Sculpture Journal
Meštrović’s religious works: from sacred motifs to iconographic programmes
Abstract
The religious elements in Ivan Meštrović's work were to become the most dominant aspect of his oeuvre, especially in the last two decades of his life. This article examines his sculpture and beliefs within the context of the birth of European Expressionism, and in relation to those of his British contemporaries who depicted similar subjects. Meštrović’s iconographic programmes reveal a subjective and unorthodox approach to conventional religious concepts, particularly in his private projects: the cycle of wooden reliefs depicting the life of Christ (at Crikvine–Kaštilac in Split) and the iconographic plan for his family mausoleum (the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Otavice). His