Zoran Mušič(Bukovica near Gorizia, 1909 – Venice, 2005)
Cathedral (Cattedrale)
(1984), dry point, paper, P. 129 x 890 mm, L. 178 x 190 mm
Lower left: EA, Signed lower right: Music
ZD 2016055, The Ljuban, Milada and Vanda Mušič Collection
In 1984, Mušič created a series of prints depicting the insides of cathedrals in extremely small formats.
Extremely fine lines drawn in dry point technique produced the Venetian churches’ interiors. Light pours into the sacral space through a window high in the accentuated arch, just below the vault. The light fades and dissipates towards the floor, as darkness takes over, giving us just the outlines of the portals, altars, and other sacral accoutrements. The small format invites the viewer to behold the monochromatic interplay of light and dark, which amplifies the magical, mystical sense of profound isolation.
Mušič produced his first Venetian cathedral interiors during World War II, when he was influenced by the watercolors of his teacher Ljubo Babić and his contemporary painter from Zagreb’s academy Emanuel Vidović. He revisited this motif in his 80s, when he turned them into even more obvious etudes in illumination, both from the sense of composition and of printing technique. His own words attest that cathedral interiors had always been an interesting motif for him due to their grand amounts of space, their mystical darkness, and the profundity of their silence. The world of silence is one that intimately characterizes Mušič’s opus.
Music, O. I., 2010, Cat. No.: 371