VITRAJI PAVLA VOJKOVIĆA U ŽUPNOJ CRKVI SV. MARTINA BISKUPA U VARAŽDINSKIM TOPLICAMA
PAVAO VOJKOVIĆ’S STAINED GLASS WINDOWS IN THE CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN THE BISHOP IN VARAŽDINSKE TOPLICE

Summary/Abstract: In 1983, three stained-glass windows designed by the painter, costume and set designer Pavao Vojković (b. June 24, 1912 – d. December 26, 2006 in Varaždin), and manufactured by the Zagreb glassmaking company Staklo, were installed in the Church of St. Martin the Bishop in Varaždinske Toplice. The rectangular Gothic windows topped with lancet arches are adorned with stained-glass images showing key episodes of the saint’s life. On the northern wall of the church, in the Gothic opening that stands closer to the arch, there is a stained-glass window with a tetramorph, the symbol of the Four Evangelists. The window on its right shows St Martin and the Beggar, while on the opposite, southern wall, there is an image of St Martin the Bishop. The information concerning the three stained-glass windows, apart from their locations, is listed on an unnumbered page of the parish chronicle, under a series of notes from 1983. That the windows were made after the artist’s designs corroborates the inscription NACRT / P. VOJKOVIĆ / STAKLO – ZGB / IZVELO, (DESIGN / P. VOJKOVIĆ / STAKLO-ZGB / MANUFACTURER) found in the lower left corner of the stained-glass window depicting St. Martin the bishop. The inscription and the note in the parish chronicle tie in with nine surviving sketches made by the artist in 1982 and 1983. These are kept in the Pavao Vojković Collection of the Varaždin City Museum, and a private collection of the artist’s work, forming a significant part of his religious oeuvre. Comparing the sketches with the windows highlights the changes in the iconography and composition of the scenes on the three windows. These were most probably selected to match the existing iconography: until the windows were installed in 1983, an oil painting of St. Martin on the main altar, not originally intended for it, was the only image of the saint Martin of Tours inside the church. Following the relocation of the painting to the parish house, the windows remain the only examples of the saint’s iconography in the church.

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