Suchergebnisse

Životnim opredjeljenjem za Krista, širenjem i svjedočenjem Radosne vijesti Marica Stanković mnogo je putovala i pisala, držala brojna predavanja. Za vjernički apostolat u svjedočenju Papa Pijo XII. odlikovao ju je 1943. god. crkvenim odličjem "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice – Za Crkvu i Papu". Uz brojne članke po mnogim časopisima pisala je i knjige, meditacije i druge tekstove te nam tako ostavila svjedočanstvo o svome katoličkom odgojnom radu osobito među ženskom mladeži. Velika većina njenih tekstova nije objavljena za njezina života, osobito ona koja su napisana u vremenu nakon Drugog svjetskog rata. Tek nakon sloma komunističkog režima djela Marice Stanković su nam postala dostupna, neka tiskana a neka su još uvijek u ruko- pisu te nam daju poticaj za istraživanje pisane riječi ove učiteljice, istaknute katoličke aktivistice. Svojim dnevničkim zapisima o robijaškim danima u kaznionici u Požegi ostavlja nam u baštinu i zalog pisani trag prema kojem možemo donekle saznati kroz kakvu torturu su prolazile zatvorenice pa i drugi osuđenici zatvoreni zbog svojih političkih i vjerskih uvjerenja. Zbog svojih kršćanskih uvjerenja i velikog odgojnog utjecaja na mladež komunističke vlasti su je osudile na montiranom procesu na pet godina robije koje je provela od 1947. do 1952. u logoru u Požegi. Na suđenju je hrabro uzviknula "Živio Krist Kralj, živio Papa, živjela kršćanska Europa!", potom je s djevojkama s kojima je bila zajedno suđena nakon pročitane presude svečano u sudnici zapjevala: "Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat – Krist vlada, Krist pobjeđuje, Krist vječno kraljuje." ; Guided by apostolic zeal in spreading Christ's Kingdom, Marica Stanković much traveled and wrote, held numerous lectures and everywhere witnessed in favor of Christ. The Pope Pius XII awarded her, in 1943, the Church medal "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice - For the Church and the Pope." In addition to numerous articles that she had written in many magazines, she also published books, meditations and other texts, through which she thus left to us a testimony of her Catholic educational work especially among female youth. The vast majority of her texts were not published during her life, especially the ones that were written in the aftermath of World War II. It was not before the collapse of the communist regime that the works of Marica Stanković became available to us, some typed while the others were still available as manuscripts; thus giving us an additional initiative to explore the written word of this teacher, the prominent Catholic activist. The entries in her diary, dating back to her penal days in the Pozega prison, left rich heritage and memories of the severity of torture that the prisoners were subjected to, the prisoners jailed due to their political and/or religious beliefs. Due to her Christian beliefs and the great educational impact she had on the younger population, the communist authorities sentenced her to a five year imprisonment, which she was forced to serve from 1947 to 1952 in the Pozega camp. During the trial, she bravely cried "Long live Christ the King, long live the Pope, lived Christian Europe!". Along with the girls who were also condemned and prosecuted there, after having heard the final verdict, all solemnly sang: "Christus vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus imperat."

