After 13 years of restoration, the St. Martin polyptych created by the Italian Renaissance master painter Vittore Carpaccio for the St. Anastasia's Cathedral in Zadar in the late 15th century was presented to the public in the coastal city on Thursday.

Also presented at the Permanent Exhibition of Ecclesiastical Art at Zadar’s St. Mary’s Benedictine Monastery were exhibits giving an overview of the 60-year activity of the Zadar Conservation Department, whose head, Jadranka Bakovic, won this year’s Vicko Andric Award, which the Culture Ministry gives for outstanding achievement in the preservation of Croatia’s cultural heritage.

Bakovic won the award for her work on the research, the conservation, and the restoration of the polyptych composed of six paintings, depicting the patron saints of Zadar, St. Anastasia, and St. Simeon.

In her work, Bakovic was advised by Florentine restoration masters Stefano Scarpelli and the late Giovanni Marussich. The work was completed last year.

The Zadar Department for Conservation, opened in 1957, has conserved and restored over 800 works of art by both Croatian and foreign masters from the 13th through to the 20th centuries, including works by Paolo Veneziano, Juraj Culinovic, Blaz Jurjev of Trogir, Petar Jordanic, Juraj Petrovic, Vittore Carpaccio, Petar de Riboldis, Mateo Moronzon, Girolamo and Francesco da Santacroce, Domenico Tintoretto, Jacopo Palma, Jr., Zorzi Ventura, Mateo Ponzoni, Carlo Ridolfi, Bernardino Ricciardi, Antonio Carneo, Giovanni B. A. Pitteri, Bartolomeo Litterini, Francesco Salghetti-Drioli, Celestin Medovic, Vlaho Bukovac, and Ferdo Kovacevic.

Among the restored works, the most famous is the St. Simeon’s Chest, made in Zadar in 1380 by craftsman Francis of Milan. The chest is the most important work of medieval goldsmithing preserved in Croatia.

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