72. Pieta [1939]

The sculptor, painter, and poet Vanja Radauš dedicated a large part of his passionate artistic being to his native Slavonia. Immersed body and soul into his home region, he rarely concerned himself with the benefits of the European table, and his study journeys were often dedicated to researching the Slavonian medieval architectural heritage and cultural-historical monuments. Looking at the entirety of his opus in a condensed form, one must immediately agree with the honorable Dionizije from Vinkovci that the sculptor Vanja Radauš is the greatest creative derivative of his Pannonian homeland in which, nota bene, hard stone is searched for under a magnifying glass. However, it is necessary to emphasize that Radauš is one of the greatest Croatian artists in general who left the Croatian visual art of the 20th century an unsurpassed sculptural opus that resisted all forced modernity and remained predominantly his own, and also both national and universal. He began to learn from R. Valdec, R. Frangeša Mihanović, and finally I. Meštrović from whom he learned a lot (1924 - 1930). In Paris he was attracted to the works of A. Rodin and A. Bourdelle, and contact with Michelangelo's works in Italy in 1937 moderated his expressiveness, movement, and drama. This will - enhanced by acquired experience and accelerated entry into the era of sculptural maturity - become a lasting feature of his sculpture. From the end of the thirties to the beginning of the fifties of the last century, Radauš created a series of fascinating figurative sculptures of paradigmatic significance in relation to theme and manner of execution. For example, the fascinating "Pietâ" from 1939, masterful modeling and supreme plasticity, subtle gesture and utter persuasiveness in view of Christ's body slipping from his mother's hands. In the same year, Radauš executed the three-meter-high "Monument to the fallen Croatian soldiers in the First World War" as a figural composition "Pieta", located in the central alley of the Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj. According to Davorin Vujčić, it is one of the best works of Radauš's opus, the best monument in Mirogoj and in Croatian sculpture of the 20th century. It is one of the best Piete in Croatian sculpture. BRP

References

Davorin Vujčić, Vanja Radauš / Portraits (exhibition catalog), Salon of the Antun Augustinčić Gallery, 2010.

Dimensions

depth 24 cm, width 36 cm, height 57 cm

Description

bronze, signed on the base side, carved, "V. RADAUŠ"

Research information

The work was exhibited at the "Radauš. Exhibition of works by the greats of Croatian visual art, sculptors, painters and poets, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death", Čapljina, 21.12.2024.-25.01.2025., and is reproduced in the exhibition catalog on page 23, under the title "Pieta". The artwork is a reduced bronze version of the Monument to fallen Croatian soldiers in the First World War made for Mirogoj, on which Radauš worked with Jožo Turkalj.

Dating

1939

PROVENANCE

from the artist's estate.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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