Petar Mattei

Draft of a Portrait

Abstract

This paper focuses on the activity of the Dubrovnik painter Petar Mattei (Dubrovnik, 1670-1726), who in the first decades of the 18th century created important artworks for the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Church of St Blaise. The aim has been to identify the influences of Italian masters such as Guido Reni, Carlo Maratti, and Luka Giordano, and to attribute some of the painter’s unassigned artworks in the area of the former Republic of Dubrovnik. Basing his suggestions on Morellian analogies in motifs and on stylistic analysis, the author suggests that the following paintings be included in Mattei’s opus: 1. Adoration of the Magi, Dubrovnik, Episcopal Palace; 2. Virgin and the Child Appearing to St Stanislaus Kostka, Dubrovnik, Church of St Ignatius; 3. Our Lady of Carmel with St Rochus, St Liborius, St Aloysius Gonzaga, and St Onuphrius (?), Ston, church of St Liborius; 4. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Topolo, church of the Nativity of Our Lady; 5. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Postranje/Martinovići in Župa Dubrovačka, parish church of the Assumption; 6. Virgin with the Child, St Blaise, and St Luke, Mali Ston, parish church of St Anthony the Abbot. These paintings significantly expand the artist’s opus and allow for a more accurate analysis of his artistic activity.