Mindfulness in the Gallery

Massimo Campigli (Berlin, 1895 – Saint-Tropez, 1971)
Woman Raising Her Veil, 1941–1942
oil, canvas, 63 x 41 cm

A body of a young woman is emerging from a white surface; the girl is lying and resting on her right elbow, while using her other arm to remove a veil from her face, looking directly at us. The image in neutral, skin-white colour pallet is free of all details, except of a shining pearl necklace, which adorns the woman’s neck. The delicate fabric that wraps her body could pass for a dress of a bride and with its fair tones accentuates the timeless innocence, simplicity and sincerity.

Campigli looked for inspiration in the motifs of Egyptian, Greek and Etruscan art, which he merged with the Cubist style. These sources result in a tectonic composition, two-dimensionality and the figures inspired by Antiquity, together with colour and brushstrokes that are more typical of fresco painting, a technique Campigli used for some of his monumental commissions. Hence, this painting also consciously alludes to a fragmented archaeological find from the Antiquity, with layers peeled and intricacies lost, preserving within only - the essence.

Marko Pernhart (Srednje Medgorje pri Velikovcu, 1824 − Celovec, 1871)
Bled, 1854
oil, canvas, 52.5 x 79 cm

Peace and quiet true, reflecting deepest blue. One of the most popular places in Slovenia - Lake Bled with an island and a castle atop a steep rock face - is presented in supremely attractive vista: behind the mighty peaks of Vajnež, Stol, Vrtača and Begunjščica, white clouds hurry across the sky, while boats quietly move on the peaceful lake, whose calm surface reflects the surroundings. The entire scene is imbued with tranquillity of a warm, sunny day.

By depicting a sweet, unproblematic, and at the same time topographically consistent and realistically rendered landscape, Pernhart stayed close to the taste of a contemporary burgher; in the era of awakening national consciousness and enthusiasm of the nature’s beauty and magnificence, such tourist landscapes often decorated middle-class drawing rooms.

The Carinthian painter of Slovenian descend was also a dedicated mountaineer and traveller. With a sketching book on him, he was inspired by his journeys and alpine undertakings and made a number of landscape paintings that form the core of his outstanding body of work, which is made of more than one thousand pictures.

Franc Kavčič/Caucig (Gorizia, 1755 – Vienna, 1828)
Semiramis Fed by Doves, (before 1810)
oil, canvas, 103 x 164 cm

Franc Kavčič depicted a story by Diodorus Siculus, who writes about the mythical origins of Babylonian Queen Semiramis and at the same time delivers a story full of hope that intertwines man with nature.

On the shores of a lake near Syrian Ascalon there was a sacred place of Goddess Derketo, who had the body of a human and the tail of a fish. She fell out of favour with Aphrodite, who took revenge by making Derketo enamoured with the handsome priest of her temple. They became parents to a baby girl, but the goddess was ashamed. She killed the priest and exposed the child to the elements and threw herself into a lake, turning into a fish. Near the place where the goddess left her daughter, doves were nesting and took care of the abandoned girl. They used their wings to keep her warm, brought her milk in their beaks and later on stole pieces of cheese from herdsmen. The herdsmen followed the birds and found the most beautiful child, took her with them and gave her to the chief of royal herds, who was childless. He named the girl Semiramis, which is Syriac for “doves”.

Mihael Stroj (Ljubno, Radovljica, 1803 – Ljubljana, 1871)
God’s Care, 1842
oil, canvas 30 x 41.3 cm

The painter depicted an effortlessly levitating angel with a basket, who is feeding animals in a valley covered by a thick snow blanket. In the foreground, birds and rabbits are gathering, while at the outskirts of a spruce forest on the right see a deer approaching carefully. In the background, the view opens to the snow-covered roofs of village houses. The scene is painted with great care; thus, we can recognize most birds fed by the angel. Magpies descend towards the ground, while a golden oriole, a kingfisher and a goldfinch are pecking at grain together with a raven, a bullfinch, great tits, and a jay. The flock includes two grey partridges or maybe quails, while a small swallow sits on the rim of the basket. By depicting the rotting tree trunks in the foreground, the painter defined the picture space and left a small patch of snow to sign his name on it.

The motif and style of the picture are typical of Nazarene painting that strived to revive simplicity, modesty and spirituality of a true Christian art. In this spirit, the calming message of the painting quietly advises the viewers to open our hearts to our fellow man and all other creatures that share this world with us.

