MAXO VANKA MURALS: (1937, 1941); ST. NICHOLAS CROATIAN CHURCH IN MILLVALE

Location: 24 Maryland Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15209

Perhaps the greatest work of art in our region graces the walls of St. Nicholas Church in Millvale. In two intense working sessions in 1937 and 1941, Croatian artist Maxo Vanka created a mystical vision of harmony and redemption rising out of the horrific realities of war, greed and injustice. Vanka, an illegitimate child of Austro-Hungarian nobility, was given a rigorous art education in Zagreb and then Brussels, where he witnessed the horrors of war during the 1914 German invasion of Belgium. The second series of murals painted in 1941 reflect his revulsion at the butchery of modern warfare.

Maxo Vanka Murals, St. Nicholas Croatian Church, 24 Maryland Avenue, Millvale

The murals provide a powerful philosophic ensemble. Religious depictions of Christ and Mary’s suffering are juxtaposed to secular sufferings of soldiers and workers. The depictions of war and greed are countered by the maternal presence of Mary, Queen of Croatia, and by the stubborn endurance of nature and community. 

The church itself is represented as a gift of labor growing out of the communal table of the family. In contrast, the capitalist sits alone at a table groaning with food with a black servant and a hungry man begging for scraps at his feet. The most iconic mural, “The Immigrant Mother Raises her Son for Industry”, depicts Croatian women mourning over the body of a miner killed in an explosion. In the background, family members leave on a doomed rescue mission.