Renaissance in Croatia

In the 15th century, Croatia had been in a personal union with Kingdom of Hungary since 1102 and Dalmatian city-states were under the rule of the Venetian Republic (with the exception of Dubrovnik).

One of them was the closeness of Italian renaissance centers, mostly Venetia, but also the high mobility of artists coming from Dalmatia who studied, travelled and worked in a large part of Europe that bordered the Ottoman Empire.

Franjo Vranjanin from Zadar in Dalmatia spent his mature career at the other end of Italy, moving between Naples and Sicily, and Urbino, and finally in southern France, where he died.

Young artist Juraj Klović, went through Venice towards the political center of Croatia – Buda, where he worked at the royal court, as Giorgio Vasari mentioned, before he returned to Italy.

Several cities and towns celebrated their limited independence by publishing constitutions in which they organized communal republican rule, of which Dubrovnik was the strongest one.

[1] The Renaissance period of art and architecture in Croatia can be said to begin in 1441, when Juraj Dalmatinac was contracted to work on Šibenik Cathedral[2] Only in the environment far from major governing centers was it possible for the artisan to build a church entirely to his own design.

Inside the protective walls of the Republic of Dubrovnik, and on several of the nearby islands, many Ragusan nobles built their country retreats, elegant villas set in renaissance gardens.

Many Croatian renaissance sculptures are linked to its architecture, and the most beautiful one is perhaps the relief Flagellation of Christ by Juraj Dalmatinac on the altar of St Staš in Split cathedral.

In north-western Croatia, the beginning of the wars with the Ottoman Empire caused many problems, but in the long term it both reinforced the northern influence (by having the Austrians as the rulers).

Croatian literature in the 16th century, soon after the beginnings of literary creation in the vernacular, especially in Dalmatia and Dubrovnik, fitted into the aspirations that prevailed in Renaissance Europe.