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PISAVA
VELIKOST

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VELIKE/MALE
STIL
Permanent Collection

1600–1700

Herman Verelst

The Hague, 1641/1642 − London, 1702)

Johann Jacob von Wiederkehr
1678, oil, canvas, 103,5 x 84 cm
signed and dated centre right: H. Verelst: / F: 1678; inscription upper left: H: I: V: W: Z: W: D: R: K: M: L: I: K: / Ao: 1681 ÆT: 50

NG S 649, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

The depicted’s family moved to Carniola from Zurich at the beginning of the 17th century, ascending from burger status to among the nobility. Janez Jakob had earned this promotion through his military service and honors, having paid his way out of French prison and returning back to Carniola. In 1679, at the age of 50, he married his third wife, the young, 22-year-old widow Marija Elizabeta nee Torpezer (NG S 634). To mark the occasion, Widerkhern commissioned the Dutch painter Herman Verelst, at the time living and working in Ljubljana, to paint wedding portraits of him and his bride-to-be. This representative portrait depicts a respected member of the lower nobility making direct eye contact with the viewer. His attire is completed by a wig, called a lion’s mane, while his military service is signaled by the discreetly illuminated epaulets on his shoulders and the sash Wiederkhern is thumbing with his right hand.

Until the second half of the 18th century, the portraits hung in the Widerkhern house at Ciril Metodov Trg 14 as part of the growing ancestral gallery. Thereupon it was taken by his descendants to the castle in Zaprice, and then acquired by Edvard Karl Strahl in Stara Loka in the second half of the 19th century.



From Mannerism to Baroque
Although imported early-Baroque works prevailed in this period and those by itinerant artists, the 17th century paved the way for the future. The political circumstances in the region were relatively stabilized in spite of the Thirty Year War and the patronage gradually grew stronger. The arrival of the Jesuits in Ljubljana, the activity of the polymath Johann Weichard Valvasor, particularly his graphic workshop at Bogenšperk/Wagensperg Castle, and the foundation of the Academia operosorum at the end of the century were the key events of the time. 

Characteristic of sculptural production on the Slovenian territory in the 17th century were the so-called “golden altars”. As a rule, these were gilded and polychrome carved wooden retables with rich ornamentation, first with crustaceous patterns which turned into vine and grapes that covered architectural framework until the achantus foliage took over and obliterated architectural structure completely. The making of golden altars included several branches of fine arts: prints, carving, gilding, painting. Religious painting of the first half of the century still contains Mannerist elements; in the second half also secular motifs became more numerous, particularly genre scenes and aristocratic portraits. The artworks mainly echo northern early-Baroque influences. 

Noteworthy among the newcomers who settled in Carniola with their workshops were the painter and gilder Hans Georg Geiger von Geigerfeld in the mid-century, who had moved to Carniola from the region of the Central Alps, and the Fleming Almanach in the third quarter of the 17th century, known only by his nickname, who worked here only for a few years. The extraordinary productivity and skills of the latter are evidenced by his rare surviving works, mentions in Valvasor’s books, and aristocratic probate inventories.