A Roman Citizen Robert Frangeš-Mihanović

Sculptor and medallist Robert Frangeš Mihanović was one of the exhibiting artists in the Croatian arts pavilion at the 1896 Budapest Millennium Exhibition. Despite belonging to the youngest generation of sculptors, Frangeš garnered the greatest acclaim at the exhibition. Unsurprisingly, besides purchasing paintings by Vlaho Bukovać, Celestin Medović, and Béla Csikós, the Hungarian state also acquired work by Frangeš for the newly established Museum of Fine Arts. According to contemporary sources, the sculpture A Roman Citizen achieved the greatest success in the Croatian pavilion.
Its significance lies in the fact that it is the first non-idealised, psychological portrait in the history of Croatian sculpture. The face of the elderly man, which Frangeš modelled on the grandfather of the warden of the School of Applied Arts in Vienna, has been rendered naturalistically. Other variants of the work exist – besides the Budapest sculpture, there are several versions to be found in Croatia. Some of these are similar in terms of their physiognomy yet differ from the Budapest sculpture in various respects – the absence of a plinth, the modelling of the chest, and the rough, wrinkled material of the clothing, for example.

Bianka Izsák-Boda