engleski

Marijan Matijević. A centenary tribute

MARIJAN MATIJEVIĆ – A CENTENARY IVAN MIRNIK When many years ago I arrived at the Zagreb Archaeological Museum Numismatic Department, among the countless chests, boxes, parcels, brought to the Museum back from the vaults of a bank in nearby Prague Street (Praška, formerly Marie Valerie Street, ulica Marije Valerije) in 1966, where the entire Numismatic collection had been deposited in the winter of 1945/1946, there were four bronze medallions of very good quality, wrapped in newspapers from the thirties of the 20th century. They all seemed to be the works of one and the same artist, who had only signed one of them. Having consulted some of the scarce relevant literature, it became obvious to me that the sculptor who had modelled these four medallions was Marijan Matijević, an artist absent from the Croatian art scene for many decades. Who the persons depicted on these medallions were I did not know, just one of them bore the name of a priest P. Sivjanović, who was known to have been killed by the communists soon after the World War Two. The other two persons were called « Zora» (a lady) and « Saša» (a boy), and the fourth, a bald gentleman, remained totally nameless. How the medallions got to the Museum will most probably remain an enigma, because there are no traces either in the museum archives, or in the accession inventories. On March 8, 2007 the opening of the exhibition of works of Ivo Kerdić and two less known Croatian medallists – Viktor Bernfest and Marijan Matijević – took place at the Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts in Zagreb. I was keen to see unknown works by either of them and was not disappointed. Among the plaster models by Matijević were all four medallions which the Zagreb Archaeological Museum owns in bronze, with the difference that in the Glyptotheque there was a medallion with the portrait of P. Sivjanović with another version of the inscription and that the unknown man's portrait was on a plaquette. Descendants of V. Bernfest were present at the opening, and also a gentleman, who I have known for quite a long time. During our conversation Aleksandar (Saša) Bjelousov told me that he was the nephew of M. Matijević and that « Saša» , the young boy on one of the medallions was him (Fig. 14). « Zora» turned out to be his late mother (Figs. 12-13), one of the sculptor's sisters. Later, during his first visit to the Museum, we realized that the unknown bald gentleman on one of the medallions was his father (Figs. 10-11). Mr. Bjelousov kindly let me study all the highly interesting documents and letters of his uncle's he owned, therefore I wish to thank him most warmly for his kindness, as well as the reverend Dr. Stjepan Razum of the Zagreb Cathedral Chapter Archives, who kindly furnished me with the biography of P. Sivjanović, and also Igor Krajcar, the photographer of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum for the digital photographs of the four medallions. Marijan Živko Matijević was the son of the geometrician Max Matijević and Slava née Graf, at Grubišno Polje, Croatia on March 27, 1907 and was found dead in his flat in Vienna (Wien 13, Ebner-Rofenstein-Gasse 2) on November 14, 1971 at 9 AM by his second wife Edeltraud. He also had two sisters, Jelisava (Beba) (b. Grubišno Polje, November 18, 1913 – d. Zagreb, November 27, 1978) and Zora (the latter he portayed on the medallion). He attended primary school at Grubišno polje from 1913 and 1917, and then continued at Secondary School in Zagreb (1917-1919) and finally the Crafts School in Zagreb from 1919 and 1923. As a gifted pupil he continued by entering the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied from 1923 to 1927. Among his professors was Ivan Meštrović, who not only greatly influenced the young man’ s style, but also immediately recognized his talent and accepted Matijević into his special sculpture class, where he stayed from 1929 to 1931. Matijević finished his studies and graduated by passing the diploma exams. For some time he was engaged by Meštrović in Zagreb, then at Otavice (1929-1931 ; Figs. 3-5), where at that time Meštrović was constructing a chapel consecrated to the Holy Redeemer, intended to serve as his family mausoleum. At the same time two other talented young sculptors worked at Otavice: Vanja Radauš and Antun Augustinčić (Fig. 5). In 1931 Matijević exhibited for the first time in Zagreb and having earned good reviews, Meštrović found means to obtain a Paris scholarship for him, so Matijević spent the years 1931-1933 in Paris. He had contacts with Aristide Maillol. There he exhibited at the George Petit Gallery in 1932 and was also well received, and the French Government granted him a scholarship enabling Matijević to continue his studies in Paris. In the meantime the artist's mother fell seriously ill, so he had to return home to Zagreb late in 1933. He became an independent artist, which freedom, of course did not mean that his income was constant or good. Therefore he applied for a job and became a state employee as a teacher at grammar schools at Cetinje (Montenegro) from Aug. 24, 1934 to