146 Concluding remarks lignearius (master woodcarver) Urban Bavarac (Urban of Bavaria) for an “ornamentum altaris” in the Church of Our Lady of Šunj. However, the text of the contract does not allow for any conclusions about the shape of the work to be created. Therefore, the connection between the contract and the Annunciation retable remains hypothetical. Furthermore, we know nothing about the creation of the two smaller retables in the Church of Our Lady of Špilica: the Mary retable and the Death of Joseph retable. It is important to note, however, that these two retables share striking similarities with the Annunciation retable from Our Lady of Šunj. A close resemblance is evident in both form and in detail, even in the layout of the construction. It was art historian Kruno Prijatelj (1922–1998) who first formulated these relationships.100 A very similar retable in Trsteno, on the mainland opposite the island of Lopud, needs to be added to this group (Fig. 224). But who was the patron? Who was the person responsible for the design and realisation of the project? Božena Popić, an art historian who studied wooden retables dating from the 15th to the 18th century in the area of the former Republic of Dubrovnik, correctly noted that these retables cannot be included in the group of Dalmatian retables that were produced in Venice or under Venetian influence.102 While there are differences in the overall structure and in the ornamentation, the main distinction lies in the design of the columns: the Venetian retables in Dalmatia all have full-round columns, whereas the four retables in question all have half-columns. These retables must have been made in a collaborative effort by several craftsmen, the carpenter and the indoradori for the gilding and polychromy, and they were most likely made on the island. The wood was brought in from farther afield. It could even have been brought from the Piave region, north of Venice, indicated by the holes found in the boards used for the construction. Holes like these were used for transporting the wood in rafts. A group of craftsmen must have constructed the retables on Lopud and, in the case of the Joseph retable, left the island with the last drop of material for the preparatory layer, leaving the retable unfinished with only the gilded elements. But who were they? And where did they come from? The discovery of pre-prepared cartapesta elements in the two retables from Our Lady of Špilica may indicate a South Italian influence, as cartapesta is a
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