Matija Jama (Ljubljana, 1872–1947)
View of Ljubljana Moor, 1925
oil, canvas, 44 x 54.5 cm

In the painting, the view opens from Castle Hill and runs across the roofs of the city's houses along the Gruber Canal into the broad plain of the Ljubljana Moor, up to the slopes of distant Krim, which stands tall above the landscape. The transparent autumn light imbues the landscape cadre of small format, proving that the work was made directly outdoors. The Impressionists explored sunlight, the unstability of optical phenomena and the changing of the athmosphere conditions typical of different parts of day and the year, which meant that painting in nature in front of the motif was a basic precondition for the making of an Impressionist painting. Going even further, as Jama once said himself »... if we want to show a naturalistic winter, we have to be freezing ourselves, if we want that the emotion of the cold to pass on the viewer ...«

Matija Jama was the most travelled among the Slovenian Impressionists, travelling or biking in search of suitable motifs. His work and beliefs remained true to the Impressionist principles: » ... Only one rule is always in force: use the most simple means to get to something as grand and elemental as seen in nature ...«

Anton Karinger (Ljubljana, 1829–1870)
Mountain Lake (Lago di Fusine), 1864

On a lake high in the mountains, the wind is moving from one side to the other, in some places revealing and in others obscuring the view of the nearby peaks. Near the shore, the surface of the lake slightly undulates, while in the quite corner on the left a wooden boat rocks on the water. From the rocks in the centre of the picture birds are descending and circling above the lake. The tension before the storm is accentuated by the sharp contrast between the highlighted and the shadowy parts of the landscape. The atmosphere of electrified air mirrors the mood and emotions of man; the painter’s wonder before an overwhelming grand scene is re-lived by the viewers.

Immediate source material for the oil painting was a watercolour scene of the lake from the same view, only that the work on paper is lighter, with a rainbow across the sky. Both versions depict one of the lakes below Mangart in the immediate vicinity of the tripoint of Italy, Austria and Slovenia.

Anton Karinger dedicated himself to painting only in the last decade of his life, after he retired from the military. He is considered one of the Romantic landscape painters and also had a great sense for the inner world of his contemporaries and was recognized as an excellent portraitist.

Fortunat Bergant (Mekinje near Kamnik, 1721 – Ljubljana, 1769): St Joseph, 1763
oil, canvas, 78 x 63 cm

Highlighted body of small Jesus in a dramatic pose stands out from the dark background, with its kind look directed at us. The naked Child covered with white drapery is pointing his little hand to a blooming lilly, the atribute of St Joseph and a symbol of purity. Also notable is his left sole, turned towards the viewer. To the left of it we see the child's and the parent's hands touching, giving the picture its central emotional emphasis. The direct connection of phyical shelter is enhanced by the love and grace seen in the face of the curly-haired stepfather. While we cannot see Joseph's eyes, we can feel complete parental devoion and love in his smile. This is the purity that allowed Joseph to take care of the Divine child.

Fortunat Bergant was among the most crucial artists of Baroque in Slovenian lands. This year we commemorate the 300th anniversary of Bergant's birth, so the Gallery is dedicating a monographic exhibition to him.

Zoran Mušič (Bukovica near Gorizia, 1909 – Venice, 2005)
Little Horses (Cavallini), (1949)
colour lithography, paper, P. 362 x 503 mm, L. 560 x 754 mm

Stylized little horses hoof in a small group across an unidentifiable landscape with grace and seemingly carefree, their rhythm lively and uniform. Bowing in the distance behind them is a hill in basic form, whose yellow colour radiates like a setting sun.  The outline of the bow repeats itself in the parasols hoovering above the silhouettes of the riders.

The horses, whose later multitudinous iterations became one of Mušič’s most recognizable motifs, reminded the painter of his childhood and youth, where his mind often returned to in the first decades after the end of the Second World War. Memories of lines of costermongers travelling across a desolate and sun-burnt Karst landscape crisscrossed with drywalls offered a safe haven after the indescribable experience of the concentration camp and also first steps towards a renewed humanity on its way to an unknown, yet better future.

Marija Auersperg Attems (Graz, 1816–1880)
Roses
oil, wood, 39.5 x 31.5 cm

On the table before us proudly stands an exquisite bouquet of old sorts of roses in different colours and tones, which were an integral part of contemporary garden. One of the flowers is lying in front of the vase and on it, we notice a beetle of metal green colour - a rose chafer, whose diet also includes rose blossoms. The small intruder unintentionally marred and desecrated the untouchable beauty of flowers, his presence being a quiet and natural reminder that outer beauty - like life itself - is momentary and fading; one can only search for eternity in the beauty of the soul.

Flower still lifes of Marija Auersperg Attems showcase veristic floral sorts, vivid colours and the painter’s considerable drawing skills. These motifs, like the works by other home-trained women painters, were a popular addition to contemporary burgher or noble home.