U Hrvatskoj su nakon Drugoga svjetskog rata za prehranu i opskrbu ratnih zarobljenika i osoba osuđenih na lišenje slobode s prisilnim radom uvedeni i korišteni novčani bonovi. Za prehranu i opskrbu osuđenica u Zavodu za prisilni rad Požega bonovi su uvedeni najvjerojatnije 1946. (izdanje: Zavod za prisilni rad Požega), bonovi za prehranu i opskrbu osuđenika na prisilnom radu u Fužinama uvedeni su najvjerojatnije 1950. (izdanje: Narodna Republika Hrvatska Uprava osuđeničke radne snage "Hidroelektra" Fužine), a bonovi za prehranu i opskrbu osuđenika na prisilnom radu u Sisku uvedeni su najvjerojatnije 1951. (izdanje: Uprava osuđeničke radne snage Sisak-Predgrađe). Zatvorski/logorski bonovi u Hrvatskoj 1945.-1951. malo su poznati, iako su zanimljiv prilog poznavanju represivnoga sustava, a i novčarske povijesti u razdoblju "narodne demokracije" u Jugoslaviji. ; After the Second World War money coupons were introduced and used in Croatia for the food and supplies of war prisoners and persons deprived of freedom with forced labour. Coupons for the food and supplies of women prisoners in the Forced Labour Institution in Požega were probably introduced in 1946 (issued by the Požega Institution for Forced Labour), coupons for the food and supplies of prisoners sentenced to forced labour in Fužine were probably introduced in 1950 (issued by the People's Republic of Croatia, "Hidroelektra" Fužine Administration for Prisoners' Labour), and coupons for the food and supplies of prisoners sentenced to forced labour in Sisak were probably introduced in 1951 (issued by the Sisak-Predgrađe Administration for Prisoners' Labour). The prison/camp coupons in Croatia from 1945-1951 are not well known although they are an interesting aspect of knowledge about the repression system and monetary history in the period of the "peoples' democracy" in Yugoslavia.

U radu se prikazuje razvoj kaznene politike u Engleskoj i Walesu, kao posebnoj kaznenopolitičkoj jedinici unutar Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva. Koristi se politologijski koncept transfera javnih politika koji opisuje mehanizme prijenosa javnih politika između različitih političkih sustava. Rad nastoji pokazati kako se reforme kaznene politike devedesetih godina 20. stoljeća u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu mogu u određenoj mjeri objasniti kao slučaj ideologijski motiviranog uvoza kaznene politike iz SAD-a. Analizom slučaja nastoji se ukazati na širu pojavu putovanja različitih kaznenih tehnologija, retoričkih obrazaca i javnopolitičkih rješenja koja obilježavaju suvremeno stvaranje kaznene politike – važnu s obzirom na i dalje postojeće ambicije harmonizacije javnih politika u okvirima europskih integracija. ; This paper presents the development of penal policy in England and Wales, as a distinct unit of penal policy making within the United Kingdom. The paper uses the political science concept of policy transfer that describes the mechanisms of transmission of policy between different political systems. The work aims to show how the penal policy reforms of the 1990s in the United Kingdom can be explained as a case of ideologically motivated import of penal policy from the United States. Within the framework of a case study, the aim is to point to a general phenomenon of the traveling of various penal technologies, rhetorical patterns and policy solutions that characterize modern penal policy making. This is relevant given the still existing ambition of policy harmonization within the framework of European integrations.

Djeca čiji su roditelji u zatvoru predstavljaju posebno ranjivu skupinu. U radu se daje pregled zakonima zajamčenih prava djece i poteškoća u prepoznavanju najboljeg interesa djeteta i poštovanju prava djeteta čiji je roditelj u zatvoru. Također, daju se i neki primjeri dobre prakse u svijetu. Prava djece čiji su roditelji u zatvoru zajamčena su Konvencijom o pravima djeteta, Ustavom RH, Obiteljskim zakonom, Zakonom o zabrani diskriminacije, Zakonom o izvršenju kazne zatvora i mnogim drugim propisima i aktima na međunarodnoj i na nacionalnoj razini. U praksi, prava koja su zakonski zajamčena djeci zatvorenika ne ostvaruju se i krše se. To se prije svega događa zbog nedovoljne osviještenosti stručnjaka i javnosti o ovoj skupini djece i nedovoljne prepoznatosti ove djece kako na međunarodnoj tako i na regionalnim razinama, nedovoljnog znanja o utjecaju kazne zatvora roditelja na dijete i nedovoljnoj senzibiliziranosti unutar različitih sustava (prvenstveno zatvorskog) za potrebe i prava ove djece. U posljednjih desetak godina ipak se primjećuju pomaci i promjene glede znanja o potrebama djece čiji su roditelji u zatvoru, no to još uvijek nije dovoljno. Zaključno, temeljem predstavljenih nalaza i dosadašnjih iskustava, predložene su smjernice za unapređenje zaštite prava i interesa djece čiji su roditelji na izdržavanju kazne zatvora, kako na razini socijalne politike, tako i na razini neposrednog rada stručnjaka koji se unutar različitih resora i struka bave ovom skupinom djece. ; Children of imprisoned parents represent an especially vulnerable group. The paper will display the data about the rights of the children which are guaranteed by law and the difficulties in recognizing and respecting the best interest of the child and the rights of the child whose parents are in prison. Additionally, some examples of the good practice in the world will be displayed. The rights of the children of imprisoned parents are guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, Family Law, The Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, Law on Imprisonment and many other documents on the international and the national level. In practice, the rights which are guaranteed to the children by the law are not realized and are often violated. This is happening first of all because of the lack of awareness about these children and the lack of their recognition on the international and regional levels, furthermore because of the lack of knowledge about the implications of parental imprisonment on the child and because of the lack of sensibility among different systems (mostly the prison system) for the needs and rights of children of imprisoned parents. During the last ten years, some moves and changes have been made with regard to the knowledge about the needs of the children whose parents are in prison, but this is still not enough. In the end, some suggestions are made on the level of national policy and on the level of different systems and professionals who get in touch with the children of imprisoned parents.

