FDC from Croatia／FDC de la Croatie

CHRISTMAS 2010／NOËL 2010

Adoration of the Shepherds, Josip Biffel, Gallery “Šimun” of the Franciscan Monastery of St. Anthony, Dubrave near Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina Christmas lasts. Already for 2010 years the Child is born into its death and resurrection. Ever since the world has been counting time from this birth, the scene of birth was being complemented and enriched. Apart from the main characters, there appear and exchange also the episodists; metaphors gain bodies and the warm muteness of animals completes the human register. The spirit of time arranges the story, lavishing presents and deducing the story to essentials. The styles and epochs have been exchanging round the stall, but never disregarded it. Many painters and sculptors have brought the goodness of their lives, dear lineaments of their wives and children, their next of kins and even their own into the scene of birth. By one’s own experience or longing anyone could settle in this scene. It survived also the chase of narration in modern times. A new, sometimes stiff emotion has carried over the torches of Bethlehem into our time. The painter Josip Biffel (born in 1933, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1959 in the class of Đuro Tiljak, professor at the same Academy) is among many who bowed in front of the stall. He did it in a modern way, renouncing the tiny details and filling out the space of great expansibility by the magic of light. The blue darkness of the sky and the little cave, the caring Joseph and animals in it, the reflection of light across the distant country, the night behind the shoulders of modest characters who had heard the call and have come to admire the new life, the shine on the mother and child, on the crown of a magical tree dialoguing with heavenly voices and the unusual purple sent off by the night – so could maybe Biffel’s painting be translated into word. Biffel has not taken that much with him from his professor at the Academy, much more has he exchanged with his contemporaries, with Ivančić, Stančić, Lesiak…A great part of his work he devoted to sacral motifs and especially to sacral spaces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Creation of space, investigation of its dimensions, rotating of horizons, compression or extension of deepnesses are main features of his poetics. Exactly his paintings concerned with space are probably his most own and finest works. And this space is filled with colours that carry light and darkness, that replace the description by their shine and glowing. The Gallery “Šimun”, housing Biffel’s painting together with seven hundred and twenty other Croatian modern works of art, from which also this year’s Christmas stamp comes, is the collection of the great Franciscan collector, Fra Stjepan Pavić. It is also one of the most beautiful collections of Bosnia and Herzegovina and also Croatia which contributes to understanding and defining of not only our but also universal homeland.

FDC from Croatia／FDC de la Croatie

500th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF IVAN DUKNOVIĆ／
Le 500ème ANNIVERSAIRE DE LA MORT d'IVAN DUKNOVIĆ

