About the museum:
The Museum of Art and Craft was founded on February 17, 1880, and was one of the first such institutions in Europe. It was founded at the initiative of the then Arts Association and its president, Izidor Kršnjavi, intending to create “a collection of models for master craftsmen and artists who need once more to improve the production of everyday use items”. The basic thread of its work was first of all its orientation towards the preservation of the traditional values of the national crafts, as well as the creation of a new aesthetic culture in the middle classes. For this purposes, in 1882 the museum was founded, as well as the Craft (Trades) School, today called the Applied Art and Design School. The museum is located in the very centre of Zagreb’s Lower Town that came into being in the later 19th century south of the old historical centre; the grand palace in neo-German Renaissance, built primarily as palace for the Museum, today complements the backdrop of one of the finest squares in the city. Today the Museum of Art and Craft is a national museum, which consistently documents the material culture of life lived in the noble castles, the mansions and palaces, depicting the practical everyday life of the gentry and middle classes, in country villas and in the town, during the many centuries of our history. With its rich holdings in which there are a considerable number of objects of foreign make, the museum goes beyond its national basis and constitutes a significant value within the framework of the European heritage. With the largest and richest holdings in Croatia, the museum keeps objects of the fine and applied arts from a span of time from the 14th to the 20th century. In the collections of furnishings, metals, textiles and modern accessories, ceramics, glass, painting, sculpture, timepieces, photographs and photographic equipment, musical instruments, graphic and industrial design, architecture, ivory, printing and bookbinding, painted and printed leather, devotionalia, smokers’ requisites and toys there are more than 100,000 objects. This very diverse material is cared for by museum restoration workshops specialising in metal, ceramics and glass, fabrics, painting and polychrome sculpture that all work within the museum. The permanent display of the museum, which extends over 2000 square metres and on three floors, there are about 3,000 exhibits. Apart from giving an insight into the development of artistic and craft production from Gothic to Art Deco, into the development of technological processes and an oversight of historical changes of styles in which broader spiritual and intellectual trends are mirrored, the permanent display also presents selected contemporary artists. There are separately presented study collections of religious art, Judaica, painting, timepieces, ivory, metals, glass, ceramics, textiles, within which the finest of the most interesting artistic objects from each group are exhibited.
|