The author analyzes political, philosophical, ethical, & legal implications of the trial in which, in August of 1997, some former members of the Politburo of the United Socialist Party of the former Democratic Republic of Germany were sentenced to prison terms after they had been found guilty for the murders committed by the East German border patrols when trying to prevent people from fleeing to the West. The legal grounds for such a sentence are dubious, not only because it runs counter to the ban on the retroactive enforcement of legal provisions but also because it presupposes the universal validity of the Western concept of human rights. If the intention was to react legally to what, from the Western point of view, were unpardonable acts during the communist reign, then the most prominent representatives of that system should have been -- in accordance with wartime law -- treated as enemies defeated in a (cold) war. Adapted from the source document.

U radu se prikazuje razvoj kaznene politike u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama od 1960-ih do danas. U SAD-u je u tom razdoblju kaznenu politiku obilježilo povećanje kaznenosti i kaznene populacije, ali i pad stope nasilnih zločina od 1990-ih naovamo. Tekst longitudinalno prati nekoliko problemskih žarišta i institucionalnih segmenata kaznene politike: predsjedničku politiku, politiku Vrhovnoga suda s obzirom na smrtnu kaznu i maloljetničko pravosuđe, te zatvorski sustav. Na kraju nudi raspravu o objašnjenju kaznenih promjena s obzirom na kulturne i institucionalne faktore i daje pregled razmišljanja o budućem razvoju politike u ovome u SAD-u politički zasićenom području koje je obilježilo i posljednje predsjedničke izbore na kojima je pobijedio Donald Trump ; This paper presents the development of penal policy in the United States from the 1960s to the present day. In the United States during that period, the penal policy was marked by the increase of punitiveness and penal population, but also by the declining rate of violent crime from the 1990s onwards. The text longitudinally traces several problems and institutional segments of the penal policy: the presidential politics, the politics of the Supreme Court with regard to the death penalty and juvenile justice, and the prison system. In the end, a discussion of the explanation of penal changes with regard to cultural and institutional factors is offered, as well as an overview of the reflections on the future development of policy in this politically saturated area that marked the last presidential election in which Donald Trump emerged victorious.

