Suchergebnisse

U članku se analiziraju povijesne okolnosti bizarne priče Amijana Marcelina, čiji su se navodi uzimali samo kao dokaz da je Dioklecijan oktogonalni hram usred splitske građevine podigao kao mjesto svog trajnog počivališta i da je u njemu stvarno i pokopan. Amijan nam je, zapravo, opisao prvi sudski proces koji se 356. godine vodio u »Aspalatu«, koji je u to doba bio još uvijek neobična kombinacija imperijalne palače i državne tekstilne tvornice, te nam je dao izravan uvid u proces profanacije Dioklecijanovih uspomena u njegovoj palači i početke njene kristijanizacije. ; The article analyses the historical circumstances behind the story of Ammianus Marcellinus (XVI, VIII, 3-7), according to which a certain woman, in the year 356, during the reign of Constantius II, made a report to Rufinus, the chief steward of the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, accusing her husband Danus and »a gang of plotters« of the theft of the purple robe (uelamen purpureum) from the sarcophagus of the emperor in his mausoleum in Split, of the crime, then, of lèse-majesté, of the most serious affront to the imperial majesty. In the subsequent inquiry, it later turned out that Rufinus had persuaded this woman by a tissue of lies to charge her guiltless husband. Always only in a passing comment, the story is taken as a proof that Diocletian built his octagonal temple as a place for his eternal resting place and that he was in fact entombed there. Ammianus, with his acute and impassioned evaluations of contemporary real politics and characters, described the trial that was conducted in the city, at that time still an uncommon combination of imperial palace and factory for army textiles (Gynaeceum Iovense Dalmatiae – Aspalatho as the place is called, in entirely official terms, in Notitia Dignitatum at the beginning of the 5th century). The Split episode is mentioned as the first in a series of proofs that Constantius II exceeded the severity of Caligula, Domitian and Commodus in the processes of interrogating accused persons who were in any way suspected of having threatened his rule or the attributes of his dignity. The many people put to torture during the investigation must have been working people and officials in Diocletian's gynaeceum. The investigation was conducted, highly logically, by Ursulus, count of the largesses, that is, the head of the sacred state treasury, under whose direct jurisdiction the gynaeceum Io-vense in Aspalathos lay, and by Lollianus Mavortius – praefectus praetorio per Illyricum, known to us as the dedicatee of an important book about astrology by the Late Antique writer Julius Firmicius Maternus, lavishing on him numerous encomiums. It is worth pointing out at once that appointment of Lollianus Mavortius to the position of examining magistrate in the Split case was very logic, not only because he, like count Ursulus, belonged to the imperial consistory, but because at that time justice in the appeal court was carried out by the praetorian prefect, as it was on occasions in the court of first instance. Ursulus was appointed Mavortius' collaborator; in fact, he is the central character in the whole story, one of the exceptionally rare positive characters in the world of Ammianus. He was count of the sacred largesses. A number of special financial bodies were underneath him: in Illyria, for example Rationalis summarum Pannoniae secundae, Dalmatiae et Saviae, as well as comes largitionum per Illyricum. (Not. dig., 188), in rank almost equal to the governor. Dependent on the counts largitionum per Illyricum were the prepositi (for example, Prepositus thesaurorum Salonitanorum), managers of the state workshops, procurators, of which there was a fair number in Illyria (for example, Procurator monetae Siscianae) and also the Comes metallorum per Illyricum (who controlled the gold mines in the interior). In Salona there was also a separate gynaecium, certainly connected with that in Aspalato; also there was a separate workshop for dyeing silk and wool with scarlet – bafium, as well as a weapons factory – fabrica Salonitana armorum, where helmets, gauntlets, breastplates and so on were produced, under the direct control of the magister officiorum. The real investigation into the theft of the purple from Diocletian's tomb carried out precisely by the comes sacrararum largitionum; this shows, it should be underlined, not so much the emperor's wish to get things into the open by a really righteous and strict person, as Ammianus would have it, rather the fact that the crime happened in the premises that were under the direct jurisdiction of the highest financial officer of the empire. The procedure was not conducted by anyone from the level of the provincial politburo, not by any of the officers in Salona, which at that time was the head of the diocese of western Illyria, the prefecture of Italia (composed of seven provinces). Ursulus' authority in the case of this enquiry is thus extremely significant. The comes sacrarum largitionum directly oversaw the work of the gynaecea, like that called after Jupiter in Asapalto. Rufinus