FAMOUS CROATS 2006 - LJUBO KARAMAN (1886 – 1971)

LJUBO KARAMAN (1886 – 1971) The perception of the value of the Croatian monument heritage kept growing along with the coming of age and agility of the Croatian art historians, among whom Ljubo Karaman takes a particularly outstanding position. Born in Split, he graduated in history of art from the Vienna University in 1910, and at the same chair he also defended his doctoral thesis in 1920 with the theme on the Romanesque sculpture in Split. What is essential for his scientific formation is the attendance and creative following in the steps of the so called Viennese school, which at some time used to be the most progressive and strongest professional group, with top authorities like Dvorak, Riegl and Strzygowski. The fact that he honoured his eminent professors and models, even the gratitude for the received stimulation had not stopped Karaman from taking a free and critical attitude to their theses, particularly those regarding the interpretation of Dalmatian monuments. Having included into his explanations a better knowledge of data and contexts, he was inclined from the very first moment to look for specific characteristics instead of accepting fixed formulas and schemes. In his book “Iz kolijevke hrvatske prošlosti” [From the cradle of the Croatian past] (1930) he polemically commented upon the inappropriate linking of Croatian early-medieval small churches and sculptures with the Germanic, northern tradition and courageously asserted the genuineness and authenticity of the Old-Croatian architecture within the framework of European Pre-Romanesque art. Along with the range of special studies and research, particularly in the Dalmatian milieu (where he had worked for decades as conservationist, all the way up to the year 1914), a period of writing syntheses followed. After having written “Umjetnost u Dalmaciji XV i XVI vijeka” [Art in Dalmatia in the 15th and 16th centuries] (1933) he once again summed up all his acquired new knowledge in his book “Pregled umjetnosti u Dalmaciji” [Survey of art in Dalmatia] (1952). After being employed in Zagreb, he moved here and was the first one who decided to present a pictorial representation of medieval art of northern Croatia and Slavonia (1948 – 1950). Afterwards he applied the same method to represent the problems of the visual art of Istria in the Middle Ages (1949). He continually followed all the scientific and professional publications, frequently reacted to them with his need to supplement, deepen or correct certain perceptions. Like no one before him, Karaman taught us to appreciate objectively and include without inferiority complexes our autochthonous values into the universal milieu in terms of art history, and the way he treated the Croatian heritage as a whole was also without precedence. This was not only the case with the outstanding values like Radovan or Buvina, Diocletian’s Palace of the Šibenik Cathedral – to whom he dedicated his exceptional monographs – but also the less known, often neglected and decayed visual or constructive works which he had come to know through his time of working as a conservationist. The crown of his theoretical attainments is represented in his book “«O djelovanju domaće sredine u umjetnosti hrvatskih krajeva» (with the subtitle ‘Problemi periferijske umjetnosti’) [On the influence of the domestic milieu in the art of the Croatian lands – subtitle ‘Problems of provincial art’]. The book could be understood as his professional testament. Having classified his material into three cycles (provincial, marginal, peripheral), he improved his notional set of instruments of the profession, but, even more important, he pointed to the fact that working outside the dominant stylistic centres can result in freedom and affluence of creative solutions, which is the characteristic feature of Croatian monuments. Applying his scientific seriousness and foundation, Ljubo Karaman achieved the reputation of a modern reformer of the Croatian art history, which none of his successors or followers, though different in their approaches and differing individual standpoints, ever thought of questioning. Tonko Maroević