Aug. 27, 1937, at Kruševac (Serbia) from 27 Aug., 1937 to March 1(?), 1938, in Belgrade, at the 5th Boy’ s Grammar School between March 1(?), 1938 and Aug. 24, 1939, then at the Zagreb Crafts School between July 9, 1940 to the end of 1943. He was head of the pottery class. In 1939 he again exhibited some of his works at a collective exhibition in Zagreb. One of his most noted monuments can be seen at Rakovica in Croatia, not far from the famous Plitvice Lakes: it is the bust of Eugen Kvaternik, a Croatian patriot who instigated an unsuccessful rebellion in 1871 and was shot dead. The monument was unveiled on Pentecost, June 4, 1933, with a solemn ceremony. In those days this village, a community, had c 400 inhabitants, a Roman-Catholic parish, one primary school, one post office, one soda water factory and one lime factory. The Kvaternik monument was commissioned by a committee, headed by Juraj Mravunac, primary school teacher at Drežnik, a nearby village, and the money was collected among the poor population of Rakovica and its surroundings, as well as other Croatian lands. In 1991 this monument was vandalized and the bust carried away and damaged. When it was found after the liberation of the entire area in 1995, it had to be recast and was placed to its original position. Another relief made by M. Matijević in 1939 commemorated women fighters in the Spanish Civil War, and was exhibited in the Meštrović Pavilion in Zagreb in the same year. In the same year he received the award of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Earlier, in 1935 Matijević won the first prize for the model of a monument for Split in Dalmatia. In 1940 Matijević found a job as head of the Pottery Department of the Zagreb Secondary Crafts School. As a leftist, having had certain problems with the Quisling regime in Croatia and in order to avoid more complications, Matijević discreetly left Zagreb and moved to Vienna late in 1943. He was of course suspended from his job, but not immediately, due to the solidarity of his colleagues, who tried to cover his flight. In Vienna he worked at first as an independent artist and then became dozent at the Academy of Fine Arts (1945-1949). His sculptures were shown on several occasions, at the Welz Gallery in Vienna in 1946, in 1948 at the « Agathon» Gallery, in 1952 and 1954 at Eisenstadt (Burgenland ; Gradišče in Croatian ), then in 1956 again in Vienna. He did not lead an easy life, but a very modest one. In the end he succeeded in obtaining the job of a teacher at the grammar school at Mattersburg in Burgenland (1961-1964) and then from 1965 as a conservationist of the local government in Eisenstadt. He was reluctant to apply for Yugoslav citizenship after World War Two and continued to live in Austria until his death. In this period Matijević executed several monuments, such as the monument for Belgrade to the partisan brother and sister who lost their lives (1945), monuments to fighters who had lost their lives in several places in Austria, at St. Rupert (1946), Sele (1948) and Ferlach (1949) (Carinthia). It seems that none of these monuments have survived. He is also the author of a stone relief at Neusiedl (Burgenland, 1954), other statues in stone in Eisenstadt (1955), a bronze group at Obertraun (Upper Austria, 1956), the « Icarus» at Spitzenberg (Lower Austria, 1956) and two reliefs for Vienna, all made from 1957 and 1960. In 1964 he was commissioned to make a relief in artificial stone for Tschurndorf in Burgenland, where he lived. His works can be found in various private collections in Croatia and Austria and his many memorials are scattered all over Croatia (Grubišno polje etc), Serbia (Belgrade) and Austria (Eisenstadt). Matijević also painted on canvas and made many drawings. For many years Matijević suffered from ill health, and rheumatism in his knee and foot, but could never afford total rest – as a young man he played football very well. His nerves too were also under constant strain. He was married twice, and has a daughter from his first marriage – Marijana Ehrlich, living in Paris. Matijević is the author of a number of medallions, reliefs, medals and plaquettes, both unreduced and reduced. They all, as do his statues and drawings, follow the trends and styles from the twenties to the fifties of the twentieth century, but most of them bear all the stylistic features of Art Déco. It would be difficult to establish which Croatian or other artist influenced Matijević, in any case obviously it was Meštrović. The relief is always quite low and neatly executed ; the lettering is good, although not so perfect as on medals by Ivo Kerdić. The Zagreb Modern Gallery owns one of the versions of the Sivjanović medal, modelled in 1935 and the portrait of Đorđe Mrkobrad, who taught artillery at the Kragujevac Military Academy (Serbia), made in 1936. Both came from the Dragutin Mandl collection. In the Belgrade National Museum there are also two of his medals, the one with the portrait of Đorđe Mrkobrad and the undated portrait of the Golenko widow. According to Dragutin Mandl's notes, as quoted by Vinko Zlamalik, during his stay in Montenegro Matijević