On the trail of a painting bequeathed to St. George’s abbey on the islet near Perast the testaments of Nycolaus and Johannes Glauacti (as of 1327 and 1336)

Abstract

The paper reviews the last will of the Kotor nobleman Nycolaus Marini Glauacti made in 1327 to bequeath to St. George’s church on the small island near Perast a depiction of the Madonna, St. Nicholas and St. John the Baptist. On the one hand, the legacy is analyzed in the context of the compositions involving the three saints in Kotor’s religious medieval art and, on the other, in the context of ad pias causas bequests and the concept of preparing for a good death (ars moriendi). The contents of the testaments of Nycolaus and his brother Johannes Marin Glauacti as of 1336 are contrasted, especially in terms of the number of pro remedio animae items bequeathed and their distribution. A special emphasis is laid on the comparison of the representations between the Franciscan and Benedictine Orders as the recipients of pious bequests. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: institutions and culture]