About a
century ago, France Stele, as Chief Conservator for Slovenia assisted by the
academically trained painter and restorer Matej Sternen, first used the
technique of detaching wall paintings in the Church of St Cantianus in Vrzdenec.
This method enabled the preservation of the younger layers of the murals as
well. This approach, technically and research-wise innovative for our region,
and especially for Stele and Sternen. Somewhat less successfully it was used
again a decade later in the Church of the Annunciation in Crngrob.
The
preserved parts, or fragments, of these wall paintings from various painting
workshops of the 14th and 15th centuries were originally intended primarily for
the then National Museum, but were soon dispersed among several institutions.
Over time, this led to the idea that many of them had been lost or had never
existed at all. Fortunately, research over the past two decades disproved this,
and almost all documented detached fragments have recently been rediscovered in
the National Gallery of Slovenia, the Faculty of Arts of the University of
Ljubljana, and the Restoration Centre of the Institute for the Protection of
Cultural Heritage of Slovenia.
The
purpose of the exhibition is not only to commemorate the 100th and 90th
anniversaries of the interventions on two important monuments of medieval wall
painting in Slovenia, but also to reunite the fragments nearly a century later
and present them once again as a coherent whole. The layers from Vrzdenec and
Crngrob have been placed, as far as possible, in approximately the same spatial
proportions as they were in their original location, and supplemented with
documentation preserved mainly by the INDOK Centre of the Ministry of Culture
of the Republic of Slovenia and the France Stele Institute of Art History at
the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
The
exhibition thus presents 17 fragments of wall paintings, 15 of which are from
Crngrob and Vrzdenec, complemented in a meaningful way by later copies,
Sternen’s tracings and drawings, as well as selected documentary and visual
material.
The exhibited detached
wall paintings also allow for a much better viewing and insight into their
technical execution, which is thoroughly presented in the conservation section
of the exhibition. This part highlights the materials and techniques used by
medieval painters, while another important aspect is the presentation of the
conservation interventions on wall paintings, from their beginnings with Stele
and Sternen to the present day.
Author of the exhibition
Gašper Cerkovnik
Project leader
Katra Meke
Conservation content and works for
the exhibition
Katja Kavkler,
Ajda Mladenović, Restoration Centre IPCHS
Matevž Sterle, National Gallery of
Slovenia
Blaž Šeme, University of Ljubljana,
Academy of Fine Arts and Design
Kristina Klemenčič
Exhibition set-up
Ranko Novak
Graphic design
Ranko Novak, Kristina Kurent
Owners of exhibits
Faculty of Arts, University of
Ljubljana, Department of Art History
Ministry of Culture, INDOK Centre
National Gallery of Slovenia
Restoration
Centre IPCHS
France
Stele Institute of Art History, ZRC SAZU
Project is supported by
21 May –
27 September 2026
National
Gallery of Slovenia
Narodni
dom Gallery
Cankarjeva
20