Although Gavella could not have ever heard of Goffman's work, since he was primarily learned in German philosophical tradition, the two theoreticians do share a common interest in the two-way relationship of theatrical acting and everyday performing. True, Gavella is in the early fifties an already well established director and thinker, while Goffman only starts to develop his dramaturgical methodology, but both in their reflections draw on the same philosophical ground, that is, on phenomenology: Gavella in order to build his theory of acting on a certain difference with respect to the everyday performing, whereas Goffman in order to build a theory of everyday performing on a certain similarity to acting. Gavella had hard time in establishing the mentioned difference, still firmly believing in the utopian aspects of his aesthetics, while Goffman was accused of cynicism, of a distopian view of the prison-house of social »language«. The stunning correlation of crucial concepts and ideas of both of these theoreticians (»face-work«; »norm«, »normalcy«, »tact«, »mask«, »sincerity«, »looking-glass self«, »misunderstanding«, etc.) testify to a common obsession with the ways in which the study of misperformances in everyday face-to-face interaction reveals a fundamental crack in social ontology, and therefore in essential, irreducible selfhood as well. Far from matching the refined spectrum of Goffman's endlessly multiplying »frames of experience«, Gavella's extensive anthropological digressions on tacit norms and values ruling social interaction insist on consequences of such insights for the analysis of a specific, Croatian »social atmosphere«. In his view, Croatian milieu engendered a kind of sociality that, due to various historical, economical and political factors, demonstrates symptoms of »deep disturbances« and therefore, on one hand, does not provide a »material of actor's creativity« rich enough, while on the other, is in dire need of the actor's help to find a way out of its cultural impasses.

U tekstu se razmatra revizionistička struja u suvremenoj hrvatskoj historiografiji, a posredno i u politici, koja se bavi Nezavisnom Državom Hrvatskom (1941-1945). Revizionistički narativ čine tri glavne postavke: (a) NDH je bila normalna onodobna protupobunjenička država koja nije koristila državni teror kako bi uništila vjerske i etničke zajednice koje su u ustaškoj ideologiji i politici bile određene kao prirodni ili organski neprijatelji te tvorevine, nego je primjenjivala ograničena legitimna sredstva borbe da bi se zaštitila od političkih pobunjenika; (b) u NDH nisu izvršeni masovni zločini, a kamoli genocid, ni nad Srbima, ni nad Židovima, ni nad Romima; štoviše, glavne žrtve bili su Hrvati te zločine NDH treba desrbizirati i dejudeizirati; (c) logor Jasenovac bio je samo radni i sabirni logor, a ne koncentracijski logor smrti, u koji je NDH privodila političke protivnike kako bi se zaštitila od njihova razornog djelovanja, a ne kako bi ih ubijala; pravi smrtonosni logor u Jasenovcu osnovala je tek jugoslavenska komunistička vlast poslije svršetka Drugoga svjetskog rata. Pokušavajući dekonstruirati "jasenovački mit", revizionisti zapravo nastoje dekonstruirati "mit o genocidu" u NDH, a time potpuno ili djelomice rehabilitirati NDH. ; This article analyses the revisionist currents in Croatian contemporary historiography – and implicitly also in politics – which in its focus has interpretation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945). Three main elements of the revisionist narative are: a) NDH was just a normal state concerned with rebellion in its own territory, rather than the state which used state terror to exterminate religious and ethnic communities marked as its "natural and organic enemies". In other words, it only applied limited and legitimate instruments to protect itself from its political opponents. b) There were no massive crimes, and especially no genocide, neither against the Serbs, nor Jewish or Roma population. On the contrary, the main victims in 1941-1945 had been Croats, and thus the crimes of NDH should be de-Serbianized and de-Jewisized. c) Jasenovac was only a labour camp and prison, not a concentration death camp. The NDH used it for gathering and arresting its political opponents in order to prevent them from pursuing their destructive actions against the state. The real death camp in Jasenovac was formed only in 1945 by post-NDH communist authorities. By deconstructing what they call the "Jasenovac myth", the revisionists are in fact trying to deconstruct "the myth of genocide by NDH", and thus to rehabilitate the NDH either completely or partially.

