Artworks Catalogue

Advanced Search

Location (Toponym) 

Artwork type

Conservation materials

Author

Patron status

Conservation strategy

Artwork materials

Technique

Date

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

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

The sculpture of Aaron (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

Left Side Altar of the Our Lady in the Parish Church of St Francis Xavier in Vugrovec

Type

Side altar

Dimensions

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

Inscriptions

Renovirat / 1897 / 1/9 W. E. (behind the painting)
OBNOVLJENO DAROVIMA / ŽUPLJANA VUGROVEČKIH / GOD. 1945. 16. SVIBNJA / PO IVANU ROBNIK IZ ZAGREBA / ZA ŽUPNIKA IVANA MITREČIĆ. (on the right side panel of stipes)
DRAGAN BEDENKO / Zagreb 1908. (on the lower right of the painting of Our Lady)
Ova slika slikana je god. 1908 za župnika mjestnog / Josipa Fučeca i šikutorov Ivana Vukasa i Franje Kovačića, postavljena 12. studena 1908. (on the strecher)
1759 (on top of the church entrance)
Felix Stuhec / (poz)latio 1897 (on the pulpit)

Critical History

The church was built in 1759 (Ins. 5) 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 1759.3 The altar of Our Lady was erected on the expense of the Parish.4 The design of the altar is similar to the design of the side altars of St George and St Joseph in the Parish church of Kloštar Ivanić.5 The sculptures of Moses and Aaron on the attic were originally placed lower by the altar painting.6 Doris Baričević attributed these sculptures to Franz Anton Straub, based on the comparison with the style of his brothers.7 The Mary's monogram mentioned in the canonical visitation of 1779 is not anymore existent. The sculptures of St Charles Borromeo and St John of Nepomuk probably origin from the nearby chapel of St John the Evangelist.8

According to the parish cronicle, the altar was restored in 1858, together with the other church inventory.9 The parish chronicle recorded also 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 archbihop of Zagreb Josip Mihalović.10 According to the conservation-restoration investigations, the high altar was not repolychromed during that renovation, but it was repainted soon after, in 1987, by Eduard Wagmeister (Ins. 1) and Felix Stuhec (Ins. 6).11 The altar painting was replaced in 1908 by a new one painted by Dragan Bedenko (Ins. 3 and 4)

The altar was renovated in 1945 by Ivan Robnik from Zagreb (Ins. 2). The renovation was financed by the parishioners and costed for both side altars 600 000 kn.12

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. 1765; Patron(s): multiple, parishioners; Material(s): softwood
Sculpture: Sculptures of Aron and Moses; Author: Franz Anton Straub (Wiesensteig 1726 – Zagreb ca. 1774); Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): multiple, parishioners; Material(s): wood
Sculpture: Sculptures of St Charles Borromeo and St John of Nepomuk; Completed: ca. 1750; Material(s): wood
Painting: Virgin with Child; Completed: ca. 1765; Patron(s): owner, parish; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Painting: Crucifixion; Completed: ca. 1765; Patron(s): multiple, parishioners; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Painting: Virgin with Child; Author: Dragan Bedenko; Completed: 1908; Technique(s): oil on canvas
Polychromy: Completed: ca. 1759; Patron(s): multiple, parishioners; 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): multiple, parishioners; Technique(s): oil gilding; Material(s): barium sulphate, brass, brass leaf, calcium sulphate dihydrate, gold leaf, iron oxide, lead white, metallic pigment, vermillion, zink white

Comment

The original paintings of the Virgin with Child is no more existent. The visible repolychromy was executed by Ivan Robnik, a gilder from Zagreb.13 The origin of the sculptures of Jesuite saints is uncertain.

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 Our Lady in Vugrovec (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Goran Tomljenović, 2019)
The sculpture of Moses (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)
The sculpture of Aaron (Croatian Conservation Institute Photo Archive, photo by Jurica Škudar, 2017)



Catalogue entry prepared by Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić

Recommended citation: Ksenija Škarić and Martina Ožanić, Left Side Altar of the Our Lady in 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
Lelja Dobronić, Stari "vijenac" sela oko Zagreba, Zagreb, Muzej grada Zagreba, 2003
Ivan Klaić, Po kašinskom i vugrovečkom kraju, Zagreb, 2002
Doris Baričević, Barokno kiparstvo sjeverne Hrvatske, Zagreb, Školska knjiga; Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2008
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
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)

4 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 60/XVI, 1765, 32: "Tertiam in capellula ex corpore ecclesiae septentrionem versus diducta et priori correspondens, sub patrocinio Beatissimae Mariae Virginis, in summitate imaginem Crucifixi praeseferentem, ex pia fidelium eleemosina ipsa capella erexit." (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

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

6 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 63/XIX, 1779, 330: "In corpore ecclesiae lateribus strata ad latus dextrum est ara Beatissimae Mariae Virginis, quoad structuram et symetriam priori adaequate similis; in cujus plano inferiori intra columnas duas et statuas Moysis et Araon est elegans imago picta Beatissimae Mariae Virginis Jesulum gestantis; superne est picta imago Crucifixi, et in sumitate est radiatum Nomen Mariae... Hae omnes arae una cum ipsa capella consecratae sunt." (Transcribed by Šime Demo)

7 Doris Baričević, 1992–1993, 211; Doris Baričević, 2008, 274

8 Canonical visitations, Cathedral Archdeaconry, protocol 59/XV, 1757, 137: "Capella S. Joannia Evangelistae sub castello Ugra: Habet in ea tria altaria murata cum ecclesia consecrata operis statuarij deaurata decolorata. Majus est S. Joannis, ad cornu Epistollae S. Joannis Nepomuceni, ad Cornu Evangelij S. Caroli Borromei." See also: Ivan Klaić, 2002, 195.

9 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)

10 Idem, 9.

11 Ksenija Škarić, 2022, 235–237.

12 Idem, 41.

13 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.

14 Ksenija Škarić, 2022.