is a particularly picturesque character. He was princeps clarissimus, in the highest rank of state officials (agentes ducenarii), from whom the heads of the officia of the prefects and the most important civil governors for West and East were chosen, or for the military in the East. Via these principes, the court was able to keep a close eye on the working of the provincial governors, that is, they had official spies (if we can really say that). We recognise Rufinus from a second Ammianus story (XV, III, 7-11). Danus is usually considered to have been a slave, according to an actually rather arbitrary repair by Heraeus of a lacuna of some 11 to 14 letters in the firstsentence [Per id tempus fer……….num quendam nomine Danum → Per id tempus fere servum quendam nomine Danum]. But Pighi fills this same lacuna by venturing that Danus might have been some official – a palatinus or praefectianus (in his supplement: palatinum vel praefactianum), which does seem a more logical solution. He might, then, have had some official standing in Aspalathos, and Ammianus' story could well be an indirect confirmation of the operations of the gynaeceum in Aspalathos. This new approach, in which we are no longer dealing with a slave, as has been commonly thought, but, probably, with one of the officials in the management of the imperial textile factory in Split, elegantly explains the apparent contradiction of the affair between Rufinus and Danus' wife. We have no knowledge of how the cunning Rufinus became acquainted with this thoughtless woman. Perhaps he met her during an investigation into the theft in the Split mausoleum, which without any doubt really did happen. He seduced her (post nefandum concubitum) with fine words and promises (ut loquebatur iactantius). Ammianus' account might have been a significant proof of the beginnings of Christianity's squaring of accounts with the reliquaries of paganism within the Palace. It was in that same year, 356, that by the edict of Constantius all the pagan temples in Rome and elsewhere in major centres (which would have included Split, which was under direct imperial control) were closed down. This could well have emboldened the Split conspirators to take steps in squaring accounts with the irritating presence of the mortal remains of the emperor-persecutor in the midst of the Split palace-factory, which at that time was already certainly in the process of Christianisation. The sentences that Ammianus might have based on a direct inspection of the dossier of the Roman prefecture certainly demand to be analysed in detail and, as far as is possible, supplemented. The short Split story penned in 15 sentences of Ammianus's masterly hand, in refined literary expression, sets forth a poignant sample of the harsh texture of life in later antiquity. It is also an important historical source, in the context of the great paucity of written sources about the life of the Palace in the century in which it was built, and provides us with some of the names of its first visitors after the death of Diocletian.

U studiji se, nasuprot uvriježenim mišljenjima, dokazuje da su blokovi sjevernog dijela Dioklecijanove palače bili izvorno projektirani i izvedeni za potrebe gineceja kojemu se u Notitia Dignitatum spominje nadstojnik (Procurator gynaecii lovensis Dalmatiae -Aspalato). Opskrbljivao ga je akvedukt kapaciteta 1500 1/sec. = 129.600 m3 na dan. Problem obilnog ispiranja riješen je odgovarajucim kanalizacijskim sistemom koji je postojao samo duž ulica sjevernog dijela Palače u kojem su se nalazili pogoni carskih tkaonica. Tehnologija je (uz sustav bazena arheološki uočenih u prizemlju Papalićeve palače) ukljucivala sumporavanje, za što su bili na raspolaganju brojni izvori sumporne vode uz samu Palaču. Čitava građevina savršeno se uklapa u dugački niz tetrarhijskih javnih radova. Bila bi to izvorna, osnovna funkcija građevine u koju se Dioklecijan povukao nakon što je 305. g. bio prisiljen na abdikaciju. ; In scholarly literature, the term "city" was first mentioned by Lj. Karaman, talking of the beginnings of medieval Split in Diocletian's Palace, and then by Andre Grabar in his Martyrium (I: 232-233).2 Noel Duval, in a series of studies he wrote, asks whether Diocletian's residence should be classified as palatium, villa, castrum, urban settlement or some special type of architecture, considering that in comparison with genuine imperial palaces like those in Constantinople, Antioch, Philippopolis and Ravenna, it was wanting a number of "attributes": proposed the term "chateau".3 -5 The term was thoroughly investigated by Slobodan Čurčić, discussing late antique palatine architecture, showing convincingly that the urban character of these residences was undoubted (of Antioch , Nicomedia, Salona, Constantinople, Split) - although the miniature municipal quarters in them had an only slightly more than symbolic significance.6 Diocletian's building in Split really does not have the external look of a Roman imperial villa. In Split, in particular with respect to the two architectural masses in the northern part of the building, we note, its