Acta historiae artis Slovenica

A Curved Vitis or a Pair of Twisted Ropes?

Katarina Šmid — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article examines the tombstone of the naval centurion Liccaeus, which was discovered in the village of Osor (Apsorus) on the island of Cres. According to the inscription, it appears that a public site was allocated for the monument, indicating the honorand’s significance to the local community. Liccaeus is depicted wearing a tunic and a sagum, but the most unusual feature is the object he holds in his hand. This object has often been interpreted as a rope tied into a knot, similar to those used for mooring ships. Little is known about the appearance of the command staff, vitis, that was a distinctive symbol of also naval centurions. However, depictions on Ravenna tombstones from the Early Imperial period which feature an object similar to knot suggest that, during this era, the vitis for naval centurions may have been represented differently. Given the absence of any attributes on the tombstone that would directly associate the deceased with his rank, it is possible that Liccaeus is holding a vitis, which, by its appearance, could also refer to his maritime skills.

The Border as a Space of Exchange in the 18th Century

Dubravka Botica — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

In Central Europe, borders are not solid barriers but are rather fluid. Central Europe is a deeply connected cultural space of intensive exchange (M. Csáky) in which artistic production is shaped by densely intertwined mutual contacts and influences between individual countries and regions. This is particularly visible in the activities of large architectural, painting and sculptural workshops in the 18th century, which had a wide network of collaborators throughout the area. A key role in the rapid and far-reaching transfer of artistic solutions was played by the commissioners of artworks, both ecclesiastical and secular, strongly connected by a dense network of contacts that did not stop at (today’s national) borders. This paper studies the example of the activities of the architectural workshop of Joseph Hueber from Graz (1715–1787) in historical Styria, present-day Austria, and Lower Styria (present-day Slovenia) and northwestern Croatia to explore the method and scope of the workshop’s work, as well as the reconstruction of contacts between commissioners from the ranks of the Styrian, Hungarian and Croatian nobility.

Jožef Breznik’s Collection of Aristocratic Portraits in Kog and its Core Component, the Galeria Dienerspergiana

Boris Golec — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

In 1934, the National Museum in Ljubljana purchased a collection of thirty-nine noble portraits from Jožef Breznik, a landowner at Kog near Ormož. The paintings were part of the estate of Antonia Kofler, née Baroness Dienersperg, the former owner of Breznik’s property. Half of the portraits came from the Dienersperg family from Dobrna near Celje and the other half from the Barons Adelstein from the Dobrnica Mansion near Dobrna, where Antonia’s grandmother came from. In about 1832, Antonia’s grandfather, Baron Franz Xaver Dienersperg, the owner of the Dobrna and Dobrnica mansions, added uniform inscriptions to the portraits at Dobrna. These were the sixteen portraits of Styrian and Carniolan Dienerspergs and two portraits of their relatives from the Hohenwart and Strassberg families, which were given the collective name Galeria Dienerspergiana. A single painter is signed, the hitherto little-known Andreas Peric. One of the earlier oil paintings was believed to be the portrait of Regina Constantia von Dienersperg, the long-forgotten youngest daughter of the Carniolan polymath Johann Weikhard von Valvasor.

The Collection of Tapestries in the Counts of Attems’ Palais in Graz

Renata Komić Marn — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article presents new data and findings on the collection of tapestries kept by the Counts of Attems in their palace in Graz until the early 1960s. The current whereabouts of the majority of these tapestries are unknown. Based on an analysis of the individual, constantly changing contexts and the developmental dynamics of the art and other collections in the Palais Attems as well as the individual preferences and desires of the individual owners, the study focuses on establishing the identity of the commissioners or owners of the tapestries and on reconstructing the contexts of their installation in different periods. The analysis of the individual tapestries, of which photographic images are presented for the first time, is limited to tapestries created in the 17th century, though the research questions relate to the entire collection of tapestries of the Counts of Attems.

The Oeuvre of Architect Joseph Hasslinger (1807–1845)

Polona Vidmar — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

This article is the first comprehensive study of the oeuvre of the architect Joseph Hasslinger, whose works are preserved in Slovenia, Austria and Ukraine. Previous knowledge of Hasslinger’s work is revised and supplemented on the basis of his application for a professorship at the School of Architecture of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts from 1842, and his later works are studied on the basis of preserved plans and references in contemporary written sources. The influence on Hasslinger’s work of Professor Pietro Nobile as well as the Italian Renaissance palaces and Munich contemporary buildings that Hasslinger studied during his study trip are highlighted. Among the most important clients of plans for churches, public buildings for representative, administrative, medical and health resort purposes as well as residential buildings were the provincial estates of Styria, the nobility and the bourgeoisie of Graz and Maribor.

The Former Pedagogical Academy Building in Maribor

Franci Lazarini — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article focuses on the building of the former Pedagogical Academy in Maribor, which now houses its successor institutions: the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Arts, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Constructed between 1975 and 1978 based on the designs of architect Branko Kocmut, the building represents one of the finest examples of Slovenian modernist school architecture. Nevertheless, it has remained largely overlooked in previous architectural research. The article discusses the building from both architectural and functional perspectives, with special emphasis on its notable qualities – some of which have been partially obscured by later, unregulated alterations.

Bodies, Biopolitical Critique, and Female Agency in Contemporary Bio(medical) Artworks

Sonja Jankov — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The paper investigates the societal and critical potential of bio(medical) artistic practices by focusing on the ways in which female artists use bodies and living cells as means of biopolitical critique. Using an ecofeminist and posthuman feminist theoretical framework, the author discusses selected bio(medical) works by female contemporary artists that contain living human cells or in which they connect with other species. The paper shows how these works are critical towards many socio-historical and biopolitical issues, such as discrimination associated with blood and blood lineages, the killing of indigenous communities, ecocide, biobanks, racial and gender-based superiority and dominance, human authority over other-than human and more-than-human beings. Such artistic practices are of great relevance for gender studies and studies of artistic research in bioculture and technoscience, where their interdisciplinary nature changes the representation and understanding of bodies in the arts and everyday culture.