RAZGLEDNICA VATROSLAVA JAGIĆA I IZGUBLJENA SKULPTURA IVANA GUNDULIĆA U VARAŽDINU
THE POSTCARD OF VATROSLAV JAGIĆ AND THE LOST SCULPTURE OF IVAN GUNDULIĆ IN VARAŽDIN

Summary/Abstract: The postcard that the Slavic philologist Vatroslav Jagić sent to his wife Sidonija contains a series of multi-layered pieces of information created by compressing and weaving visual and textual content like fabric. The information was woven from the moment the postcard was created until it was sent from the Varaždin Post Office on August 6, 1910 to Spital am Semmering, a small town in Austrian Styria. It was made from collotype on cardboard that was subsequently colorized. The lines and information on the back were printed by Srećko Hartmann, the owner of a bookstore, paper shop, and bookbinder in Ivan Gundulić Street no. 7. Jagić wrote his message and the information of the recipient (i. e., his wife) with a purple pencil. The collotype depicting the eastern facade of the National Theatre in Varaždin was most likely made by an unknown photographer from Varaždin. The photograph shows the appearance of the facade before the building was upgraded and modified between 1948 and 1955, as well as the sculpture of Ivan Gundulić in the central niche of the facade. The Varaždin City Council decided to install the sculpture on August 27, 1872 by accepting the motion of a descendant of the famous local merchant and benefactor Samuel Louis Mosinger. This could have been Louis (Ljudevit) Mosinger or, even more likely, his other son, Moritz (Mavro) Mosinger (Varaždin?, 1832 – Varaždin, 12 January 1901). Moreover, the Varaždin City Council decided to entrust the realization of the sculpture (made by an unknown sculptor) to the architect Hermann Helmer, who designed the theatre. The initiative to erect the sculpture depicting the poet is presumably related to the function of the building and the popularity of Gundulić as a symbol of Croatian national identity in the 19th century. The postcard was returned to Varaždin in 1938, when Stanka Rešetar donated some of her father's correspondence to the Varaždin City Museum. In 1968, it traveled for the last time to the State Archives. It is kept there as evidence of the manufacturers, the sender and his relationship with his wife, and the urbanism of Jagić's hometown from the second half of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Moreover, it is evidence of the lost sculpture and an individual who wanted to decorate the most significant Historicist building in Varaždin with it.

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