innate anti-landscape character, both the internal and the external disposition of the architectural elements, which is almost inorganically formalised. Not even in the narrow residential area, within which the halls are interconnected only via the "cryptoportico" having no direct contacts with the surrounding landscape, we do not find any of the characteristics that in the nature of things we would expect in a residence in which, it was always considered, the emperor intended to while away his final years. The Split edifice is really primarily an example of fortification. But here too we can be surprised. The sentry patrol corridor should be on the top of the walls and should be protected with a parapet, while here it is on the first floor, perforated with hardly defensible apertures (3 x 2m). The building was clearly primarily motivated by the desire to impress the surroundings, with its emphatic delineation of military presence and power. The Golden and Silver Gates and the great apertures of the sentry corridor on the three sides of the walls onto the mainland must have been walled up before the Byzantine-Gothic wars of the 530s.7 But it would seem that we can understand its form - so very particular that it evades the usual, in some sense fossilized, terminology – only through some new reading of the original meaning and purpose of the building itself. In author's opinion, this is proffered by a very simple question. The aqueduct that brought water into the palace from the source of the river Jadro was, in the design and execution of the imperial architects, undoubtedly related to the construction of his final dwelling place. Although it is a rare specimen of a Roman monument of this kind that is still being used today (reconstructed in 1878), in the literature and in research it has been almost entirely neglected, and has certainly never been interpreted in the original context. The aqueduct provided 1500 l/ sec. (129.600 m3 a day), which in terms of our standards would be enough for a population of 173,000. 8,9 The sheer amount of water inevitably leads to the question of what it was meant for, because it far exceeded the needs of the relatively modest bath complexes in the Palace. The answer might be hidden in an almost neglected item of information from Notitia Dignitatum OC XI 48 (ed. 0 . Seeck, 150) where there is a mention of the Procurator genaecii Iovensis Dalmatiae - Aspalato- warden of the imperial weaving shop for the production of woollen clothing for the army that worked in Split, under the title of Jupiter. So far it has always been thought, on the rare occasions when this fact has been mentioned at all (and then only by-the-bye) that this gynaeceum was only after Diocletian's death "inscribed" into the Palace, which was for the whole of the 5th century a kind of pensiopolis of dethroned emperors or pretenders to the throne. It has been considered that the northern part of the Palace was reserved for the Imperial Guard, for stables and the like. 10,11 Notitia Dignitatum, a long list of all the senior offices in the Empire, civilian and military, is certainly of a composite character. The basic text was created probably in about 408 (in partibus Occidentis changes were recorded up to 420), but it conceals a lot of information about the periods before the revision of the basic copy, mirroring the order that Diocletian had brought into the state, which certainly relates to the Split gynaeceum, which alone of the 14 such complexes located in the most important cities of the empire bears the characteristic predicate Iovense: it must in itself constitute a terminus post quem non to do with the origin of the factory of military uniforms of wool in the building in Split. 12,13,15 Although the gynaecea were never mentioned in the context of Diocletian's reforms, it is generally accepted that they were created at the time of the first Tetrarchy. The concentration of the labour force, the range of specialised jobs, the degree of organisation and their connection with urban centres makes them, in the judgement of historians, the closest to the modern industrial factory. State factories (fabricae) were set up in the late Empire to eliminate or at least to alleviate the difficulties concerning the supply of the state and the army with certain products. It was necessary to clothe the approximately half a million soldiers that Diocletian 's army reforms had raised, as well as no small number of clerks. Archaeology, however, has never made any direct contribution to the understanding of their internal organisation, except in the case of the otherwise well documented gynaeceum in Carthage, which lay in the heart of the city, on the edge of the celebrated Circular Harbour. 