Painting, Sculpture and Crafts 16th – 19th c.

Researchers focus on the Croatian artistic heritage and its artistic features, its historical and artistic context determined by the period and place of its origin, the circumstances of its commission and its purpose – all of which determine the theoretical considerations pertaining to it.

The scope of research covered within the respective scientists’ field of work is wide, the main areas being:

the history of European and Croatian graphics and book illustrations in the Early Modern Period (1400-1700), the history of 19^th and early 20^th century Croatian graphics, Late Middle Ages and Renaissance in Croatia and Europe, the history and theory of art history, the history of the book and visual media (Milan Pelc, PhD);
art (painting, sculpture, architecture and art crafts) from the 15^th to the 20^th century in Adriatic Croatia (academician Radoslav Tomić);
art from the 16^th to the 18^th century in Adriatic Croatia (Daniel Premerl, PhD);
fine art of the Baroque period in continental Croatia, with an emphasis on Baroque painting of the Central European cultural and artistic circle (Mirjana Repanić-Braun, PhD);
altars and sculpture from the 17^th to 19^th centuries in Istria and northern Croatia (Vlasta Zajec, PhD);
Croatian art in the 19^th and first half of the 20^th century, with an emphasis on connections with the art of Central Europe (Irena Kraševac, PhD).

The methodological research work of researchers is based on essential field and archival research, comparative research and art-historical interpretation, and the results of the their work are published in scientific publications, journals, books, catalogs of thematic exhibitions and proceedings, in addition to being presented at national and international scientific conferences and public lectures both in the country and abroad.

Some researchers are currently involved or have been involved in higher education at all levels, from undergraduate to postgraduate studies in art history at the majority of Croatian universities – in Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, Zadar and Split – and an important component of their work is mentoring doctoral candidates enrolled in doctoral studies at the departments of art history.

The work of researchers within the research unit for painting, sculpture and arts from the 16^th to 19^th centuries further includes developing exhibitions, drafting monument conservation guidelines, collaborating with restoration workshops as well as international collaboration. Individual researchers are members of the Croatian scientific and artistic institution Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts HAZU (academician Radoslav Tomić), reviewers of domestic and foreign research projects, reviewers of scientific and professional articles and books, editors and editorial boards’ members in domestic and foreign journals, thus ensuring this unit’s contribution to excellence and the development of the discipline of art history is ensured.

The work of the scientific unit is carried out within the Institute’s regular activities as well as within the following, ongoing research projects:

Researchers