Ces derniers temps, ont commencé à renaître des travaux scientifiques qui traitent des contacts balkano-polonais dans le passé. Au cours d'études historiques de diverses sortes, l'attention a été de plus en plus dirigée, entre autres, vers diverses personnalités portant le nom d'Antica-Lastovac. La connaissance des »Anticas«, s'est parallèlement étundue pendant des années et, cella, tant dans le Midi qu'en Pologne; pourtant ces deux courants n'étaient pas reliés et les résultats parallèles n'ot pas été additionnés. D'après les recherches faites jusqu'aujourd'hui, on pourrait constater que, dans l'histoire de ce lignage existaient quelques générations de même descendance qui. l'une après l'autre, s'occupaient surtout de fonderie de cloches ou d'un métier proche et, cela, sur de vastes territoires européens. Dans la première génération peut se ranger Ivelja, appelé Vitković, et, ensuite, Antica Kraković; celui-ci a eu cinq fils dont Frano qui était fondeur de cloches pour la ville de Dubrovnik et ses environs; plus tard, il a travaillé à Bergame, et a laissé trois fils: François, Antoine et Gaudenzio, né en 1600. Tous les trois sont vraisemblablement arrivés en Pologne; le premier d'entre eux, François, y est déjà noté en 1618, il a travaillé pour le roi Sigmond III et les seigneurs polonais, et a joui de la protection d'Andrea Dell'Acqua, qui le considérait comme »instruit, honorable, de bonne rénommée et célèbre«; l'autre, François, en tant que »tormentorum bellicorum fusor«, a reçu en 1624 le droit de citoyenneté de Cracovie; le troisième est soi-disant venu plud tard en Pologne, vers 1622. Dans les recherches de descendants des natifs de Lagustanus (Lastovo) en Pologne, on pourrait sans aucun doute porter attention à l'italien Thomas Antica qui est resté longtemps au service diplomatique du Roi Stanislas Auguste Ponjatowski; Thomas Antica a obtenu en 1708 sa nomination de député et reconnaissance de droits nobiliaires (indygenat). Les oeuvres des gens appelées »Lastovci« en Pologne ne se sont pas conservées. Seul se retrouve un dessin de canon d'artillerie que – comme butin de guerre – a été emporté par les Scandinaves au XVIIe s. et avaint été exécuté par J. F. Thelott, officier de l'artillerie suédoise, dans les premières années du XVIIe s. L'inscription qu'il porte permet d'en authentifier l'auteur, ainsi que l'époque où il a été exécuté: »OPUS FRANCI/SCI LAGUSTINI MDCXXIIII.« Intéressante est, pour les historiens, la toile de fond des événements historiques qui ont permis la migration de natifs de Lastovo en Pologne, de même que leur activité dans ce pays. Il faudrait donc rappeler la situation politique, sociale et militaire d'alors, puis les voies de communication, de même que les personnalités qui ont oeuvré tant dans les Balkans, qu'en Pologne, surtout à la fin du XVIe s. et au début du XVIIe s. c'est-à-dire: Constantin d'Ostravice – janissaire, Nectarius, Serbe, peintre, qui, en 1553 a peint les fresques pour l'église de Supraslo, aux frontières de la Pologne, de la Lithuanie et de la Russie, Thomas Vincentius qui travaillait en 1604 à la construction de l'église de Boleslavac près de Cracovie; Samuel Korestki, magnat polono-ukrainien qui après s'être enfui des prisons turques a habité à Dubrovnik en 1617, intéressé par la culture et les problèmes du poète Gundulić, qui a célébré la victoire des armées polonaises sur les Turcs à Chocim en 1620; il faut aussi rappeler le fait qu'à cette époque Thomas Budislavić et le Jésuite Alexandre Kumulović, de Dubrovnik, étaient en rapports avec les Polonais, et, enfin, le peintre Marcin Teofilowicz qui, parti de Cracovie est arrivé à la ville slovène de Celje après un séjour de longues années à Tridento, et là, en 1623–1624, a exécuté le plafond du vieux Palais Princier. Le problème de la migration et l'activité artisanale des natifs de Lastovo, n'est pas encore complètement éclairci; il demande des recherches et études ultérieures; et cela tant dans les Balkans, sur la péninsule apenniene, que dans la lointaine Pologne.