16,17 The state operated, through the comes sacrarum largitionum, a number of weaving mills, both for woolen and linen fabrics, and dyeworks 18 The Split gynaeceum should have probably been in some kind of complementary relationship with the gynaeceum moved to Salona, perhaps for security reasons, from Bassiana (Donji Petrovci, Pannonia Inferior) also noted by Notitia Dignitatum, XI, 46 (Procurator gynaecii Bassanensis Pannoniae Secundae translati Salonis). In Salona, thus, there was a large cloth dyeworks (In Not. dign. the Procurator bafii Salonitani Dalmatiae was also mentioned) and weaving mill. At Five Bridges in Salona artisan workshops were actually found, probably a dyer's workshop, and fulling mills for cloth and the dyeing of cloth. Also to be seen is the reservoir from which the water to drive the mills ran, and a building for the habitation of the workers. 19 In one inscription in Salona, a magister conquilarius is mentioned (CIL III 2115 + 8572), clearly the head of the state workshops in which purple was extracted from shellfish, perhaps for the gynaeceum in Aspalathos. 22 Another inscription found in Salona mentions a certain Hilarus, who was the purpurarius, dyer of red garments or, perhaps, negotiator artis purpurae. 23 That the Salona baffeum and the Split gynaeceum were mentioned only in the Notitia Dignitatum, says that their production was a strictly channelled state monopoly, and that the products from them did not make their way to the general market as other goods did. The army was supplied directly, without the agency of merchants. Although not all the technological details of the gynaeceum, the fullonica and the baffeum have been revealed, we can conjure up in the northern half of the Palace an image of the whole system of pools in which the fabrics were washed, softened and finished by being trampled on with bare feet in a solution of potash , fuller's earth, human and animal urine. Here then there was a very large demand for water.28 Garments were rubbed with chalk, and fumigated with sulphur. It is particularly important to remember that the technology included, among other things, sulphur treatment (sulfure sulfire ), for which there were the many springs of sulphurous water alongside the Palace itself, which were used for the washing and bleaching of cloth right up to the first half of the 20th century, by St Francis church on the Shore.29 The problem of copious rinsing was solved by the extraordinarily handled sewage system that existed only along the the cardo and decumanus and the perimeter streets of the northern part of the Palace , in which the mentioned plant was located. Among other things, the extreme western part of the sewer under the decumanus, at the exit from the Palace, has been explored. It passed under the western gate (Porta ferrea), and moved in a gentle arc towards the south-west, finishing some forty metres further in a stone portal (below the kitchen of today's Hotel Central). Thence in an open channel all this water flowed into the bay of the sea, in the immediate vicinity of the grandest corner of the Palace.30 The monumental cross-section of this sewage system corresponds perfectly to the cross-section of the aqueduct. We should underscore the fact that the sewage system was located only along the streets of the northern part of the Palace, while we might expect it to be primarily in the residential southern part, which also shows that it was constructed for the purpose of the production inside the gynaeceum. Unfortunately, there are practically no archaeological records of the small finds from investigations of the northern part of the Split building. But, during excavations of the crossing place of the cardo and decumanus (in order to establish the original level of the street and the Peristyle) M. Suić in 1974 did observe, "a very thick layer of fine sediment of a markedly red colour of non-organic origin", which had been deposited in the cloaca, and which had retained its intensity for centuries. This must prove the existence of fullonica, which must have been located within the gynaeceum.31, 32, 55, 56 Gynaeciarii, like other craftsmen, were associated into corporations or collegia, but were not able to leave their work, being nexu sanguinis ad divinas largitiones perlinenles, which makes the construction of the northern part of the Palace, in which they lived alongside their workshops even more logical. 36 - 4 0 Their patron saint in 5th c. might have been, as I have already speculated, St Martin - patron of soldiers and weavers -to whom the little church in the sentries' walk over the Golden Gate, walled-in very early on, was dedicated. 41 All this also suggests that Christianity was alive in the Palace from day one. Along with the bishop and the praetorians, the weavers were probably that industrial revolutionary guard of the time. It is not at all surprising that a martyr like St. Anastasius - a fullo, the co-patron of Split, should have come precisely from the milieu of the fullers, probably working in the baffeum in Salona. In Split, Diocletian's gynaeceum was probably reliant upon a manufacture that already existed, one linked with the sulphurous water and perhaps on the broom, genisla acanlhoclada, from which a colouring agent for dying the cloth was obtained, and according to which, it is believed, Aspalathos actually obtained its name.43 There was raw material in Dalmatia within reach. Immediately following the Second World War there were about one million sheep in the central hinterland of the Adriatic coast. Delm or Dalm in Old Illyrian means shepherd, herder, flock, and hence Delminium means the place of pasture, and delme- dalme still today in Albanian means sheep.44 - 49 Evidence of the organised weaving industry in Roman Dalmatia can be seen in the form of the weaving industry around Split, which all the way through the Middle Ages and until quite recently was different from that in the other regions. 