page_title: Croatian pre-Romanesque art and architecture
section_title: Sculpture
hierarchical_section_title: Croatian pre-Romanesque art and architecture / Sculpture
caption_attribution_description: English: The Plomin tablet, Croatian Glagolitic monument from the 11th century.
context_page_description: Croatian Pre-Romanesque art and architecture or Old Croatian Art is Pre-Romanesque art and architecture of Croats from their arrival at Balkans till the end of the 11th century when begins the dominance of Romanesque style in art; that was the time of Croatian rulers.
context_section_description: Pre-Romanesque Croatian churches are also the most important historical sources of that time because on their beams and tympanums of altar fences, as well on some portals and ciboriums we found many names of Croatian kings, dukes and nobleman which are mentioned as patrons and builders of those churches. The oldest one is from church in Rižinice (Solin) which mentions Croatian duke Trpimir (PRO DVCE TREPIMERO), from around year 850, while on the inscription of duke Branimir from year 888 we have the oldest mention of Croats: CRVATORVM. On the rest from 10th century we found the names of dukes Muncimir of Croatia, Držislav and Svetislav, all the way to king Zvonimir from the end of the 11th century.
  That inscription of king Zvonimir is already made in Croatian language, written in Glagolitic script (Baška tablet).
  Double literacy and two scripts have been noticed in several monuments as Plomin tablet (Istria) and Valun tablet (Cres, 11th century) where we have Latin language and script as well as Croatian translation in Glagolitic script. Nevertheless, soon the Latin script replaced the Glagolitic which was the only way that Croats would be accepted into still Romanized Medieval Europe. However, Croats will use their native language and script all the way to the 16th century, especially in Istria, Kvarner and on the Croatian coast.
  Altar fences and stone perforated windows were decorated with shallow interlace ornament which we call Croatian interlace. Motifs of this interlace are often of classical origin (waves, three string interlace, pentagrams, nets of rhomboids, etc.), but while in the Roman art it was used only as a frame, here they cover the entire surface. Sheer number, but also the quality of stonework, of these monuments tells us of rich masonry tradition of numerous masters and workshops on the east coast of Adriatic. Comparing to thousands of fragments found in Dalmatia, in the northern Croatia there are only two confirmed founds: one in Lobor and one in Ilok.
  Sometimes the interlace is replaced with figures of Gospels (like on the altar fence of Holy Sunday Church in Zadar), but those figures are flatten and their character lines are reduced to graphic lines in outmost linear stylization. The same is the relief from Crown Hollow church of king Zvonimir in Solin with the figure of (Croatian) king on the throne with Frankish crown, beside him is a page, and on the ground is a bowing subject. This relief is from the 15th century a front part of a baptistery in Split Cathedral.
  In church of St. Mary from the 11th century in Bishopric (Biskupija) near Knin the oldest figure of Holy Mary in Croatia was found.
caption: Plomin tablet
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