Ana Marija Marović, slikarica na glasu svetosti

Anna Maria Marovich (Venice, 1815 - Venice, 1887), a Venetian born into a family of Boka origins, achieved a reputation for sanctity during her lifetime due to her religious zeal and charitable work. With the initiation of her beatification process, she was formally recognized as an honourable servant of God (It. venerabile). However, she was also highly esteemed for her accomplishments in poetry and painting. Her inclusion in Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski’s Slovnik umjetnikah jugoslavenskih (Lexicon of Yugoslav Artists) secured her a place in the Croatian gallery of prominent artistic figures. Although information about Anna Maria Marovich’s paintings is often relayed within the context of cultural historiography, relatively little has been said about her oeuvre from an art-historical perspective. Therefore, this paper reconstructs the historical context of her artistic endeavours, tracing her interest in artistic expression within the educational framework typical of an upper-middle-class girl of her era, and examining the support she received from two influential clerics - Abbot Daniele Canal (1791-1884) and Cardinal Jacopo Monico (1778-1851), the Venetian patriarch, with whom she also cooperated in converting monasteries into charitable institutions. Both figures were instrumental in fostering Marovich’s artistic career and played a significant role in promoting her figure and work within the Catholic Church and the Habsburg court. The paper also critically assesses certain assertions regarding Marovich’s painting oeuvre prevalent in scholarly literature, identifying her extant artworks that can be located and those known only through printed sources. Some limited conclusions are drawn about lost pieces that brought fame to the artist and gave rise to stories about them. Notable among these are a painting of Our Lady of Carmel commissioned by the Austrian empress Maria Anna in 1845, and an early piece depicting the Saviour made for Cardinal J. Monico around 1843, which indirectly influenced the imperial commission. Hypotheses concerning lost artworks are largely based on Marovich’s poetry, or rather her poetic exchange with various persons, in which frequent references are made to her paintings. The central part of the article analyses her most significant achievement - the Addolorata altarpiece created for the church of Santa Maria del Pianto o dei Sette Dolori in Venice. This altarpiece, reconsecrated in 1851 at the behest of Don Daniele Canal, was an in