Nacionalne ideologije i umjetnost u 19. stoljeću na primjeru fresaka u apsidama Đakovačke katedrale
National Ideologies and 19th Century Art on the Example of Frescoes in the Đakovo Cathedral Apses

Summary/Abstract: In 19th century art, as a period in which European nations were born, reflections of new national or political ideologies often appeared. Included among the most interesting of such cases in Croatian art history is the painting of the Đakovo Cathedral sanctuary. Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, one of the main representatives of the Yugoslav national ideology in 19th century Croatia, was in charge of the construction and decoration of this building. In accordance with his political viewpoint and vision of the future of the Slavic South, and in agreement with painters Ludovico and Alexander Maximilian Seitz, who painted the frescoes in the Đakovo Cathedral, elements of the ideology he represented were incorporated into the paintings decorating this building. In the fresco Adoration of the Kings and Shepherds, the South Slavic peoples are depicted as shepherds bowing to the newborn child – Christ: a Croat with grapes in his hand, a Slavonic woman with wheat, a Dalmatian woman holding olives, a Bulgarian holding fruit and a Serbian chasing sheep. In the fresco Off the Cross added to the biblical characters were also some Slavic and local saints, and in the fresco in the main apse (depicting adoration at The Throne of St Peter) there is an Orthodox woman and Bosnian Muslim being led to the Papal See, interpreting Strossmayer's idea that the unification of South Slavs is not possible without unity in faith, which should have been achieved by acknowledging papal primacy.

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