Project Description
Chapel of St. Anastasius
Cathedral of St. Doimus, Split, Croatia
Project
Restoration of the Chapel of St. Anastasius
Location
Cathedral of St. Doimus, Split
Project director
Ministry of Culture, Monuments and Fine Arts Office of Split
Contractor
Sansovino s.n.c., Venezia
Funding
Duke and Duchess of Segorbe;
Venetian Heritage
Start date
July 2002
End date
September 2003
Cost
€ 53.210,00
Originally a Greek city, and later occupied by the emperor Diocletian, Split passed onto the Venetians in 1420 and became a part of their Mediterranean dominions. In 1448 Giorgio da Sebenico built a chapel dedicated to the co-patron of Split, Saint Anastasius.
The ciborium and the funerary monument were symmetrically erected to those of the chapel of Saint Doimus, situated on the right of the main altar, and have the same architectural characteristics. The chapel, though still in Gothic style, shows influence from the Renaissance, the Flagellation at the center of the sarcophagus is inspired by Donatello. It was probably demolished and rebuilt during the Austrian epoch, as shown by the width of the joints between the ashlars of the statues of the Annunciation, which were wrongly placed before the intervention. The ciborium and the funerary monument are entirely built in local limestone; the monument is all in polychrome. Though the surface was covered in a dusty layer, up to 3 cm thick, and by a compact and adherent charcoal black patina the monument was in a good state of conservation. The sarcophagus was covered with hundreds of wax drops, the polychrome, where the gold, the red, the blue, and the green prevail, had various repaints more or less extended, and multiple lacunas. The restoration of the chapel-ciborium, diversely from the one of Saint Doimus, did not reveal any trace of polychrome but still enhanced the quality of the works sculpted by Giorgio da Sebenico.