51 The Gynaeceum iovense might have been special precisely in the fact that this was not a remodelled and expanded production area already in existence, the expropriation of some extant minor complexes (as is assumed to have happened in Carthage), but a green field project, an exemplarily constructed industrial unit. And for this reason, of all such establishments, it was the only one to have such a flowery dedication and name. At the end one should also draw attention to an almost neglected reference concerning the palace, that is, the first description of it, uttered by the most authoritative mouth of all. In the Oralio ad Sanclorum coelum which he delivered in Antioch in 325, Emperor Constantine said that the colossal pile of the palace was a "loathed dwelling" in which the Emperor Diocletian shut himself up after this abdication: "After the massacre in the persecutions, after he had condemned himself by depriving himself of power, as a man of no utility, acknowledging the damage he had done with his imprudence, he remained hidden in his really contemptible dwelling place". 61 This surprising statement of Constantine might be an allusion to the fact that Diocletian had to spend his last days in a building that in spite of all the sumptuousness of its centre and the residential quarters looking onto the sea- must also have had the features of a military factory, to which the form of the castrum must have been in all respects much more suitable than to a charming imperial residence. The whole of the building fits perfectly in with the long series of tetrarchic public works. It is important to stress the autonomy of the cardo and the decumanus (12 metres broad) with their own lastricatus and their own porticatus, independent of the blocks that they hid. I would even say that the form of the castrum is more logical for a gynaeceum than it is for a palace. What should be actually highlighted is the surprising pragmatism, as well as the great social focus of the lllyrian emperors, who really did want to renew the "fervent patriotism and iron duty in the evil days" (Syme). Probus in Egypt worked on an important improvement of the navigation of the Nile; temples, bridges, porticoes, palaces, all were put up by the army. Galerius himself was a devotee of public works, and undertook an operation worth of a monarch, says Gibbon, diverting the excess of water from Lake Pelso (Balaton) to the Danube, at the border with Noricum. He had the endless woods all around cleared, and gave the whole reclaimed area between the Drava and the Danube to his Panonian subjects to be cultivated, naming it Valeria after his wife. 65, 66 Most of the buildings that Diocletian put up were of a utilitarian purpose, such as mints and the factories that Lactantius mentions, or border forts, roads and bridges. Dozens of extant inscriptions tell us of the dedications of new and restored temples, aqueducts, nymphea and public buildings - "vetustatu con lapsum" or "Ionge incuria neglectum"- dilapidated from age and long neglect. 67 According to Lactantius's writing, Diocletian had an infinitam cupiditatem aedificandi, an infinite desire to build. 68 Today we are apt to count mostly the imperial palaces in connection with this statement, and to forget the whole framework of comprehensive public works that were undertaken during the first tetrarchy. Twenty years of relaxation from civil wars and barbarian invasions, and the gradual suppression of local unrest, led to the renovation of the prosperity in cities all round the Empire, hence the major number of public dedications, the revival of overall construction activity. The Tetrarchan New Deal - with Diocletian as the Roosevelt of the ancient world - is often understood in a formalist way, as a series of legislative and political attempts to halt inflation, overlooking exploits like Galerius's round Balaton, or this one in Split. The construction of the Split Palace, then, no kind of imperial Xanadu, as it is often held to be, justified its investment. More than that: its existence enabled antiquity in Dalmatia, even after the 7th century catastrophe, not to be extinguished with a sudden death, but over long centuries to be merged into the modern age, remaining until this day a lesson in and criterion for every creative architectural operation into the tissue of the city, which developed organically within the precise, almost dry geometry of the Emperor's palace-cumfactory. * The article was published in English, in: Das Imperium zwischen Zentralisierung und Regionalisierung: Palaste- Regionen- Volker (ed. A. Demand, A. Goltz und H. Schlange-Schoningen), Berlin - New York 2004: 141-162.

