Nikola Mašić
Pergola II/Capri, 1880
oil on canvas, 57x64cm
no signature
MG-250

Known as a painter of compositions of the so-called beautified Realism and autonomous studies, Nikola Mašić (1852-1902) started his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1872, but having become dissatisfied with its programme, he decided to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In Alexander Wagner’s Komponierenklasse he acquires the necessary knowledge to work on large-scale figurative compositions. He had an affinity for the painting of Wilhelm von Liendenschmidt, a painter of historical compositions, whose palette became lighter under the influence of the modern Munich School of painting. He spent the summer of 1874 in and around Rome studying ancient monuments, which was supposed to help him paint his future figurative compositions. However, the sketches and studies he created at that time show a fascination with the atmosphere and light of the south. During his stay in Croatia, he painted in the region of Posavina. In 1878, he attended the Paris World Fair and became acquainted with the painter Marià Fortuny i Marsal’s Japonisme. In 1879, as an acclaimed painter, he was given a studio in Munich and he continued to travel around Europe attending fine art events. Due to his deteriorating eyesight, he eventually returned to Zagreb in 1884, where he first worked as a drawing teacher at the School of Crafts, and in 1894 he was appointed as director of the Strossmayer Gallery.
The painting Pergola II/Capri is one of Mašić’s autonomous studies created during his stay in southern Italy where he is taken by the atmosphere and the light of the south. Goethe wrote about his timeless fascination with southern light and colours in his Italian Journey. Mašić’s academic concept is reflected in his statement that the pergola is just a character illustration or background for some interesting genre scene. Still, it reduces objectness to a painterly essence wherein the colour range is reduced to tones of two colours, white and green. Impressionist spots of light break through the dense greenery of the pergola free of shadow. With this style of painting, Mašić intuitively came closest to the modern expression, a version of the 19th century landscape painting called landscape in the light (Landschaft im Licht).

Text: Dajana Vlaisavljević, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: From the photo archive of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

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