Photograph: VEDRAN BENOVIĆ,  © VEDRAN BENOVIĆ


Name of Object:

Wardrobe

Location:

Zagreb, North-West Croatia, Croatia

Holding Museum:

Museum of Arts and Crafts

 About Museum of Arts and Crafts , Zagreb

Original Owner:

Drašković family

Date of Object:

About 1700

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Unknown

Museum Inventory Number:

MUO 5578

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Veneered, carved and turned walnut wood with inlay and "poker work" drawing

Dimensions:

H: 214 cm; w: 190 cm; d: 65 cm

Provenance:

Drašković family of Bisag Manor near Komin

Type of object:

Furniture

Place of production:

Southern Germany

Description:

The massive body of this single-piece wardrobe – veneered, part carved, inlaid and gilded – closes with double doors. Each door has two central, shaped panels with mouldings and inlaid vegetal motifs. The doors –flanked by turned pillars – are supported on carved scrolls in darker wood. The wardrobe stands claw and ball feet, its base decorated with applied carved acanthus leaves, also in darker wood. The richly moulded cornice projections have a square crest above them topped by a fir cone, with facing carved scrolls of acanthus leaves in darker wood.
The wardrobe, typical of the massive single-piece Baroque clothes presses of south German provenance, furnished the manor of the Counts Drašković from Bisag.

View Short Description

The design of this massive wardrobe with two inlaid-panel doors, twisted pillars and a carved crest is typical of late 17th-, early 18th-century south German production. The wardrobe furnished Bisag Manor in Hrvatsko prigorje, owned by a branch of the Counts Drašković. Jelisaveta Drašković, a descendant of this family that played a very important role in Croatian history, sold the wardrobe to the museum.
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg has an identical wardrobe.

How date and origin were established:

From analysis of style and comparison with other examples in the available literature.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased in 1935 from Jelisaveta Drašković (see above).

Selected bibliography:

Kružić-Uchytil V., Barokni namještaj iz fundusa MUO (Baroque Furniture in the MUO Holdings), Zagreb, 1985

Citation of this web page:

Nela Tarbuk  "Wardrobe" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;hr;Mus11;33;en

Prepared by: Nela Tarbuk Nela Tarbuk

SURNAME: Tarbuk
NAME: Nela

AFFILIATION: Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb, Croatia

TITLE: Museum Counsellor, Head of the Sacral Sculpture, Ivory and Musical
Instrument Collections

CV:
Nela Tarbuk was awarded her BA in Art History and Comparative Literature from Zagreb University (Faculty of Philosophy). As head of the Museum if Arts and Craft’s Sculpture, Ivory and Musical Instruments collections, she has curated several exhibitions and written many articles. Her special research interests focus on sacral furniture. Exhibition catalogues include Culture of the Paulines in Croatia (1989), Jesuit Heritage in Croatia (1992), Peace and Virtue (2000), Hidden Treasures (2005) and Musical Instruments from the Holdings of the Museum of Arts and Crafts (2007).

Translation by: Nikolina Jovanović
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: HR 33

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