U članku se objavljuje nalaz capsellae reliquiarum iz oltara crkve sv. Kuzme i Damjana u Kaštel Gomilici. Potvrđuje se Farlatijev navod o posveti crkve (podignute nad ostacima ranokršćanske bazilike) koju je izvršio splitski nadbiskup Abšalon 1160. godine. Autor razmatra pitanje njenih titulara iznoseći pretpostavku da je izbor moći pohranjenih u relikvijaru bio svojevrsni politički ulog rečenog nadbiskupa (ugarskog podrijetla) osobito radi činjenice da su u capselli i moći ugarskog sv. Stjepana Kralja, a da su Marija, te sv. Kuzma i Damjan suzaštitnici splitske katedrale. U članku se analiziraju tipološke odlike gomiličkog oltara u odnosu na poziciju sepulchruma, pa ga se uspoređuje s istovremenim u regiji. Autor izvodi široki ekskurs o pojavi kulta sv. Kuzme i Damjana u Splitu, i na teme "svetačke topografije" unutar Dioklecijanove palače na razmeđu kasne antike i ranog srednjeg vijeka. Kaštelanska crkvica, posvećena relikvijama iz splitske katedrale, interpretira se kao svojevrsni relei gradske političke moći u ageru. ; U članku se objavljuje nalaz capsellae reliquiarum iz oltara crkve sv. Kuzme i Damjana u Kaštel Gomilici. Potvrđuje se Farlatijev navod o posveti crkve (podignute nad ostacima ranokršćanske bazilike) koju je izvršio splitski nadbiskup Abšalon 1160. godine. Autor razmatra pitanje njenih titulara iznoseći pretpostavku da je izbor moći pohranjenih u relikvijaru bio svojevrsni politički ulog rečenog nadbiskupa (ugarskog podrijetla) osobito radi činjenice da su u capselli i moći ugarskog sv. Stjepana Kralja, a da su Marija, te sv. Kuzma i Damjan suzaštitnici splitske katedrale. U članku se analiziraju tipološke odlike gomiličkog oltara u odnosu na poziciju sepulchruma, pa ga se uspoređuje s istovremenim u regiji. Autor izvodi široki ekskurs o pojavi kulta sv. Kuzme i Damjana u Splitu, i na teme •svetačke topografije• unutar Dioklecijanove palače na razmeđu kasne antike i ranog srednjeg vijeka. Kaštelanska crkvica, posvećena relikvijama iz splitske katedrale, interpretira se kao svojevrsni relei gradske političke moći u ageru. Recentemente in una piccola cripta sullo stipite dell'altare della chiesa romanica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano a Kaštel Gomilica è stata scoperta una cassettina di piombo (7 x 4 x 3 cm), del cui contenuto e scopo parla l'iscrizione finemente intagliata, in caratteri carolini minuscoli del XII secolo: HIC SVNT RELIQUIIE SCE MARIE VIRIGINIS SCCS MA/RTIRV COSME l ET DAMIANI l ET SCI STEFA/NI REGIS Il ritrovamento è confermato da una fonte di Farlati che riferisce come la chiesa di S. Cosma e Damiano fosse stata consacrata dall'arcivescovo spalatino Absalon nell'anno 1160, e come la sua costruzione fosse stata iniziata dalle monache del convento di S. Benedetto con il permesso del loro predecessore Gaudio (1138-1158). La chiesetta stessa fu innalzata sui resti di una basilica tardoantica, ma gli scavi archeologici hanno dimostrato che nella vita di questa località vi è una chiara discontinuità. Sarà per questo probabile che vi sia stata una ripresa in epoca romanica. Rimane, dunque, inspiegato se già la basilica paleocristiana di Gomilica fosse intitolata ai santi Cosma e Damiano. Considerato che l'articolo mette in luce come le reliquie custodite nella capsella appena scoperta, fossero state prescelte in base ad un certo programma chiave dell'arcivescovo Absalon (è fondamentale l'indicazione: reliquie di santo Stefano Re), l'autore illustra innanzitutto la tradizione del culto di S. Cosma e Damiano all'interno del palazzo di Diocleziano a