Marin Studin
(1895-1960)
Melody, 1919
MG-2635

Croatian sculptor and medallist, Marin Studin, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Vienna and Prague, and under Antoine Bourdelle in Paris (1921-1922). In the interwar period, he was an art teacher at secondary schools, and then at the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade and Zagreb.

Inspired by folk art, Studin developed a unique style by the later stage of his career. He modelled expressionist biblical compositions and figures of fishermen, peasants and shepherds in stone and wood. After World War II, he created large-scale reliefs in wood expressing the terror and suffering of casualties of war, and public monuments in stone. Studin also modelled several sports medals and a plaque with the figure of a saint. Featuring a finely executed wrinkled male face, his bronze plaque An Old Man from 1913 is a sunken relief of a pronounced linearity.

Marin Studin modelled his stylised allegorical Melody bust at the beginning of his career (i.e., in 1919), when – under the influence of sculptor Ivan Meštrović – he sculpted works in the tradition of Art Nouveau, featuring pronounced expression and inspired by universal human symbolism.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, 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