Motif: a statue of St John Evangelist, carved for the chapel of the blessed John of Trogir in the Trogir cathedral, 15th century, photo by Živko Bačić Ivan Duknović (Joannes Duhnovich, Ioannes Dalmata), born around 1440 in Trogir, died after 1509, his father’s name Stjepan, is among the most important builders of the cathedral in Trogir. His first knowledge of carving traditions were acquired at home but later on he improved his skill in Italy. In 1470 in Rome he was commissioned several important works, particularly important was a commission from cardinal Pietro Barba, who was later elected Pope Paul II., for whom he carved a tomb (along Mina da Fiesole) in the old basilica of St Petrus, which was the most important work of that kind of the entire 15th century. Unusual resonance of a glory in the Eternal City helped him to another commission, expressed in the Pope’s testament, a figure of Our Lady with a Child high up on the tomb of Pope Paulus II. At the begining of 1480 Duknović works in his native city of Trogir. The first selfstanding three dimensional sculpture in Croatia is a statue of St John Evangelist, carved for the chapel of the blessed John of Trogir in the cathedral. The sculpture is carved at the peak of Dukonovic’ creative life. This great artist probably a sanguine person, in his work reflected the balance between the resonance of a strong composition and psychological intuition, between formal idealisation (reflected in the posture of the statue and shaping of soft fabric) and realism in the expression of physiognomy. The signature at the base of the sculpture (probably additinaly carved) should read in continuo with the signature: S . IOANNES . EVANGELISTA . IOANNIS . DA(L)MATAE . F(ACTUM). – St John carved by the sculptor John – identical to the master’s signature on his most accomplished work , on the base of the relief Hope, executed on the tomb of the Pope Paulus II., where it is written: (I)OANNIS . DALMATE . OPUS. The profile of the statue erected in the chapel of the Blessed John is identical to the profile of a Nicolo Fiorention’s relief in the „Little“ palace of the Čipiko family in Trogir, of Alvizo Cipiko, wreathed poet and later a prelate of a Roman court, from the time when his famous father Koriolan wanted to see him appointed a bishop. Terminus ante quem non and a model for Duknović’ statue is St Philip by Nicolo Fiorentino (1489) errected in the chapel. If we examine the fabric of drapes of Duknović’ Apostle Toma (1508) –it is in some kind of a dialogue with the statue of John the Evangelist. After working some time in his native land Duknović was employed for several years at the court of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, who presented him the palace Majkovecz as a gift in 1488. After the King’s death, Duknović is mentioned in some documents to be in Trogir in 1497and in 1498 in Venice. He might be «Joane de Stano da Trau“ the author of the altar in the Scuola Grande di S. Giorgio, however the altar could also be the work of a famous artist from Trogir – Ivan Statilić. He created some of the anthological works of Croatian sculpture and was the most prominent artist of Croatian Renessaince art. Just to metion some of the reliefs: Our Lady on display in the museum in Padua and Trogir city museum, statue of St Vlaho in Dubrovnik’ Princes Palace, the bust of the humanist Carlo Zena in the Venetian Museo Correr and – probably the last – tomb of the blessed Girolama Gianelli in the cathedral in Ancona. Also the Charming putto hump-back on the main portal of the Cipiko palace (also the work of Duknović), just oposite the Trogir cathedral, is one of the trade marks of the Croatian Renaissance and the most precious artefact of the City Museum in Trogir. Putto holding a torch in flames standing astride on the gally, with the cloak fluttering in the wind, hinting obviously to the function of Koriolan Cipiko in the Venetian fleet in Levant (1470-1474). A three dimensional sculpture made in the manner of the motives from Ancient Times is linked to a similar sculpture of Heraklo as a boy, carved some time later by Duknović on the fountain at the court of Matthias Corvinus in Višegrad. Duknović’ opus, presently on display in Berlin and Paris, Rome and Budapest, Trogir and Dubrovnik, gives an authentic picture of the highest intelectual and artistic range of sculptures carved in close relation to demanding comissioners and artists educated in the very epicentre of the European Renessaince. The artist who became famous thanks to collaborating with several sculptors from Toscana and who suceeded to preserve genuine individual expression and even more who succeded to express his genuine temperament.

