Ivan Meštrović, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Ivan Meštrović

Croatian sculptor and architect

Date of Birth: 15-Aug-1883

Place of Birth: Vrpolje, Brod-Posavina County, Croatia

Date of Death: 15-Jan-1962

Profession: architect, sculptor, university teacher

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Leo


Show Famous Birthdays Today, United States

👉 Worldwide Celebrity Birthdays Today

About Ivan Meštrović

  • Ivan Meštrovic (Croatian: [i?an m?^?tr??it??] (listen); 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a renowned Yugoslavian and Croatian sculptor, architect and writer of the 20th century. He was the most prominent sculptor of Croatian modern sculpture and a leading personality of artistic life in Zagreb.
  • He studied at the Pavle Bilinic's Stone Workshop in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was formed under the influence of the Secession.
  • He traveled throughout Europe and studied the works of ancient and Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo, and French sculptors A.
  • Rodin, A.
  • Bourdelle and A.
  • Maillola.
  • He was the initiator of the national-romantic group Medulic (he advocated the creation of art of national features inspired by the heroic folk songs).
  • During the First World War, he lived in emigration.
  • After the war, he returned to Croatia and began a long and fruitful period of sculpture and pedagogical work.
  • In 1942 he emigrated to Italy, in 1943 to Switzerland and in 1947 to the United States.
  • He was a professor of sculpture at the Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Most of his early works of symbolic themes were formed in the spirit of the Secession, some of which, like the Well of Life, show impressionist restless surfaces created under the influence of Rodin's naturalism, and the second, reviving national myth, become stylized monumental plastics (Kosovo cycle, 1908-1910).
  • Before the First World War, he left pathetic epic stylization, expressing increasingly emotional states, as evidenced by the wooden reliefs of biblical themes made in a combination of Archaic, Gothic, Secessionist and Expressionist styles.
  • During the 1920s and 1930s, the classical component prevailed in his works.
  • In this period, he created a number of public monuments of strong plastic expression, pronounced and legible shapes (Grgur Ninski and Marko Marulic in Split, Andrija Medulic, Andrija Kacic-Miošic and Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Zagreb, The Bowman and The Spearman in Chicago).
  • Portraits take a special place in his opus. Meštrovic achieved works of strong plastic value in the construction-sculptural monuments and projects, mostly with central layout (the Mausoleum of the Racic family in Cavtat, the Mausoleum of the Meštrovic family in Otavice, the Meštrovic Pavilion in Zagreb, Monument to the Unknown Hero in Belgrade).
  • He also designed a memorial church of King Zvonimir in Biskupija near Knin inspired by old Croatian churches, a representative family palace, today the Ivan Meštrovic Gallery, and reconstructed renaissance fortified mansion Crikvine-Kaštilac in Split.

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also