Rudolf Valdec
1872 – 1929
Vladimir Lunaček – Cave Criticum
1905
bronze
MG-4306
Sculptor and medallist, after academic education in Vienna (1890, 1894- 1895) and Munich (1891 -1894), he became an accomplished artist and educator in Zagreb. With Robert Frangeš – Mihanović, he was the pioneer of modern sculpture in Croatia and modernist tendencies in the spirit of Secession in Croatian visual arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Valdec’s public monuments in the form of allegorical figural representations and busts on buildings in Zagreb’s Lower Town, Zrinjevac Park and the Mirogoj Cemetery are an integral part of modern identity of the City of Zagreb.
Rudolf Valdec is an exquisite modern portraitist. The artist adds expressive individuality to realistic form, interwoven with the Secession stylization, and connects character with appropriate artistic solutions.
In the portrait of Vladimir Lunaček, the art critic’s dynamic and softly modelled smiling face reflects a personality imbued with intellectual irony that is perfectly balanced with the rougher part of the bust, on a rectangular pedestal with an engraved motto: CAVE CRITICUM (lat. Beware of the critic).
Text: Tatijana Gareljić, 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