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DOMINICAN MONASTERY
The Dominican Church was erected in 1315 but it
was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667, to be rebuilt after that
again. It is a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles. The plain
interior consists of a huge single nave with a triple Gothic arch
end opening into the sanctuary and two side chapels, the only part
of the original building left. The church is decorated with stone
household objects and a stone pulpit. The church walls are decorated
with some masterpieces by famous painters e.g. 15th C Crucifixion
by Paolo Veneziano; Virgin Mary and St. John by Lorenzo di Marino
Dobričević (15th C); two altarpieces by Francesco di Maria (17th
C); Miracle of St. Dominic by Vlaho Bukovac (a local 19th C work
in the Sicilian manner).
The graceful late-Gothic Cloister, erected by local masons to a
modified design of Maso di Bartolomeo of Florence, has interesting
bosses in the vault and tomb slabs in the walls, but is somewhat
marred by the over-clever interlaced ornament in alternate tympana
and in the balustrade above. The cloister's garden is planted with
orange trees. The Bell Tower, begun in 1390 and completed in 1531,
in a curiously retarded Romanesque style, continued by the later
baroque lantern.
The Dominican Library was founded in the 13th century. Its collection
expands over 16,000 volumes, 240 incunabula and important archives,
among which are the oldest Latin translations of Avicenna's works
and a tractate of St. Thomas Aquinas (14th century). It was one
of the biggest European libraries in the period between the 15th
and 17th century. Inside the monastery there is a museum with artifacts
from Dubrovnik's goldsmiths, reliquaries and other sacral objects.
It's painting collection contains many works of the old masters
from the 14th to 20th century Especially noteworthy are an early
16th C polyptych of the Dubrovnik School (attributed to Lovro Dobričević);
an altarpiece showing Mary Magdalena with St. Blaise, the Archangel
Raphael, and a donor, by Titian (1554). |
