Šibenik stonecutter Petar (son of late Matej) from Padua in Zadar

Abstract

Petar (Peter), son of late Matej (Mathews), a stone-cutter from Šibenik, worked in Zadar from 1391. to 1394. Documents in the Historical archives in Zadar show that he was paid on two occasions for work done to order of the archbichop of Zadar. In 1393. he undertook to make a rose window for the façade of the church St. Stephen, lodav the church of St. Simeon (Šime), to be modelled on the over the apse of the Cathedral. In the same year he was to execute some work in stone on the Cathedral and, with his co-worker Martin son of Nikolelo, promised one Vcnturino Pacijcv to build a cistern in Otus on the island of Pašman. Unfortunately, Pctar's documented work, the rosette on the façade o f St. Simeon is preserved only in fragments. However, of the work he was to use as a model, the rosette over the apse of the Cathedral, more fragments have been preserved. But in view of the usage of the times, that the master was often asked to use his own work as a model, and krowing that Peter worked for the archbishop of Zadar, it is reasonable to suppose that the rosette over the apse of the Cathedrall was his work too. Its remains show great similarity in the stonecutter’s manner of work to the representative Gothic rosette on the façade of the Cathedral. Thus we can conclude with great certainty ihul this work of high quality can also be attributed to the same master.