Based on the archival sources, this paper brings a number of new insights about the long-destroyed chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Sveti Ivan Zelina and its inventory, which have here for the first time been thoroughly researched, reconstructed, and evaluated in the context of heritage of north-western Croatia and the neighbouring regions. The Zelina parish church of St John the Baptist today houses a stone polychrome statue of Our Lady of Compassion, probably made in the late 17th century and artistically analogous with a group of stone statues with the same iconographic motif attributed to Ivan Jakob Altenbach. The formal departures and visible differences in details indicate that the Zelina statue, however, is the work of another, anonymous master who imitated Altenbach or perhaps was active in his workshop. Originally, the statue must have stood at the top of a column, but the growth in prestige and miracles of Our Lady of Sorrows prompted the construction of a chapel in her honour in 1718, moreover "in the manner of a station," as recorded by a canonical visitation report. The statue of Our Lady of Compassion was positioned in the gable of the high altar, which, in addition to the unusual central iconographic motif of the Holy Sepulchre, stands out with its unconventional composition featuring four trees (olive, cypress, plane tree, and palm tree), unparalleled in the 18th-century altar production of north-western Croatia. Apart from the stone statue, the only remaining evidence of the former furnishing of the chapel is the preserved painting of The Three Magi in the format of an upright oval from 1726, which the author has discovered to have stood in the gable of the side altar dedicated to the Guardian Angel. The report describes it as being carried by angels, which is reminiscent of the famous innovation of Gian Lorenzo Bernini installed in 1658-1661 on the high altar of the church of San Tommaso da Villanova in Castel Gandolfo. This paper pays special attention to the genesis of this motif, and by contextualizing it in space and time, it has been noticed that the composition in Zelina, according to the data available so far, is among the earliest quotations of Bernini's achievement in the altars of northwestern Croatia. On the identically built side altar dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, a painting of St John of Nepomuk is mentioned in 1726, which can be considered among the earliest evidence of this saint's cult, particularly promoted by the Habsburg Monarchy, in north-western Croatia. The central statue of the Immaculate Conception on that altar was sided by representatives of the state authorities, a statue of St Stephen, as well as the ecclesiastical ones, St Ladislas as the founder of the Zagreb Bishopric. The layered iconographic program of the chapel was designed in accordance with the contemporary efforts of the post-Tridentine renewal of the Catholic Church, the Diocese of Zagreb, and the Habsburg Monarchy, which indicates informed clients. Although the written sources do not explicitly state their names, they may have included the patrons of the parish church, particularly the bishops of Zagreb and the noble families of Keglevic and Patacic. Furthermore, a two-storey entrance porch vaulted on both levels and with stairs "curving like a snail's house" was built in 1729 at the front facade, while on the upper floor an altar with the Crucifixion motif was erected in 1731. In this way, a sort of permanent, elaborate open-air stage was created with the aim of encouraging reflection on the Passion of Jesus, which can be linked to the tradition of building the Calvary. Thus, the chapel united the last stations of the Way of the Cross, which together with the architectural design of the front facade with a two-storey entrance porch is a unique example in north-western Croatia. It is not documented when the chapel was demolished, but it was out of use as early as 1795 and, in addition to neglect, its fate was probably sealed by the large fire that engulfed Zelina in 1842. The statue of Our Lady of Compassion has meanwhile been moved to the sacristy of the parish church, thus making a path from public worship at the beginning to its hidden abode today, with its former miracle-working character completely forgotten, while the chapel is remembered only through information in scholarly literature. Its unusual iconography and composition, here applied for the first time, stand out as unique examples of artistic creativity in the wider area of 18th-century north-western Croatia. This paper brings a reconstruction of the lost appearance of the chapel and the inventory that testifies to its value within our heritage, in which it undoubtedly deserves a prominent place.