FDC from Croatia／FDC de la Croatie

CROATIAN FAUNA - FRESHWATER FISH／
FAUNE CROATE - POISSON D'EAU DOUCE



3.50HRK: Adriatic Sturgeon - Latin Acipenser naccarii Bonaparte, 1836. Foreign names: Adriatic Sturgeon (English); Adriastör (German); Storione del Naccari (Italian) The Adriatic Sturgeon is an endemic species of the Adriatic Sea and the sub-Adriatic rivers. Its habitats are the rivers of northern Italy and in Croatia it is found in the river mouths of the rivers flowing into the Adriatic Sea. It is more common in the northern Adriatic and ranges along the eastern Adriatic coast all the way to Albania. It is a rare species. The Adriatic Sturgeon may grow up to 2000 mm in length and reach the weight of 25 kg, although it is usually considerably smaller. Its body is elongated and spindle-shaped and is not covered with scales but with bony plates or scutes, extending along the body in five rows. Hence the name of the subclass, Chondrostei, chondrosteans. Their back is olive-green and brown, the sides are lighter in colour and their belly is white. The top of the head is a projecting wedge-shaped snout, broad and relatively short, and with the rounded tip. The Adriatic Sturgeon has a small inferior, i.e. subterminal moth (mouth posterior to the tip of the snout). The lips are meaty and the lower one is interrupted in the middle. Adult sturgeons are toothless and in the young ones they are stunted. Their eyes are small and poorly developed, so that their barbels are important tactile organs for the detection of food on the river bottom. The barbels are found on the lower side of the snout, closer to its tip rather than to the mouth. The first rays of pectoral fins are strong and bony. The dorsal fin is located far on the back and the caudal fin is asymmetric (heterocercal). The Adriatic Sturgeon feeds on invertebrates from the bottom and small fishes. The Adriatic Sturgeon is an anadromous species: it lives in the sea and migrates to fresh water (rivers) to breed. It is a long-living species that grows slowly. In the beginning it grows rather fast and at the end of its second year it reaches about 0.5 m in length and weighs approximately 1 kg. However, to reach 1 m in length and the mass of 8 to 9 kg, it takes another 10 years. The males are capable of reproduction between the age of six and eight years, and the females between the age of eight and twelve years. It spawns in the spring, from March to May. The female spawns once in two to four years and the male once a year or every second year. After hatching the young fishes migrate to the sea, where they grow up. There is few information about the biology of this species. The flesh of the Adriatic Sturgeon is used for food but their roe is not processed into caviar. The Adriatic Sturgeon is a demersal species inhabiting freshwater, brackish water and seawaters of the Adriatic. It lives in the sea, at places with silty or sandy bottom. It mostly stays close to the river mouths, up to a depth of 40 m, although it sometimes goes deeper. The Adriatic Sturgeon is threatened by the pollution of watercourses and partition of rivers, which prevents their migrations. Another great problem is overfishing of still growing fishes. It occurs very rarely in the nature and the populations are slowly growing. According to the IUCN Red List, this species is Critically Endangered (CR) in Croatia. Pursuant to the existing protection based on the law, the Adriatic Sturgeon is a strictly protected species. The international protection documents mentioning this species are the Bern Convention (Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats) (Appendix II), the Washington Convention (The Washington Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – CITES) (CITES II) and the European Habitats Directive (the Council Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Appendix II and V).

5.00HRK: Visovac Goby - Latin Knipowitschia mrakovcici Miller, 1990. (nomen nudum) Foreign names: Visovac Goby (English); Visovac Grundel (German) The Visovac Goby occurs only in Croatia, in Visovac Lake on the Krka river. This fish was named after a Croatian ichthyologist, Professor Milorad Mrakovčić, Ph.D., who discovered and recognised it as a new species in 1989. The Visovac Goby has the elongated body and laterally flattened to the tail. There are few scales, only on the sides and the tail. Males are slightly bigger and heavier than females on average and have more than 10 transversal stripes on the sides. Dimorphism is very visible during the spawning season, when the males have darker heads and fins. The Visovac Goby can reach 45 mm in length. The information about the biology of this species is very sparse. The spawning season ranges from early spring to September, and the reproductively mature population spawns several times during that period. The male makes a nest in which it stays during spawning and after spawning it protects it aggressively, defending the ova until hatching of the fry. The Visovac Goby feeds on nutrients found on the bottom, mostly small water invertebrates. Its life span is short. The Visovac Goby is a demersal, freshwater fish inhabiting the silty, sandy and gravel bottom of Visovac Lake on the Krka river. It has a small movement range. Due to its exceptionally limited habitat, the Visovac Goby belongs to the category of endangered species, sensitive to eutrofication, i.e. the quantity of nutrients in the water, pollution and all other changes in its habitat. According to the IUCN Red List, this species is Endangered (EN) in Croatia. Pursuant to the existing protection based on the law, the Visovac Goby is a strictly protected species.

