engleski

The Images of Dragons in the Gothic Style Goldsmiths' Work of Zadar

The article focuses on the images of dragons in the Gothic style goldsmiths' works of Zadar. The considered art pieces are mostly reliquaries on which these fantasy animals are used as motifs primarily because of their role in the hagiographies of the saints represented on the aforesaid reliquaries, therefore the dragons function as the saints' "attributes" of a kind. In some cases dragons are used as motifs on a purely symbolic level and perhaps the most prominent of those cases is found on the reliquary of the True Cross and the holy sponge. The origin of that reliquary is traced by aid of the four dragon figures which constitute its foot. Following the information obtained from the documents in various archives of Zadar it is confirmed that the images of the dragons existed also on the secular Gothic style silverware of Zadar that has not survived to our day.

dragon; goldsmith's works; Gothic style; Zadar; reliquaries; processional cross; Trivulzio Candelabrum

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