calcium sulphate dihydrate, gold, iron oxide, minium, ultramarine, vermillion, zink white
Polychromy: Third repolychromy; Author: Ivan Robnik; Completed: 1945; Patron(s): owner, parish; Material(s): barium sulphate, brass leaf, calcium sulphate dihydrate, gold leaf, iron oxide, lead white, metallic pigment, vermillion, zink white

Comment

The original paintings of St Joseph was replaced in 1858 by the one by Ivan Zasche (Ins. 2). The visible repolychromy was executed by Ivan Robnik, a gilder from Zagreb in 1945 (Ins. 1).12 The origin of the sculptures of St Lawrence and St Martin is uncertain. They might be from one of the two nearby chapels which were ruined in 1779.13

Conservation-restoration

2022

Materials: 3M Spray Mount, demineralized water, ethyl alcohol, Hydro-Grund, Japanese tissue, Klucel G, Lascaux® Medium for Consolidation, wood, wooden pins

Treatment Description

The church was damaged in earthquake on March 22nd 2020 when the high altar also suffered minor damages of the left vase and left angel's wing which fell off. The altar was partially dismentled within the same year to allow the building to be repaired. In 2022 the Croatian Conservation Institute executed conservation-restoration investigations of the church inventory.14

Images

The altar of St Joseph in Vugrovec (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2019))
The sculpture of St Jerome (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)
The sculpture of St Ambrose (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)

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Catalogue entry prepared by Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić

Recommended citation: Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić, Right Side Altar of St Joseph of the Parish Church of St Francis Xavier in Vugrovec, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 26/01/2026) URL

Sources and Bibliography

Archive of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 60/XVI, 1765
Archive of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 63/XIX, 1779
Parish Archive Vugrovec, Spomenica Župe svetog Franje Ksaverskoga u Vugrovcu
Doris Baričević, Članovi kiparske obitelji Straub u Hrvatskoj, in: Peristil. Zbornik radova za povijest umjetnosti, 35–36, Radovan Ivančević (ed.), Zagreb, 1992–1993, 193–218
Mladen Nadu, Povijesne crkve i kapele u Sesvetskom Prigorju (povijesni prikaz), Sesvete, 1994
Ivan Klaić, Po kašinskom i vugrovečkom kraju, Zagreb, 2002
Lelja Dobronić, Stari "vijenac" sela oko Zagreba, Zagreb, Muzej grada Zagreba, 2003
Doris Baričević, Barokno kiparstvo sjeverne Hrvatske, Zagreb, Školska knjiga; Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2008
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ksenija Škarić, Polikromija i polikromatori oltara 17. i 18. stoljeća u sjeverozapadnoj Hrvatskoj, PhD Thesis, Zagreb, 2014
Martina Ožanić, Altaristika u opusu Franza Antona Strauba na području sjeverne Hrvatske – geneza motiva, utjecaji, odjeci, in: Peristil, 61, Zagreb, Društvo povjesničara umjetnosti Hrvatske, 2018, 65–87
Croatian Conservation Institute, Ksenija Škarić, Vugrovec, župna crkva svetog Franje Ksaverskog, sakralni inventar. Elaborat konzervatorsko-restauratorskih istraživanja

Notes

1 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 60/XVI, 1765, 32: "Quae paulo antea lignea et desolata fuit, ad praesens secundum modernum gustum murata eaque elegans, eximia excellentissimi, illustrissimi et reverendissimi domini, domini Francisci Thauszy, praelati gratiosissimi, liberalitate surrexit. Est haec capella tam in sanctuario, quam in corpore ecclesiae sub fornicem posita, quercineis asseribus tecta, campanili similibus asseribus ad formam imbricum elaboratis viridique colore decoloratis in cupula exornato, atque in cujus summitate duplicata crux inaurata posita. (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

2 The Zagreb bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac declared the church of St Francis Xavier a parish church in 1803. Lelja Dobronić, 2003, 38–39

3 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 63/XIX, 1779, 330: "Hae omnes arae una cum ipsa capella consecratae sunt.“ Spomenica Župe svetog Franje Ksaverskoga u Vugrovcu, 3: "Capella sancti Francisci Xaverii Wugrae consecrata est. Anno millesimo septingentesimo quinquagesimo nono (1759), die 29. Julii, Dominica prima post festum Sancti Jacobi apostoli, per excellentissimum, illustrissimum et reverendissimum dominum, dominum Franciscum Thauzy, Dei et Apostolicae Sedis gratia episcopum Zagrabiensem, abbatem Beatae Mariae Virginis de Thopuska, Comitatus Berzence supremum ac perpetuum comitem, Sacratissimarum cesareo-regiarum Majestatum actualem intimi status consiliarium, nec non regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Slavoniae regium locumtenentem banalem etc. etc." (Transribed by Šime Demo). See also: Ivan Galović, 26.

4 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 60/XVI, 1765, 32: "Secundam, eamque in corpore ecclesiae, in capella extra idem, non nihil versus orientem exporrecta, sub titulo Sancti Josephi, in summitate habentem imaginem Sanctae Catharinae, Dominus Josephus Vuger, provisor Pokupszkensis, pia liberalitate posuit." (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

5 Doris Baričević, 1992–1993, 211; Doris Baričević, 2008, 274. See also: Martina Ožanić, 2018, 74.

6 Ibid.

7 Spomenica Župe svetog Franje Ksaverskoga u Vugrovcu, 6: "Anno 1858. in parochiali ecclesia praesuscepta est restauratio majoris altaris, collateralium ararum et ambonis, sumptibus parochialis ecclesiae, quae etiam ad finem vergente eodem anno consummata est." (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

8 Canonical visitations, Katedrala Archdeaconry, protocol 63/XIX, 1779, 330: "Ad latus sinistrum quoad omnia consimilis prioribus est ara Sancti Josephi, in cujus plano inferiori est imago picta ejusdem sancti Jesulum gestantis; superne visitur imago Sanctae Catherinae, et in sumitate intra radios est scriptum Nomen Jesus Maria Joseph. Hae omnes arae una cum ipsa capella consecratae sunt." (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

9 Spomenica Župe svetog Franje Ksaverskoga u Vugrovcu, 9.

10 Ksenija Škarić, 2022, 175.

11 Idem, 41

12 According to an inscription in Slani Potok dating from 1931, Robnik worked for the company "Josip Kaplan" dedicated to trade and execution of church art. Ksenija Škarić, 2014, 551–552, 536–537

13 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 63/XIX, 1779, 328–329:. „De capella sancti Benedicti: Capella haec supra vineam Petrovchak muro erecta sub tecto bono est, habens turiculam ligneam, in qua campanula una. In eadem est ara simplicis laboris, in cujus medio statua sancti Benedicti... De capella sancti Ioannis Evangelistae sub castello: Haec etiam capella, olim parochialis hujas, in praecedentibus visitis sufficienter descripta etiam vere necessaria non est, immo et populo et ecclesiae matrici, quae ad ejusdem necessitates concurrit, potius onerosa, siquidem dotem penitus nullam habeat; quam idcirco, uti priorem (nisi Sua Excellentia episcopalis rationes in abversum habuerit) cassandam censeo, translata ejusdem ara et supellectili ad ecclesiam parochialem” (Transcribed by Šime Demo). See also: Spomenica Župe svetog Franje Ksaverskoga u Vugrovcu, 1; Mladen Nadu, 1994, 21–22; Ivan Klaić, 2002, 195.

14 Ksenija Škarić, 2022.