5.00HRK: Danubian Bream - Latin: Ballerus sapa (Pallas, 1814) Foreign names: Danubian Bream, White-eye Bream (English); Zobel (German) The body of the Danubian Bream is laterally flattened and relatively high. The most conspicuous on its small head is the size of the eyes. The eyes are equal in diameter or bigger than the distance from the rostrum to the beginning of the eye. This does not apply to young fishes, in which the eyes are not a determination feature. The mouth is small and semi-inferior. The back is dark blue to greenish and the sides and the belly is silver. The anal fin is extremely long and extends to the tail and its base is three times longer than the base of the dorsal fin. The length of the anal fin covers one third of the body length. The outer edge may be darker. During the spawning season, males have skin warts on the body and fins. The scales are of medium size and there can be 47 to 54 of them in the lateral strip. The Danubian Bream usually reaches the length of 15 to 25 cm, or maximum 40 cm, and the mass of approximately 1 kg. Young fishes feed on zooplankton, whereas the adults feed on larvae of insects, molluscs and small crabs, and sometimes also on aquatic plants. It reaches breeding maturity in its third or fourth year. It spawns in April and May. Females lay up to 150 000 eggs on aquatic plants. They live in schools and are more active during the night. The Danubian Bream inhabits big lowland rivers, estuaries and backwaters. Its favourite spawning locations are more peaceful places in rivers with thick aquatic plants. Its habitats in Europe are the Danube basin and the rivers flowing into the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea, especially on the territories of the former Soviet Union. Its habitats in Croatia include the rivers flowing into the Danube: the Sava, the Drava and the Danube itself, as well as its bigger tributaries. The Danubian Bream is endangered by partitions, regulation and channelling of water streams, as well as by their pollution. According to the IUCN Red List, this species is Data Deficient (DD) in Croatia. Pursuant to the existing protection based on the law, the Danubian Bream is a strictly protected species. The international protection document mentioning this species is the Bern Convention (Appendix III).

FDC from Croatia／FDC de la Croatie

FAMOUS CROATS／CROATES RÉPUTÉS



3.5Kn:JURAJ ŠIŽGORIĆ

3.5Kn:JURAJ HABDELIĆ

5.0Kn:PETAR ŠEGEDIN

5.0Kn:LJUDEVIT GAJ

FDC from Croatia／FDC de la Croatie

700th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORDER OF POOR CLARES IN SPLIT／
700th ANNIVERSAIRE De l'ORDRE De CLARES PAUVRE DANS le SPLIT



