A BOOK LAUNCH
2023-07-28 20:00
The Maritime Museum of Montenegro
OutlookFriday, July 28
The Maritime Museum of Montenegro, 8 p.m.
A BOOK LAUNCH
Željko Brguljan, author
Život Meduse: likovna svjedočanstva, putovanja i stradanja Lloydova parobroda „Medusa“ / The Life of the Medusa: pictorial evidence of the voyages and sufferings of the Lloyd steamship Medusa
Publisher: Croatian Maritime Museum / author, Split / Zagreb, 2023
Book design: Mario Aničić
The Austrian Lloyd steamship Medusa in Trieste, along with its twin ship the Pandora, was the Lloyd’s first steel steamer. Austrian emperor Franz Josef, with his wife Elisabeth-Sisi, attended her launch in Trieste. She successfully sailed the Adriatic, and then traveled to increasingly distant ports. Like famous adventurers, this ship also had a turbulent “life.” Sailing the seas of the world, she connected many ports between distant countries – from Brazil to India. According to our findings, Medusa is one of the most painted ships: eleven portraits of her, found in Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy, open and reveal exciting chapters of the stormy “life” on board. Here, in this book, the stories of exotic travels, of peaceful sailing under the blazing sun and blue sky, of rescues and suffering in storms, and of the final sinking of the steamship Medusa have been further embellished with a mythological story about the unfortunate daughter of the god Phorcys – the gorgon Medusa. The book intertwines literary and artwork inspired by Medusa’s suffering. The introductory part is dedicated to the maritime activity of the Boka people in Trieste, especially to the captains of Lloyd’s steamships, who were not only numerous but also highly valued, and the book begins and ends with an essay about the sea. Thus, the story of the steamship Medusa is woven from historical facts and myths, from maritime endeavors and sufferings, and enriched with literary and visual representations... The story flows in parallel in Croatian and English with a series of selected illustrations.
Željko Brguljan graduated from the Mathematics Secondary School in Kotor, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Shipbuilding in Zagreb and the pedagogical group of subjects at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. Along with numerous professional-scientific articles, he has published nearly ten books, including: Portraits of Boka Sailing Ships (2006), an art monograph of Melita Bošnjak co-authored with Tonko Maroević (2010), The Maritime Life of the Bay of Kotor in the Paintings of Bazi Ivancovich (2011), At the Border of the Sea and Sky: The Collection of Marine Painting from the Parish Church of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Prčanj (2015), The Life and Work of Ida Verona, the Boka Themes (2018), and The Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Shrine of Our Lady of Škrpjel on an Island off Perast (2019). Željko Brguljan has presented his works at several scientific meetings. He is the author of several literal works, a book of short stories The Stories of Prčanj (2020), and a collection of poems The Storm Compass (2021). Željko Brguljan is the co-author of a number of thematic exhibitions of cultural heritage. He is also a painter – he has exhibited at several solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Nikola Albaneže published a monograph about Brguljan’s painting activity (2014). Željko Brguljan is a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (Zagreb), the National Collage Society (Hudson), the Study Section of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists of Applied Arts (Zagreb), and the Matica Hrvatska Branch in Boka Kotorska (Kotor).
Photo: Mio Vesović