Spalato. Cvito Fisković ha tormulato di recente l'attraente ipotesi che il culto di S. Cosma e Damiano potesse essere una particolare derivazione - traduzione del culto di Esculapio nel palazzo tardoantico dell'imperatore Diocleziano, che dedicò a tale divinità, secondo la testimonianza di Torna Arcidiacono, il tempietto che sorgeva di fronte al suo mausoleo. Sullo sviluppo del culto cristiano nel Palazzo, oggi si può veramente dire qualcosa di più. L'autore avanza l'ipotesi che le chiesette di S. Teodoro e S. Martino risalgano al tardoantico. Entrambi i titolari hanno carattere specificamente militare. A Spalato il primo è collegato alla guardia bizantina che difendeva la Porta Ferrea del palazzo di Diocleziano. Il secondo, S. Martino - protettore dei soldati, dei sarti e dei tessitori - la chiesetta del quale a Spalato si trova sopra la Porta Aurea, potrebbe essere collegato all'esistenza documentata (proprio nella parte settentrionale del Palazzo) di una bottega per la produzione di tessuti di cui si ricorda il Procurator gynaecii Jovensis Dalmatiae Asphalatho. I gynaecarii erano per lo più condannati - con status di lavoratori. Generalmente parlando, soldati, lapicidi, porporai, tessitori - gli abitanti del Palazzo nei suoi primi secoli - erano il ceto ideale per accogliere il mistero cristiano. L'autore, dunque, pensa che a Spalato come altrove i gynaecarii erano riuniti in una corporazione di cui S. Martino poteva essere il protettore più conveniente. Oltre che dalla diffusione generale del culto di entrambi i santi ricordati in epoca tardoantica, l'ipotesi è convalidata da una notevole concentrazione di spolia paleocristiani presso entrambe le chiesette. L'autore in questo excursus va ancora oltre. Nella letteratura è stato più volte citato il bizzarro racconto di Amiano Marcellino, su come nell'anno 356 una donna denunciasse suo marito Danus e su come fosse stato condannato a morte, per delitto di Jaesa maiestatis avendo rubato la tenda rossa dal sarcofago dell'imperatore nel suo mausoleo. La storia è utilizzata solitamente per provare che Diocleziano fece costruire il tempio ottagonale, che più tardi sarebbe diventato la cattedrale di Spalato, come suo sepolcro e che vi era effettivamente stato seppellito. Non è mai stata, stranamente, posta la questione del motivo per cui Danus rubo il drappo cremisi dalla tomba di Diocleziano, pur essendo evidente che non poteva trattarsi di un furto motivato da interessi venali con la stoffa imperiale color cremisi, non si potevano cucire abiti da portare in pubblico. Si tratto molto probabilmente di un cosciente atto di profanazione, di un intervento di vendetta cristiana sul sarcofago dell'imperatore che per le sue posizioni contrarie al cristianesimo sarebbe rimasto profondamente impresso nella memoria dei secoli successivi come il più efferato persecutore dei cristiani. Lo scritto di Marcellino potrebbe essere proprio la significativa dimostrazione dell'inizio del regolamento dei conti del cristianesimo con le reliquie del paganesimo all'interno del Palazzo. L'autore, continuando, richiama l'attenzione sul fatto che il piccolo concilium sanctorum dei protettori di Spalato con Maria alla testa (la cattedrale è intitolata alla Assunzione di Maria) era costituito da due coppie: accanto a S. Domnio e Anastasio, S. Cosma e Damiano. Nelle analisi delle origini e delle funzioni,:P.ei culti dei santi nell'eta tardoantica è stato fatto notare come molte communità paleocristiane sottolineavano volentieri il fatto di avere nef loro centri più santi, e di scegliere