＂The ancient monastery of St. Clare in Split, dating from the year 1308, celebrates this year the seven-hundredth anniversary of its foundation, being maintained and permanently renewed through the stormy centuries of our history by the influx of new vocations. When the seraphim father, St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of three orders, overcome by the love of God, drew along with him Clara Sciffi, a girl from a noble family of Assisi, she followed the example of St. Francis and renounced the “world“ – enclosing herself by the walls of San Damiano monastery – so that she could freely elevate her spirit to God and serve him in all her humility, self-denial and love, encompassing in her overall sacrifice the whole world and praying for it. Thus in the year 1212 in Assisi the Order of St. Clare or Order of Poor Sisters, or the Clarisses was founded, that represents the Second Order of St. Francis, and that is completely dedicated to contemplative life, following the Clare’s Rule, which was approved by Pope Innocent IV, i.e. Pope Urban V. Soon the Order started spreading over Italy and other European countries because Clara’s charisma and Claras’s example, on whose face and spiritual image the “radiance of Glory” was shining permanently, attracted many young girls. As early as the mid 13th century in Croatian regions convents started to be built where the spirits of Francis and Clare were blossoming. The convent in Split can be numbered among the oldest convents of the Poor Clares, being founded at the beginning of the 14th century. However, as Napoleon’s laws and decisions of the Austrian emperor Joseph II all other monasteries of the Poor Clares along the Adriatic coast and in Slovenia were abolished, the convent in Split was the only one that could withstand all trials throughout the centuries. We have two precious documents – decrees – set out in Daniel Farlati’s grandiose work Illyricum Sacrum, that refer to the founding of the convent and the consecration of the convent church. The nobleman from Split, Josip Petar, after getting terminally ill, owing to inspiration left in his last will a money bequest according to which a Poor Clare’s convent was to be built in Split where the devoted virgins would “serve the God of chastity” for all times and glorify His holy name. After the convent was built in 1308, a church was built next to it and it was consecrated by archbishop Petar IX at the beginning of the year 1311 in the presence of the whole Chapter and the citizens of Split, when he bestowed many benefits upon the convent. This took place during the pontificate of Pope Clement V (1305 – 1314), at the time when these lands were ruled by Ban Pavao Šubić, Count of Split and Trogir, master of Omiš then master of the whole of Croatia, Dalmatia and Bosnia. The first convent building was raised on the coast, near the city gates. At the time of the Venetian rule, in 1424 the convent was moved to the south-eastern part of Diocletian’s Palace. On the site of the former convent the Venetians built a fortified citadel. The convent of the Poor Clares was closely linked to the life of the city of Split, which can be proved by the fact that the city in the second half of the 13th century was divided into four city districts and one of them was named St. Clare’s district. Remaining calm and rooted into their faith in God, the Poor Clares had to undergo many demanding tribulations in the course of the watershed centuries and difficult historical events, depending on God’s providence and protection. The hardest time was the time of the great epidemics. So, in 1529, at the time of the plague in Split, all the nuns in the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary in the city died while the Poor Clares survived. Enshrined behind the walls they followed the fate of their folk and their martyrdom offering themselves as redemption of many and for their salvation – temporal and eternal. In 1783 the plague struck the Poor Clare’s convent too; three sisters died then and the convent archive was burnt down. In the 19th century, at the time of the Austrian rule, the Poor Clare nuns were forced to establish a school and teach there. In 1824 the first girls’ elementary school was thus opened in Split and following it also a teachers’ school (Scuola di Metodica e Pedagogica) and a boarding school for female pupils. These schools were exemplary and the Poor Clares have indebted the city; the abbes and headmistress, s. Terezija Riboli had the order of Emperor Francis Joseph I conferred upon her. The third convent building, the current one is situated in Lučac. The community of nuns moved to it in the year 1883. It was built owing to the endeavours of the nun, s. M. Klara Linardović and the Bishop of Split, Marko Kalođera. The building within the walls of the Diocletian’s Palace was too tight and in an unhealthy place so that the nuns died before their time. Consequently, the new building was built outside the city walls, in a free space. This place is nowadays in the very centre of the city. At the time of the Second World War four nuns of the Poor Clares founded a new convent in Samobor near Zagreb. Some among them, however, left Zagreb and went to Slovenia and founded a new monastery in Nazarje. In the year 1989 four sisters from the Split convent founded a monastery in Bosnia, in Brestovsko near Kiseljak. Otherwise, every convent is autonomous with their own authority and administration, under the jurisdiction of the bishop and under the spiritual leadership of the Franciscan brothers. Young girls at the age from 16 to thirty years of age can be accepted as members. The Poor Clare sisters in their life and work consider God as the primate in everything; their sacrifice means rites of prayer burnt for the redemption of the world, in unity with Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. The Poor Clares pray and sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the whole humankind, particularly of our people. They follow the spirituality of Francis and Clare, i.e. the Franciscan spirituality, whose common denominator is Christocentrism: the Christ of Bethlehem, Christ of the Calvary and Christ of the Eucharist. The sisters get up at midnight to pray and in harmony with the old nuns’ habit they leave for the choir, for prayers, seven times a day. They are engaged in needlework, baking host wafers and other activities. In 1975 the St. Clare convent in Split started their independent collection of ascetic-mystic works, under the leadership and initiative of sister Marija of the Most Holy Heart who is the editor of these editions. There are some hundred works of the classics of Christian spirituality published so far. Presently there are 20 Poor Clare sisters in the convent, and their abbess is s. M. Suzana Muzuković who is supported in running the convent by the so called Discretorium. Archbishop Monsignor Dr.Frane Franić often used to point out the role of this convent, mentioning that it is “the soul of the city and the soul of the soul of the religious orders”. We continue praying that it should be the City built on the mountain or like a lighthouse that should permanently stand on a height and illuminate the paths leading to the haven of eternity.＂-Croatia Posta