Jakov Bratanić

Jakov Bratanić (Vrbanj on the island of Hvar, 26 March 1912 – Zagreb, 16 October 2001) was a Croatian painter and art historian. After completing classical gymnasium in Split, he studied law in Zagreb (doctorate 1937) and art history (graduating 1948). He worked as a clerk at the National Bank, then as curator of the Print Collection at the National and University Library in Zagreb (1948–1957), professor at the School of Applied Arts (1957–1972), and lecturer at the Academy of Theatre, Film, and Television (1950–1983). As art historian Tonko Maroević wrote of him: 'Bratanić's painting was created and affirmed over a full half-century, and in its range and reach it seemed to want to bridge the path from primordial origins to contemporaneity.' Bratanić entered painting as a mature man, a self-taught artist without formal art training, yet with authentic love, deep motivation, and creative freedom. His first solo exhibition in 1955 at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb was received as an exceptional opportunity for synthesis and a chance to create an autochthonous artistic expression. Morphologically, he drew on the experience of pre-Romanesque masons, stone carvers, and the makers of medieval stećak tombstones, finding in their rawness and simplicity the correlatives of an elemental, existentially charged visual language. This medieval component was filtered through the erudition of a fellow traveller of contemporary tendencies, while a childlike quality akin to Klee and Miró helped liberate the inventiveness of his imagery. Two main types of Bratanić's works converge in chromatic density and purity: on one hand, small churches and vedute (Holy Cross in Nin, Vrbanj, Igrane), and on the other, semi-abstract signs of suffering and sacrifice. Through his enduring Requiem cycle, he sought to honour all victims of war and rebellion — from the Hvar rebellion of Matija Ivanić to the Croatian War of Independence. As Maroević concludes: 'Bratanić leaves us an oeuvre full of rebellion and restlessness sublimated into signs and symbols, which in turn aspire to permanence and celestial projection.'