Donors and artists active in Rijeka during the 17th and 18th centuries have so far only partially been studied and catalogued. Therefore, the primary goal of this dissertation was to create an analytical catalogue of donors and artwork commissions as well as masters active in Rijeka in this period. Previously unknown activities and roles of notable donors were discovered trough the research of newly found archival documents and presented systematically for the first time. As another result of archival research, new information concerning specific artists and their production has been uncovered as well. By applying the method of attribution, artworks were added to the catalogues raisonnés of certain sculptors and altar builders in the area of the Kvarner Bay as well as Veneto, Friuli and Slovenia. Finally, several completely unknown goldsmiths and painters who worked in Rijeka during the 18th century are brought to light in the thesis. Systematic analysis of archival documents was implemented in eight Croatian and six foreign archives, while field research was done in the churches of the wider Kvarner Bay area, Venice, Veneto, Friuli, Austria and Slovenia. As a result, the dissertation contains a catalogue of 82 artworks which relate to specific donors and commissions in Rijeka and a table with 32 previously unknown artists active locally in the 18th century, whose names and presence are confirmed by archival sources. Other than standard art-historic analysis, the thesis includes numerous news relating to the context of the artworks’ commissions and the donors’ social and financial standing and familial connections. Additionally, the thesis includes several case studies, the method of which was proven very successful in contemporary research of early modern period art. The most significant commission in 17th century Rijeka was the construction of the Jesuit Church of St. Vitus and its adjoining college. The complex was designed by Giacomo Briano, while the first phase of its construction was led by Francesco Olivieri and completed by the end of the 1640s. The Rijeka Jesuits were the first to establish contact with altar builder Leonardo Pacassi, which sparked numerous large-scale renovations of church interiors with marble altarpieces in the baroque style. The high altar of the Trsat Franciscan church, erected in 1692 after the Uzolin brothers’ donation, however, became an iconographic model for other donors in Rijeka interested in furnishing churches in Rijeka. Even though local workshops of painters Giovanni Francesco Gladich (Ivan Franjo Gladič) and Giovanni Battista Cosmin were active in the second half of the 17th century, a number of esteemed patrician families, wealthy merchants and religious orders commissioned paintings from the Venetian painter Cristoforo Tasca as well in the first quarter of the 18th century. The Rijeka Jesuits paved the way for marble altar commissions in the 18th century when they hired Gorizian altar builder Pasquale Lazzarini for the construction of the new high altar in the Church of St. Vitus in 1711. In the following 15 years, Lazzarini executed altars dedicated to St. Peter and the Most Blessed Sacrament in the Collegiate Church as well as altars of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Sts. Aloysius Gonzaga and Stanislaus Kostka in the Jesuit church. The Rijeka altars by Lazzarini were executed in collaboration with sculptor Paolo Zuliani from Gradisca d’Isonzo, under whom young Antonio Michelazzi started his training in sculpting. The only donors in Rijeka who did not commission from Lazzarini in this period are the members of the Orlando family, who in turn hired sculptor Luka Mislej from Ljubljana to build a new monumental altar for the Collegiate Church. At this time, the Rijeka Jesuits hired architect Carlo Martinuzzi to complete the Church of St. Vitus by erecting a gallery and a dome above its circular nave. With the arrival of sculptor, altar builder and architect Antonio Michelazzi in Rijeka in 1727, wealthy merchants and noble families were presented with an opportunity to commission marble sculptures and altars from a local workshop situated in front of the city walls. As Rijeka experienced favourable economic conditions in this period, painters Giovanni Battista Fayenz and Giuseppe Paoluci as well as goldsmiths Mattia Cortivo and Giovanni Battista Fanello were drawn to the prospering city. Until the formation of local goldsmith’s workshops, the citizens of Rijeka would usually acquire liturgical objects from European centres of this trade such as Augsburg, Vienna or Venice. The Androcha and the Orlando families and wealthy merchants such as Pietro Felice Tremanini, Martin Sumrecker, Cristoforo Brancovich and Giuseppe Minolli stand out as some of the most significant donors of 18th century Rijeka. In addition to them, members of the clergy also made significant commissions, such as Girolamo de Stembergar, Bishop of Pićan Giorgio Saverio Francesco de Marotti, Donja Idrija’s minister Giovanni Buratelli (originally from Rijeka) and archdeacon Pietro Francesco Svilocosi. Religious orders in Rijeka, such as the Augustinians, Jesuits, Capuchins and Benedictines, played an important role when it came to erecting marble altars and acquiring new liturgical objects as well. This was also true of several confraternities, such as the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sorrow in the Church of St. Vitus, the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in the Monastery of St. Hieronymus and the Confraternities of the Most Blesses Sacrament and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Collegiate Church. Certain commissions of mostly architecture and renovation of public buildings were, on the other hand, related to the City Council and the Governor of Rijeka. One of the most significant events for the development of goldsmithery in Rijeka in the 18th century was the arrival of Salzburg master Francesco Schenfeld to the nearby town of Bakar around 1740. Religious orders, confraternities, private donors and the Cathedral chapter in Rijeka made numerous commissions from this master in the following years. Goldsmith Gaspare Anderlich, whose works can be found in the Collegiate Church, was also active in Rijeka around this time. Venetian altar builder Pietro Fadiga resided in Rijeka in May 1755 in order to sign a contract in which he agreed to construct an altar dedicated to St. Vincent Ferrer in the Collegiate Church. The contract created an opportunity for Fadiga to gain several other commissions in Rijeka, executed in collaboration with Marco Chiereghini. This was the first time that Antonio Michelazzi had to work competitively alongside other sculptors in Rijeka. The most significant changes in 18th century urban planning of Rijeka were implemented by architects and engineers Francesco Saverio de Bonomo and Anton Gnamb, whose goal was to improve and modernise the city. After the death of Michelazzi on 18 September 1771, it seemed that donors from Rijeka interested in acquiring altars and sculptures would have no other choice than to turn to Friulan workshops once again. However, sculptor, architect and altar builder Sebastiano Petruzzi arrived in Rijeka in 1775 and continued to produce statues and construct altars in a shack near Rijeka’s Fiumara. Similarly to Michelazzi, Petruzzi participated in several public building projects from 1775 to 1787. Painter Giuseppe Candido, equally hired by private donors and the clergy, also resided and worked in Rijeka in this period. Finally, it should be noted that sculptor Saverio Medelin from Rovinj, residing in Rijeka at the end of the 18th century, preserved the continuity of local marble sculpture production.