Autor pokazuje kako se stil Božidarevićeva slikarstva može analizirati kao reprezentativna građa za povijest dubrovačkog društva1500-tih godina, premda se Nikola ustezao od prodornijeg promatranja svog unutarnjeg svijeta i onog vanjskog koji ga je okruživao, dočim se moglo očekivati (obzirom na njegov temperament i budući da je radio po narudžbi kapetana i trgovaca globe-trottera) da mu slike budu proviđene s više detalja onodobne vidljive stvarnosti. ; He signed himself in brush strokes only twice as: Nicolaus Rhagusinus, Nicolo Raguseo- Nikola of Dubrovnik - once in a marble medallion under the arm of Gabriel in the middle of the Annunciation, which he painted in 1513 forthe Đorđić family, the second time at the foot of the Virgin's throne on the main altar retable in the Church of Our Lady of Dance, his last work (1517). This name, until the archival discovery of his Croatian family name, fired the imagination of those researching Dubrovnik Renaissance art and even became a kind of myth. To call himself Rhagusinus in the middle of Dubrovnik undoubtedly meant a self-confident declaration vis a vis his artistic contemporaries- especially Mihajlo Hamzić and Vicko, the son of Lovro Dobričević,and even perhaps in relation to his own father whose workshop he had just left. When we stand today in front of polyptychs of this kind (which, when preserved in full, amaze us by the perfect balance of their general composition) we rarely think that they were created as bricolage. Immediately after Nikola's return from Italy he, and his father Božidar Vlatković received several very large orders. In 1495 they were given a contract for the retable of the main altar of the Franciscan church in Cavtat. The church authorities required that the central composition and figures on the left side should be composed according to the pattern of a polyptych executed almost half a century earlier by Matko Junčić in the church of the Minorite Friars in Dubrovnik, while figures on the right side were to be done according to the pattern of another altar in the same church. The saints in the upper part of the polyptych, shown down to the waist, were to be done after Junčić also, and only the central Pieta according to an earlier painting by Božidarević. The same is true of their style. Experts have very easily "reduced" Božidarević's work into the style and themes found in the Crivelli brothers and Vittore Carpaccio. But Božidarević obviously also knew the fresco paintings of Perugino and Pinturichio in the Vatican palace (Appartamento Borgia)and elsewhere in Rome where his brush may, according to Vladimir Marković, have indeed been involved. The form of a polyptych (like the form of a sonnet) helps in the construction of a figural composition, in a rationally and symmetrically balanced composition. It equalizes lighting, concentrates sight and attention: even when its constructional elements are removed, which make the composition of a polyptych, it continues to make an invisible effect for a long time. By 1500 the form of the polyptych which the "Dubrovnik School of Painting" retained until the end had become a Procrustean bed. It did not allow figures to be shown in a natural context, to be enlivened by being shown with real appurtenances, nor for any relaxation of stiff postures, or any easier breathing. Thus in Božidarević's paintings the representation of real life and the movement of the real world is only found in miniatures, on the borders of polypthychs, in "footnotes" on individual articles or when we study details "microscopically". In fact it is drapery which is the most convincing and arresting and almost tactile element of Božidarević's painting. Just as we perceive the bustle of the harbour on the model of Dubrovnik held by St Blasius so too he was fully aware of the richness of the materials which were produced at this time in Dubrovnik. Cloth was as important as salt for the trade of Dubrovnik and was a very tangible asset in the consciousness of the city. It may be paradoxical but it is accurate to say that Božidarević did not paint portraits (using patterns of characters) but portrayed materials in which his saints were clothed. It is of significance in this context that the most outstanding assistant in his workshop for which in 1507 he rented a whole floor in one of the mansions on Placa, suitable because of its good light - was Marin Kriješić who is recorded in one of the archives as "pictor sive coltrarius", painter of pictures, curtains, covers and cloth. When we consider Božidarević's landscapes we also notice a paradox. The endless journeys of the Dubrovnikians, constantly involving the sea, did not give rise to the desire to extend the picture to include real landscape even in those ordered by ship's captains, merchants, or globe-trotters. But it would have been unrealistic to expect Nikola Božidarević to show the Annunciation in Kolendić's Lopud landscape. Instead he presents the stereotyped picture of the humanists' idea of Arcadia but omitting Bellini's ploughmen and donkeys. This is no bucolic Virgilian landscape as created in the circle surrounding