Between Venice and the Balkans: Lovro Dobričević’s polyptych for the Dubrovnik Franciscans

Our understanding of painting in Renaissance Dubrovnik (Ragusa) depends on a handful of surviving works. Arguably the most sophisticated is the Franciscan polyptych now divided between the Wernher collection in London and the Národní Galerie in Prague, attributed to the Kotor-born and Venetian-trained artist Lovro Dobričević (c.1420-1478). This article disproves the existing proposals for the patronage of the Wernher-Prague altarpiece, suggesting instead a provenance from the Franciscan church at Slano, some 20 miles north of Dubrovnik, and a date c.1461. The new context and date for the altarpiece situate it in a brief historical window when the Bosnian province (or ‘Vicariate’) of the Franciscan Order was actively commissioning altarpieces from Dobričević for their churches around Dubrovnik and in Bosnia proper. The Wernher-Prague polyptych reveals the enduring prestige of Venetian late Gothic painting in Dubrovnik and also the city’s role as an exporter of art into its Balkan hinterland.