Ivan Meštrović

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Ivan Meštrović : biography

15 August 1883 – 15 January 1962

His son Matthew (Mate) Meštrović is an American university professor of Modern European history and worked as a Contributing Editor of Time magazine, served as a lieutenant in the US Army PsyWar. He was president of the Croatian National congress and lobbied on behalf of Croatian self-determination in Washington, Western Europe and Australia and a deputy in the Croatian Parliament, member of Croatia’s delegation to the Council of Europe and the Interparliamentary Union and served as ambassador in the Foreign Ministry, recipient of Croatian and Bulgarian decorations. Because of his father’s and his own political anticommunist believes and commitment to freedom was declared by the Yugoslav regime enemy Number One of the Yugoslav State and a top CIA agent.

His grandson Stjepan is a sociology professor at Texas A&M and author of several books.

Work

Irish commemorative coin in cooperation with the Croatian bank.]] Meštrović’s mausoleum in his childhood home of Otavice. He created over fifty monuments during his two years in Paris (1908–1910). The theme of the Battle of Kosovo particularly moved him, prompting one of his first great works, the Paris Kosovo Monument, and other works in bronze and stone. A lot of his early work revolved around such epic moments from Slavic history in an attempt to foster the pan-Slavic cause in his native country.

With the creation of the first Yugoslavia, his focus shifted to more mundane topics such as musical instruments or chapels. He particularly oriented himself towards religious items, mostly made of wood, under artistic influence from the Byzantine and Gothic architecture. The most renowned works from the early period are the Crucifix and Madonna; later he became more impressed by Michelangelo Buonarroti and created a large number of stone reliefs and portraits. The Croatian dinar featured Meštrović’s work History of the Croats.

His most famous monuments include:

  • Gregory of Nin in Split
  • Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb
  • Gratitude to France in Belgrade
  • Monument to the Unknown Hero, Avala, Belgrade
  • Victor monument on Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade
  • Svetozar Miletić in Novi Sad
  • Nikola Tesla in Zagreb
  • History of Croats in the garden of Beli dvor in Belgrade, copy in the front of Zagreb University in Zagreb
  • Njegoš mausoleum on Mount Lovćen in Montenegro
  • The Spring of Life in Zagreb
  • Domagoj’s Archers in Zagreb (Meštrović Foundation)
  • The Bowman and The Spearman in Chicago
  • Martin Kukučín in the Medical Garden, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Ionel I. C. Bratianu in Bucharest, Romania (24 noiembrie 1937)
  • King Carol I in Bucharest, Romania (1939) – this monument was destroyed by communists after 1948
  • Relief of Cardinal Stepinac with Christ, Zagreb Cathedral
  • St. Jerome the Priest, Washington, D.C.

Galleries including his work include:

  • Ivan Meštrović Gallery in Split, formed after his major donation in 1950, which includes 86 statues in marble, stone, bronze, wood and gypsum, 17 drawings, and also eight bronze statues in the open garden, 28 reliefs in wood in the kaštelet and one stone crucifix
  • the Ivan Meštrović Memorial Gallery created in 1973 in Vrpolje, his birthplace, with 35 works in bronze and plaster stone
  • the National Museum of Serbia holds sculptures and monuments (total 45 works) such as Miloš Obilić, Kosovo girl, Srđa Zlopogleđa, Kraljević Marko, Widow and
  • ,Baton Rouge has a large collection of sculpture and drawings.

Written works

Notes