Of the other foreign paintings at Ragusa the following deserve notice: a head of Christ by Pordenone; a head of St. Catherine by Palma Vecchio; four pictures by Padovanino of second-rate interest; an Assumption of the Virgin attributed to Titian, but certainly not genuine, though possibly by a pupil; a spurious Andrea del Sarto, and an equally spurious Raphael. All these are in the Duomo. In the Dominican church is a St. Mary Magdalen, attributed to Titian, and probably that master’s genuine work. One or two more Titians of very questionable authenticity may be seen at the Isola di Mezzo and at Cannosa.
A form of art which flourished exceedingly at Ragusa was goldsmith’s work. The goldsmiths and silversmiths of Dalmatia were famous, and many of the church treasuries in the country are very rich and splendid. That of the cathedral of Ragusa is one of the finest, in spite of the earthquake and the depredations of the freebooters after that calamity. Its two most interesting pieces, however, are not by natives of Ragusa. One is an enamelled casket enclosing the skull of St. Blaize. The groundwork of copper is concealed by twenty-four plaques of metal, on which enamel and filigree are laid; each of them, save four triangular plaques on the top, contains a medallion with the head of a saint in the centre, the name written in Lombardic letters. The surface not covered by the plaques is filled in with the most delicate enamels of flowers, fruit, leaves, pearls, insects, and scroll work. This reliquary is said by Resti to have been brought to Ragusa in 1026, but Graham Jackson proves it to belong to two widely different periods. The medallions are Byzantine work of the eleventh or twelfth century, whereas the intervening scrolls of flowers, &c., are of a much later date, and, in fact, Jackson discovered the inscription in a corner of the lower edge: “Franco. Ferro Veneto. F. A. 1694.”[524]
Another treasure is the curious silver-gilt basin and ewer attributed to Giovanni Progonović, a jeweller of the fifteenth century, but more probably foreign work, as the plate mark—an N within a circle—is not that of Ragusa.[525] The ewer contains imitations of bunches of dried leaves and grasses in silver, and the basin is strewn with ferns and leaves, in the midst of which creep lizards, eels, snakes, and other animals, all wrought in silver, and enamelled and tinted so as to deceive one into believing them real. It is an extraordinary piece of work, but more strange than beautiful. It is probably not older than the early seventeenth century. There are many other specimens of the jeweller’s art in this collection, reliquaries, chalices, cups, &c., mostly by natives, and some of them very handsome.
The little silver statuette of St. Blaize in the church of that saint is interesting historically as well as artistically, because the figure bears a model of the town before the great earthquake. The head is excellent both in expression and workmanship, and the exquisitely chased chasuble reminds one of the robes in Raguseo’s paintings. The original figure is, according to Graham Jackson, as old as the church, i.e. about 1360, but it has been restored at various times. The mitre, the crook of the pastoral staff, and the dalmatic have been renewed, while the lower part of the statuette has evidently been cut away. The model shows us the Ragusa of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, not very different from that of to-day, save for the Duomo and the church of San Biagio, which have been rebuilt, and the little church of the Three Martyrs of Cattaro in the Stradone, which has disappeared. Many of the houses in that street have gabled fronts and some have projecting pents to shelter the shops. The Orlando column supports a huge standard.
At Mezzo is preserved some church plate, of which the most beautiful piece is a large silver-gilt chalice. On the foot is a figure of St. Blaize in relief, and on the lower part of the cup are the emblems of the four Evangelists. The handles are formed by two graceful little angels poised with one foot on the top and the other hanging in the air, their hands clinging on to the edge of the cup. The hall-mark—a bishop’s head—is that of Ragusa, and the chalice is probably Mezzo work, the island having been famous for its goldsmiths. Many other specimens of this art exist in the various churches of Ragusa and the neighbourhood, and some perhaps may be found in those of other parts of Dalmatia, and in the monasteries of Bosnia, the Herzegovina, and Albania.
CHAPTER XIV
LITERATURE
OWING to her position between the Italian and Slavonic elements, and her connections with Venice and with the Serb States, Ragusan literature was of a twofold, or indeed of a threefold, nature. There were Ragusans who wrote in Latin, others in Italian, and others in Slavonic. But so mixed was the character of the people that in many instances the same author composed works in all the three languages. “Dalmatia, and especially Ragusa, which represents the highest degree of Slavonic culture, shows at the end of the Middle Ages a peculiar and characteristic blend of Italian and Slavonic elements, which even to-day is a remarkable trait of this people.”[526] Venetian influence strengthened the original Latin element of the population, and most of the nobles had Italian names, although later these were given a Slavonic form as well. Thus Gondola is sometimes written Gundulić, Palmota, Palmotić, Bona Bunić, &c. The collapse of Venetian power in Dalmatia in 1358 opened the way to Slavonic influences, for Hungary was too alien to the Dalmatians to impress more than her political sovereignty on them. But Latin and Italian culture was maintained by the side of that of the Slaves, and indeed the Slavonic literature at Ragusa was wholly inspired by that of Italy.
“Under the influence of peculiar historical conditions there arose on the Serbo-Croatian littoral an important poetical literature, of which Ragusa was the centre, and the pure vernacular the organ.”[527] It had, however, no connection with the old Slavonic tradition or the Servian popular songs, but was based almost exclusively on Italian influences, for Ragusan culture was purely of Italian origin, and the conditions utterly unlike those of the people of the neighbouring Slavonic States. The literary movements and forms of Italy were all reflected at Ragusa, and thus we find specimens of Latin ecclesiastical literature, of the Provençal troubadours, of Renaissance culture and the revival of learning. In the Ragusan epic Italian influence is conspicuous, and also in the native lyric poetry, which is chiefly inspired from Petrarch’s Canzoni; while the Ragusan dramas are imitated from the mediæval mystery plays, the pastoral plays of Tasso, and Italian popular comedies. Even the so-called “macaronic” verses were adopted at Ragusa, i.e. a medley of dog-Latin and Slavonic. The outward forms of Italian literary life were copied no less than literary styles, and learned literary academies were established at Ragusa, where men of culture met to discuss their favourite topics. The city came to be known as the “Slavonic Athens.” Learned Italians were invited to lecture at Ragusa, for the Senate maintained chairs of Italian and Latin literature since the early fifteenth century. The study of Greek had been to some extent kept up owing to the old Byzantine tradition, and it was now promoted by the influx of learned Greeks who took refuge at Ragusa after the fall of Constantinople. On the other hand, many Ragusans went abroad, especially to Italy, for purposes of study, and some of them achieved considerable fame in various spheres of life, such as Stoicus or Stoiković one of the most celebrated theologians of the fifteenth century, and Anselmo Banduri, the archæologist.