Mato Celestin Medović

Mato Celestin Medović
Statue of Mato Celestin Medovic in Kuna (Pelješac)
Born	Mato Medović (1857-11-17)17 November 1857 Kuna at Pelješac, Austria-Hungary
Died	20 January 1920(1920-01-20) (aged 62) Sarajevo, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Nationality	Croatian
Education	Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
Known for	Painting
Notable work	The Arrival of the Croats (Croatian: Dolazak Hrvata)
Movement	Modern Art

Mato Celestin Medović (birth name Mato Medović; 17 November 1857 – 20 January 1920) was a Croatian painter. Best known for his large paintings depicting historical scenes, and his series of colourful landscapes and seascapes of his native Dalmatia, Medović is one of the earliest modern Croatian painters.

In his youth Medović was schooled to become a priest in the Franciscan Seminary in Dubrovnik, and was ordained in 1874, taking the name of Celestin. He received his first art training in Italy, and went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he began painting artistic impressions of historical events. Following graduation he decided to leave the church and pursue his painting career. Medović then moved to Zagreb and joined a group of artists led by Vlaho Bukovac, a renowned painter. His work from this period includes historical depictions at the building of the Croatian Institute of History (Croatian: Hrvatski institut za povijest). Since 1901 Medović increasingly began to spend time on his native Pelješac in southern Croatia, painting nature, still lifes, seascapes and landscapes in a style marked by his use of colour and light shadows.

Mato Medović was born on 17 November 1857 in Kuna on the Pelješac peninsula into a peasant family. Young Mato got his first education at a nearby Franciscan monastery dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto (Delorita). In 1868, at the age of 11 he joined the Franciscan seminary in Dubrovnik, where he took his vows in 1874, taking the name of Celestin. The artistic talent of the young monk was noticed by Abbot Portoguaro Bernardino, on a visit from Rome. So in 1880, Medović was placed in the monastery of St Isidoro in Rome, known for its Nazarene painters. He was assigned to Lodovico Seitz, an influential artist who painted the frescoes in the Cathedral of Đakovo. However, the rigid and outdated artistic style did not suit Medović, and he looked for a different teacher in Giuseppe Grandi, then in the private school of Antonio Ciseri in Florence.