spesso come protettori coppie di santi (Gervasio e Protasio a Milano, Pietro e Paolo a Roma, Felice e Fortunato ad Aquileia . . ). Peter Brown fa rilevare come tale scelta fosse cosciente: "la festività di due santi era la celebrazione della concordia all'interno di una città in potenza profondamente disunita ." L'autore ha trovato un'interessante suggerimento per tale interpretazione nell'analisi del rapporto insolitamente complesso tra S. Grisogono e S. Anastasia a Zara. Nella ricchissima scelta di reliquie che gli poterono essere offerte al principio del IX secolo, quando giunse a Costantinopoli come mediatore tra Carlo Magno e l'imperatore Nicoforo, il vescovo di Zara Donato, scelse certamente con molta attenzione le reliquie di S. Anastasia, in quanto il" suo pari", tutto considerato, doveva già trovarsi a Zara. L'autore ritienne che Donato non ebbe in mente tanto l'unione dopo la morte di Grisogono e Anastasia, quanto una specie di neutralizzazione dell'influenza "ideologica" che avevano in città le reliquie di S. Grisogono, giunte da Aquileia. In verità, le reliquie del santo scomparvero e più tardi furono nuovamente scoperte con un singolare miracolo. Ma qui siamo già di fronte ad un classico topos agiografico - il nuovo ritrovamento del corpo di un santo. Tutto questo excursus serve all'autore per formulare le seguenti osservazioni: se i santi Cosmia e Damiano, come titolari della chiesetta di Gomilica, sono eventualmente anche più antichi della sua consacrazione nel 1160, le reliquie nella capsella ritrovata sono sicuramen te, come le reliquie della Santa Vergine Maria, giunte dalla cattedrale di Spalato - al tempo dell'arcivescovo Absalon che arrivò a Spalato dall'Ungheria, e se ne allontanò con il riaffermarsi del potere bizantino sulla città. Le reliquie di S. Stefano, re d'Ungheria, si possono ritenere, con certezza, come parte del particolare ruolo politico affidato all'arcivescovo, uno dei tanti nella linea filo-ungherese che nel corso del XII secolo stette a capo della cattedrale spalatina. La costruzione della chiesetta a Kaštel Gomilica alla metà del XII secolo e lu sua consacrazione nel 1160, non si svolse, sicuramente, nel vuoto! Faceva parte della nuova politica integrale della chiesa, di un'epoca di consolidamento politico-sociale dei rapporti tra la città e lo spazio retrostante, il tempo che preparò il rinnovamento della maggior parte delle nostre cattedrali, e in cui il numero dei luoghi di culto cristiani nella campagna intorno alle città adriatiche aumentò di colpo. L'autore dà un breve guadro delle tappe più significative che dimostrano quanto il tour de force della città e delle sue chiese riuscì a penetrare nel territorio circostante. Esso fu ricoperto da una rete di chiesette nuove o rinnovate. Tramite la diffusione di particelle di santi trasportate in simili recipienti e cassettine in miniatura, si conquistavano e consacravano nuovi spazi. La chiesa negli spazi extra-urbani diventa un ripetitore del potere cittadino. L' "archeologia devozionale" rinnovava le relazioni con l'epoca eroica del primo cristianesimo. Il topos del ritrovamento e del rinnovamento di una delle località cristiane già consacrate, coincideva a suo modo con il topos del ritrovamento del santo protettore perso. Era questo indubbiamente anche il modo p iù breve di riconnotare uno spazio. Dopo l'interpretazione dell'iscrizione sulla capsella, l'autore, infine analizza le caratteristiche tipologiche dell'altare della chiesa di Kaštel Gomilica.

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.