A short Historical Overview of Sculpture in Slovenia
From the earliest Romanesque reliefs through to the free-standing figures of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods, sculptural development in Slovenia was heavily influenced by German, Austrian, Hungarian and Bohemian culture in the east, and Friulian or, in the coastal area, Venetian culture in the west.
Early sculpture in Slovenia
A range of peripheral Roman decorative art has been unearthed at Emona (Ljubljana), Poetovia (Ptuj) and Celeia (Celje), including sculptures, tombstones, milestones, cemetery urns, mosaic fragments, altars and frescoes. The collection of the National Museum of Slovenia includes an important monumental sculpture of a stone lion. Indigenous figurative sculpture first emerged during the early Slavic period (8th and 9th centuries CE), an important early example being the stone relief on the façade of Hodiše Parish Church in Carinthia (late 8th century).
Following the arrival of Romanesque architecture in the late 10th century, relief sculpture proliferated, principally in the form of decorated stone portals and window panes, many of which were the work of itinerant masons from Lombardy. Important examples include the Romanesque chapel at Mali grad, surviving fragments of the 12th-century Romanesque palace at Cmurek Castle, and the earliest Romanesque section of the Chapel of St Martin (formerly St Venceslav) at Domanjševci in the Pomurje Region.
From the early 13th to the late 16th centuries, Gothic art and architecture flourished in Slovenia. In 1994–95 this period was completely reassessed in the 'Gothic in Slovenia' project, undertaken by the Department of Art History, University of Ljubljana and the National Gallery of Slovenia, which catalogued and studied Gothic religious and secular buildings, sculpture, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and other decorative arts in Slovenia. During this period all of the monastic orders went to great lengths to adorn their churches, cloisters, altars and tombs with carefully-crafted icons of the Gospel aimed at a largely illiterate public.
The sculptural art created by the Cistercians in Kostanjevica (1234) displayed Burgundian or Italian influences, while that of the Teutonic Order displayed Germanic characteristics, eg the relief Virgin and Child (c 1260) from the portal of the original Križanke Church, which was made in the workshop of the Leechkirche in Graz.
German and Italian sculptural influences remained dominant until the mid 14th century, when the mystic and expressive central European style of Bohemian sculpture reached the Slovene territories, subsequently merging with the 'Soft Style' of international gothic, as expressed in the stone sculpture in the church at Ptujska Gora.
Renaissance and Baroque
During the early Renaissance period (late 15th century) Gothic expression continued to dominate the decorative arts in the Slovene territories. Numerous workshops were established at this time. Particularly active during the second half of the 15th century was the Ljubljana sculpture workshop, the work of which was typified by a soft International Gothic style combined with realism. Some 50 preserved sculptures and fragments from this workshop have survived, including notably the standing Madonna and Child of around 1455, and St James Senior of Strahomer, from approximately the same date.
Workshops were also established in Škofja Loka, Kranj and the Littoral region; those in the latter were mainly influenced by South German, Carinthian or Italian (Tyrolian) sculptural language.
By the early 16th century, with the gradual introduction of northern realist principles from the Netherlands and Germany, sculptural works had acquired an intensified corporeality and a higher degree of realism in facial expression and drapery, as well as by a more accurate anatomical representation of their bodies. Outstanding sculptures of this period included the figures of Christ Crucified from Dramlje near Celje, St Peter from Radovljica, the Madonna and Child from Ptuj, and the Death of Virgin Mary from Bela peč in Carinthia, all of which date from the first quarter of the 16th century and are characterised by new Renaissance realism. By the early 16th century Late Gothic elements were combined with Renaissance features, although the subsequent Protestant Reformation brought a halt to sculptural development in the Slovene territories.
During the early 17th century there took place something of an artistic revival. Ljubljana in particular saw a significant resuscitation of artistic activity, thanks largely to Bishop Tomaž Hren, who commissioned numerous sculptors to carve decorative works in his churches. Throughout the 17th century sculptural development in the Slovene territories was mainly in wood, as in the high altar (1652) at Crngrob by Jurij Skarnos (1624–1659).
Baroque sculpture 'in movement' emerged in western Slovenia during the 18th century. Ljubljana played an important role in this development, but the most important artists were Italian, such as the sculptor Angelo Pozzo. Slovene masters such as Kusa and Mislej emerged at the same time, often hosting guests from Italy and later from Austria.
Francesco Robba (1698–1757) was born and trained in Venice but came to Ljubljana in 1716. Robba was allotted the most prestigious public and private commissions by ecclesiastical, aristocratic and bourgeois patrons and was undoubtedly the most important sculptor in marble of the Baroque period in the Alpine zone of south-eastern central Europe. His free-standing marble statues and reliefs are marked by technical virtuosity, a refined form and an emotionally expressive style. Robba did not succumb to the impact of the emerging classicism, which was urged upon Austrian sculpture by Georg Raphael Donner. North eastern Slovene sculpture meanwhile was influenced by German art and was mostly made of wood, as in the work of Josef Straub, Veit Koeniger and several local schools.
19th and early 20th century sculpture
Sculptural production ceased in the late 18th and early 19th centuries under the impact of Joseph II’s rule and the Napoleonic wars. Then in the second half of the 19th century the first public monuments to Slovene national figures were erected. The most eminent artist of this period is Franc Berneker (1874–1932), known to the general public as the first Slovene modern sculptor, who produced portraits, figural scenes and several public monuments (including the beautiful Primož Trubar monument in Ljubljana) that were realistic and influenced by the Secession. Public sculptural works by artists such as Alojzij Gangl (1859–1935) and Ivan Zajec (1869–1952) also date from this period.
From the 1920s new sculptural ideals of Expressionism were introduced by France Kralj (1895–1960), while Lojze Dolinar (1893–1970) worked in a realistic style largely influenced by Ivan Meštrović of Croatia.