 |
DOMINICAN MONASTERY The Dominican Church was erected in 1315 but it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667, to be rebuilt after that again. It is a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles. The plain interior consists of a huge single nave with a triple Gothic arch end opening into the sanctuary and two side chapels, the only part of the original building left. The church is decorated with stone household objects and a stone pulpit. The church walls are decorated with some masterpieces by famous painters e.g. 15th C Crucifixion by Paolo Veneziano; Virgin Mary and St. John by Lorenzo di Marino Dobričević (15th C); two altarpieces by Francesco di Maria (17th C); Miracle of St. Dominic by Vlaho Bukovac (a local 19th C work in the Sicilian manner).
The graceful late-Gothic Cloister, erected by local masons to a modified design of Maso di Bartolomeo of Florence, has interesting bosses in the vault and tomb slabs in the walls, but is somewhat marred by the over-clever interlaced ornament in alternate tympana and in the balustrade above. The cloister's garden is planted with orange trees. The Bell Tower, begun in 1390 and completed in 1531, in a curiously retarded Romanesque style, continued by the later baroque lantern.
The Dominican Library was founded in the 13th century. Its collection expands over 16,000 volumes, 240 incunabula and important archives, among which are the oldest Latin translations of Avicenna's works and a tractate of St. Thomas Aquinas (14th century). It was one of the biggest European libraries in the period between the 15th and 17th century. Inside the monastery there is a museum with artifacts from Dubrovnik's goldsmiths, reliquaries and other sacral objects. It's painting collection contains many works of the old masters from the 14th to 20th century Especially noteworthy are an early 16th C polyptych of the Dubrovnik School (attributed to Lovro Dobričević); an altarpiece showing Mary Magdalena with St. Blaise, the Archangel Raphael, and a donor, by Titian (1554). |
