Between Venice and the Balkans. Lovro Dobričević’s Polyptych for the Dubrovnik Franciscans

Abstract 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 National Gallery in Prague, which has been attributed to the Kotor-born and Venice-trained artist, Lovro Dobričević. This article challenges existing proposals that associate the Wernher-Prague altarpiece with a commission of ca 1469 for the Franciscan church at Rožat near Dubrovnik, suggesting instead a provenance from the Order’s church at Slano (some 20 miles to the north) and a date ca 1461. The new context and date for the altarpiece situate the work 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 late-Gothic Venetian painting in Dubrovnik and also the city’s role in exporting art into its Balkan hinterland.