Ivan Meštrović’s Stone Masterpiece: The Monument to Andrea Schiavone

On the lawn before the Art Pavilion—within the architectural elegance of the Green Horseshoe—stands a figure that does not draw attention by its size, but by its presence. This is the monument to Andrija Medulić (Andrea Schiavone), a sculptural work by Ivan Meštrović, one of the greatest Croatian artists of the 20th century.

Artistic creation

Meštrović created the monument between 1930 and 1932. It is a full-figure sculpture depicting the painter Andrija Medulić at a moment of artistic inspiration. The sculpture was carved from Vrapče stone, and the work involved several students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, among them later renowned sculptors Vanja Radauš, Ivo Lozica, and Grga Antunac.

Meštrović’s Medulić is shown in the act of creation—his body slightly leaning forward, the hand holding a palette revealing concentration and inner creative fervor. The figure retains the portrait features of an earlier bust Meštrović had worked on, and the sculptor found inspiration for the face in a portrait discovered by painter Emanuel Vidović in Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski’s book Andreas Medulić Schiavone.

The sculpture was installed in 1932 on the occasion of Meštrović’s solo exhibition at the Art Pavilion. Although it was intended as a temporary installation, it remained there permanently as Meštrović’s gift to the city of Zagreb.

In his review of Meštrović’s 1932 exhibition at the Art Pavilion, Raymond Warnier, founder of the French Institute in Zagreb, highlighted several of Meštrović’s monuments (Strossmayer, Gregory of Nin, Medulić, Marulić…), calling them “secular apostles of the nation”—artists and important figures who elevate the spirit of their people.

In Meštrović’s works of the 1920s and 1930s, classical elements prevail. During this period he created many public monuments distinguished by strong plastic expression and clear, emphatic silhouettes—such as Gregory of Nin and Marko Marulić in Split, Andrija Medulić, Andrija Kačić Miošić and Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb, as well as the Indians in Chicago.

Despite its leaning toward monumentality, the Medulić monument feels intimate, almost introspective. Critics noted that, because it stands on a lawn without an architectural setting, the sculpture loses some of its ceremonial character, yet gains warmth and humanity. The slightly stylized and theatrical figure reveals Meštrović’s maturity—a blend of classical tradition and modern expression.

The portrait of Medulić symbolizes the creative act—the moment in which art is born.

The Medulić Society of Croatian Artists

The choice of Andrija Medulić, a Mannerist painter and Dalmatian Croat who worked in Renaissance Venice, was not accidental.

Meštrović was one of the founders of the Medulić Society of Croatian Artists, established in Split in 1908 during the First Dalmatian Art Exhibition. The society’s president was one of the greatest Croatian painters, Vlaho Bukovac. The society was marked by a strong regional identity and an advocacy for the political and cultural unity of the South Slavs.

The society was named after Medulić largely thanks to Ivan Meštrović and painter Emanuel Vidović. The reason lay in the fact that Andrija Medulić himself had adopted the nickname Schiavone, a common term for Croats (Slavs) working in Italy during the Renaissance and Baroque.

For Meštrović, Medulić represented the continuity of Croatian culture and a bridge between local and European artistic traditions.