LAURENCE
SCHMECKEBIER, Ivan Meštrović, Sculptor and Patriot. Syracuse, N.Y.:
Syracuse University Press. 1959.
This is
the third book on the great Croatian sculptor published by Syracuse University
Press. The first one was the monumental volume The Sculpture of Ivan
Meštrović, published in 1948, which contains 158 full-page plates of
the works of Meštrović, a short biography by Harry H. Hilberry, and a
bibliography of writings on Meštrović and his art. The second was The
Life of Christ, ten panels in wood by Ivan Meštrović.
The
present volume is prepared by Laurence Schmeckebier, Director of the School of
Arts at Syracuse University. It contains: Biographical Sketch of 47 pages,
Chronology of the sculptor's life and works, list of illustrations, and two
hundred illustrations.
The
illustrations include many recent works that appear in a book for the first
time. Some of these are: Mila Gojsalić, plaster, over life-size, 1957;
John the Baptist, plaster, over life-size, 1954; Andrija
Kačić-Miošić, bronze, life-size, 1957; Girls with Musical
Instruments, mahagony, 6 ft. by 31/2, 1957; Madonna and Child, mahagony,
life-size, 1957; Contemplation, walnut, life-size, 1952; The Guslar, walnut,
life-size, 1954; Portrait of President Everett N. Case, bronze, over life-size,
1954; Portrait of Chancellor William P. Tolley, bronze, over life-size, 1954;
Portrait of I. A. O'Shaughnessy, bronze, life-size, 1956; Portrait of F. C.
Morgan, bronze, over life-size, 1957; Pope Pius XII, bronze, over life-size,
1957; Prophet Jeremiah, limestone, life-size, 1952; Blind Homer, plaster,
life-size, 1956; St. Anthony, bronze, life-size, 1953; St. Jerome, bronze,
life-size, 1955; St. Cristopher, plaster; over life-size, 1955; Jacob's well,
bronze, over life-size, 1957; Man and Freedom, bronze, 24 ft. high, 1953;
Crucifixion, lime-stone, 8 ft. by 22 ft., 1956; Crucifixion, mahagony, over
life-size, 1957; Father Lopez Memorial, bronze, 11 ft. high, on green granite
base, 1958; Mary, the Immaculate Queen of the Universe, limestone relief, 17
ft. 9 in. high, 1957; Pietá, bronze, over life-size, 1958. This partial list
shows that Meštrović, at the age of seventy-five is creatively producing
at a rate equal to the revolutionary success of his early period.
The
Biographical Sketch written by Professor Schmeckebier is one of the most
complete and accurate accounts of Meštrović's life and work in the English
language. It will, no doubt, serve as an authoritative reference for future
historians of art. The author emphasizes the well known characteristics of
Meštrović's works: the unbelievable power, inspired grandeur and
monumentality of his figures; his sense of form and his ability to interpret
that form with force in heroic concepts; a classical balance between vigor and
dignity; his interest in the strong and dedicated, characters whom he saw as
prophets of his people; his interest in biblical subjects which stems from the
artist's belief in the enduring values of the spiritual. ("One must be in
love with eternity" wrote Meštrović in 1922). Schmeckebier points out
that Meštrović stood apart from the stylistic groups and categories; he
was neither an impressionist nor an expressionist. Schmeckebier writes:
"He was a Croatian, and what he tried to express was rooted in the heart
and soil of his homeland. Its successful achievement, however, was not in the
one language, but rather in that of all humanity" (p. 5).
A large
part of the Sketch deals with Meštrovič's political activities. "For
good or evil — writes the author — in Meštrović's career art and politics
went hand in hand". In describing the artist's role in the establishment
of Yugoslavia, Schmeckebier writes: "During the interwar years most of the
ministers, the vast majority of the diplomatic posts, and nearly all the
leading military positions were held by Serbs. Meštrovič had worked for
the establishment of a "Yugoslav federation within which the Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes would be equal partners and he, as a true patriot, actively
opposed Serbian hegemony in the new state. He was alarmed by the bitter Serbo-Croatian
conflict and felt that, unless the conflict was settled in a mutually
satisfactory manner, it would lead Yugoslavia to disaster" (pp. 28-29).
The
passage on p. 36, in which he describes the events in Croatia after the
collapse of Yugoslavia, contain statements which may be construed in a way
Professor Schmeckebier, I am sure, did not intend. Thus the epithet "local
Quisling" is hardly applicable to Pavelić as the situation in Croatia
was unlike that in Norway. By referring to Pavelić's career as
"infamous", the author was justifiably voicing his condemnation of
certain acts of Pavelić's regime during the war years, but did not intend
to attach the stigma of infamy to the struggle of the Croatian people for their
own independent state. Before the war the Ustaša movement was looked upon by
the Croatian people as the most dynamic expression of their demand for
independence from Serbia; it was organized, as Professor Schmeckebier himself
points out, after the assasination of Stjepan Radić and other leaders of
the Croat Peasant Party in the Belgrade Parliament "as a reaction to the
continued terrorism and oppression of the Belgrade Serbian regime" (p.
36). Terrorism and political assassinations as political weapons are justly
abhored in the Anglo-Saxon world with its long tradition of democracy. These
methods, however, have been quite common in dictatorships, in which such
methods, alas, are the only methods available to the opposition. Professor
Schmeckebier's judiciousness, sense of fairness and sympathy for the Croatian
people are apparent on every page of this book and the above remarks were not
meant to be a criticism, but rather a clarification.