Giorgione - no mundane Utopia in which we might like to live. Behind Gabriel the landscape is wild and rough, behind Our Lady it is cultivated, these are more symbolic, antithetical rather than any true mise-en scene. When we first come to Božidarević's paintings we may be surprised by the fact that in spite of the very real situation within which they developed, there is a lack of any penetrating observation of either inner or outer worlds. Where details appear they largely represent a sanctified aspect of reality: spiritualiasub metaphoris corporalium, as Thomas Aquinus would say. The political, diplomatic, commercial realism of the people of Dubrovnik was, surprisingly enough, very late reflected in an art which served symbolic ends. Considered from this angle the architectural presentation of the city has something in common with butterflies which have great black eyes on their wings in order to make an impression on their surroundings and themselves. Thus in Božidarević and his predecessors we shall find no dark allegory, as measured by today's art critics, but a clear and balanced representation of the Bible message. These polyptychs provide a view of many kinds of fear (of heaven, of the sea, of plague, of Turks of all kinds, of oneself), and also of much hope. The four paintings by Božidarević which have come down to us are typologically different. This only shows us how impoverished we are not to have his entire opus. All four of Božidarević' surviving paintings were private votive offerings. Their subject must therefore be read according to the wishes of the person who ordered them. It is often considered, taking into account their formal superioriy that the Sacra conversazione of the Đođic painting and the Annunciation done for Captain Marko Kolendić are the "measure" of Božidarević's painting. If the former is his first example of a particularly popular Renaissance composition in Croatian art history, the second is his first independent central altar painting. Private orders in Dubrovnik of the time continued to demand the traditional religious, especially votive themes. But in the wider sphere new, more secular, opportunities presented themselves. A study by Vladimir Marković shows this programme to have arisen out of a combination between political intentions and the moral principles of the patrician oligarchy which coincided and were identified with the Renaissance view of Christian and especially with the classical Roman exempla. Božidarević was the contemporary of poets Džore Držić and ŠiškoMenčetić, of Mavro Vetranović. Marin Držić, the most successful writer of Dubrovnik's "Golden Age" was born when Nikola was in prison for the ribald songs. But we cannot but feel that the painter's temper remains hidden behind the porcelain surface and perfect outer symmetry of his compositions. The Dubrovnik context did not provide opportunities for the expression of strong passions. The demands for caution and order were unremitting. There might be considerable personal pride but there must never be bragging. It was not a setting for great philosophy or poetry, nor for tragedy, but for the natural sciences, economics and- along with them- comedies. Unfortunately Dubrovnik painting was fated to disappear almost unnoticed, with no fanfares or real apogee, to be drowned in the import of baroque art from the other side of the Adriatic. When we talk about Dubrovnik, the Renaissance is our first association, but the Renaissance in Croatian painting never managed fully to develop. Indeed Gothic was never fully relinquished but, rather, gradually disintegrated. Its place was taken by the counter Reformation, together with a whole packet of ready-made solutions, before the Renaissance had managed to achieve full definition. We cannot experience Nikola's paintings as Renaissance building blocks cut out from the reality of their own day. We may rather consider them as tables bearing rich fabric. His saints, enveloped in brocade, standing before an azure sky, are sunk in timeless melancholy. They are depicted in an indeterminate context as they appeared to the eye of the painter - without any later addition of colour. They did not attain the position of an academic standard for the Dubrovnik painting of the period that followed. Božidarević went ad patraim paradisi the same time as Mihajlo Hamzić, son of the German immigrant Hans, a "bombardiere" from Cologne, and Vicko Lovrin, son of Dobričević. The sudden and complete change of generations coincided with a fundamental change in the taste of the rich commercial class when it began to turn to the artists of the Bellini and Titian circle. The colours of Božidarević's painting are the most harmonious chords of Dubrovnik's "Golden Age". Of the one hundred and fifty polyptychs registered at the time of Sormano's apostolic visitation in 1573 less than one tenth remain. The Dubrovnik archives record seventeen works by Božidarević but only four have come down to us. In old cities such as Dubrovnik - colour, like everything else except stone, is recessive. What we have today is an idealized impression of what was once reality.