also made a portrait of a young Montenegrinian woman. Most of his work in this category is preserved in the Zagreb Glyptotheque: a plaquette with two female nudes, the Stjepan Radić medal, the Ivan Meštrović plaquette, plaquette with the portrait of an unknown gentleman, plaquette with two ladies, in a sort of chorus line, four men performing a folk dance, potraits of three more unknown men (all dating from 1935), portrait of an elderly lady (1936) and finally two plaquettes with martial scenes from the Spanish Civil War (1937). On one there are four armed men, and on the other one four women, one of whom is aiming with a rifle. The men's legs are parallel and resemble those of a ballet dancer, the heads and arms show different postures. At the Glyptotheque four more medals were also exhibited which we shall discuss. The earliest among them is the medal/ badge, made for the Croatian Peasant Party in 1927, during the lifetime of its founder and president Stjepan Radić (b. Trebarjevo Desno, June 10, 1871 – d. Zagreb August 8, 1928), who was shot by Puniša Račić in the Belgrade parliament on May 20, 1928 and died later in Zagreb of the consequences. This medal bears the portrait of Stjepan Radić, turned left, the inscription is his name (STJEPAN – RADIĆ) and the slogan of the party (VJERA-U-BOGA-SELJAČKA-SLOGA = trust in God and peasant unity). At the bottom part of the medal there is the Croatian coat-of-arms, flanked by vegetal motifs. If one looks closely, the signature M. MATIJEVIĆ can barely be seen on the section of the neck. Otherwise the medal could be attributed to Ivo Kerdić, or to Emil Bohutinsky. The plaster medal at the Zagreb Glyptotheque is 230 mm in diameter and the size of the bronze badge at the Zagreb Archaeological Museum is 24x28mm (Fig. 8). It was struck at the well-known Zagreb firm Griesbach & Knaus. There are two specimens at the Zagreb Archaeological Museum, one came together with the Kopač Collection in 2001. Petar (Pero, nicknamed also “ pop Pero” ) Sivjanović, (b. Virje, January 16, 1893 – d. Daruvar, February 21, 1946.), who can be seen on a medallion, made in 1935 (Fig. 9), is one of many martyrs of the Catholic Church in Croatia. He attended grammar school and studied divinity in Zagreb and was ordained in 1916. He served in various parishes before arriving in Grubišno Polje, where he closely befriended Marijan Matijević’ s family. He also took the part of the best man at the Bjelousov/ Matijević wedding on August 22, 1931: the bridesgroom was namely Russian Orthodox and the bride Roman Catholic. P. Sivjanović also taught religion and was active in various societies and did much good during the Second World War, saving many lives. When the communists arrived, Sivjanović was unjustly accused, tried, condemned to death and hanged. His bones were exhumed in 2004 and buried in the parish priests’ vault at Daruvar. The two plaster casts of this medallion, kept at the Glyptotheque differ in inscription. One reads PETAR SIV./ 1935, and the second one, identical to the bronze copy in the Numismatic Collection of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum (Fig. 9) reads PETAR SIVJANOVIĆ/ 1935. The portrait of a middle-aged gentleman with a priest’ s collar, facing right, on all the specimens is identical. Then there are portraits of the Bjelousov family. The father, Aleksej Bjelousov (b. Taganrog, Russia, March 25, 1895 – d. Samobor nr. Zagreb, November 22, 1975), can be seen on a plaquette and on a medallion (Fig. 11), modelled in 1935: a middle-aged, bald gentleman, with collar and cravat, facing left. There is no inscription. It was only by comparing photographs that he could be identified. His wife, Zora Bjelousov, née Matijević (b. Velika Gorica nr Zagreb, May 9, 1901 – d. Samobor, February 15, 1978) is portayed in profile, turned right, with rich, short hair. Her name ZORA can be read on the right side, and behind her head there is the artist's signature (MM). Her dress has a collar. The plaster medallion at the Zagreb Glyptotheque has a diameter of 265 mm, whereas the Zagreb Archaeological Museum bronze cast is 217 mm in diameter (Fig. 13). This portrait is dated 1936. Their son Aleksandar (Saša) Bjelousov (b. Virovitica, April 1, 1932) was portrayed by his uncle in 1937. The boy's bust, with short hair and a shirt, is turned to the left. His nickname SAŠA is written on the left side of the medallion/ medal, and the signature is on its right side (MM). The plaster at the Glyptotheque is 219 mm in diameter and the bronze copy at the Zagreb Archaeological Museum 222 mm (Fig. 14), whereas the reduced, cast bronze medal, owned by A. Bjelousov is 60.5x61.5 mm in diameter (Fig. 15). According to Mr. Bjelousov’ s reminiscences, the artist was quite dissatisfied with the casting of the reduced version. This exhibition at the Zagreb Glyptotheque was a good occasion to study some unknown works by Ivo Kerdić, for whom interest has never waned, and has contributed to the revival of interest in Viktor Bernfest and Marijan Matijević, who were known only to a few specialists.

Matijević Marijan; medal; Croatia

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