„A VIDJEH GA JA NA TRAVI”: POETIZACIJA HRISTOVIH RANA U PESNIŠTVU MAVRA VETRANOVIĆA

Abstract

In the religious poetry of Mavro Vetranović, one of the central poetic loci is dedicated to Jesus Christ. The essential features of Vetranović’s literary Christology—namely, the Christological statements and attitudes expressed through a literary idiom—include an emphasis on Christ’s bodily suffering, His soteriological role, and a certain resemblance between Christ and the poet, who, so to speak, becomes a “little Christ,” shaped by the assimilation of the poet’s human being to Christ’s theohuman being. As a significant representative of the Christian Renaissance, Mavro Vetranović creates a poetic counterpart to the most influential text of the Devotio moderna, The Imitation of Christ (1418–1427) by Thomas à Kempis. What is particularly distinctive in Vetranović’s work, however, is his strong focus on Christ’s Passion, wherein he constructs striking poetic images of Christ’s bodily suffering. These remain in close resonance with the Gospel sources, while intertwining Christ’s suffering and wounds with the poet’s own. For Vetranović, the poet is the being most akin to Christ.