Ljubo Babić
(1890-1974)
Christ, 1918
oil on canvas, 76×76 cm
MG-4279

Painter and art historian Ljubo Babić (1890-1974) was a key figure in Croatian culture and art. After having graduated from the Transitional Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, where he was taught by painter and Professor Menci Clement Crnčić, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He also graduated in art history from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He taught at the Transitional Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, which was later transformed into the Academy of Fine Arts, and was the director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb and a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The square format of Ljubo Babić’s Christ painting from 1918 shows the stylised and geometrised figure of the dead body of Christ laid out diagonally and wrapped in a cloth up to his neck. With his eyes closed, Christ’s head is depicted with a halo, a symbol of holiness. Only one other thing stands out in the plain and empty background – an elongated jug to the right of Christ’s head. Being a symbol of martyrdom, a crown of thorns is placed in the lower part of the painting to the right of Christ’s feet. The painting blends expressionist tendencies with the remnants of Art Nouveau, the latter of which was typical of the monumentalism of the Medulić Association of Croatian Artists. The said parallelism between Expressionism and Art Nouveau marked the first stage of Croatia’s Spring Salon in the period between 1916 and 1919.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb