Jakov Miličić – Sculptor in a Physician’s Robe

Abstract

Jakov Miličić (1876-1958) is one of those once esteemed, yet nowadays rather forgotten Hvarans. His family came from Brusje and he was born in Hvar, but he spent most of his life and working career in Split. He was a medical doctor by profession, first specializing in surgery, and then in gynaecology. He was a philanthropist, humanist, art collector, and a prominent intellectual. He was very actively and successfully engaged in sculpting, and created a modest yet respectable oeuvre, which today is only partially preserved. Unfortunately, little is known about his life and work. This is a consequence, on the one hand, of the lack of immediate family heirs, and on the other hand, of the unfortunate fate of his sculptural legacy, which was left to neglect and oblivion for decades. Although his contribution as a physician was considerable, today he is not even listed in the Medical Encyclopaedia. Likewise, his sculptural work, to which he devoted that other half of his life, has not been properly illuminated or adequately recorded in the contemporary reviews of 20th-century artists.