The Patron᾿s Historized Image. Attems᾿ Family Portraits and Remp᾿s Self-Portrait in the Brežice (Rann) Castle

Abstract

The paper analyzes the family portraits of Ignaz Maria, Count of Attems (Ljubljana/Ger. Laibach, 15 August 1652–Graz, 13 December 1732), with his sons, and Maria Regina, Countess of Wurmbrand with her daughter and sons, painted in oil technique for the Great Hall in the Brežice Castle (Ger. Rann). The portraits have been kept at Schloss Eggenberg of the Landesmuseum Joanneum since 2010. They were painted by Franz Carl Remp (Radovljica/Ger. Radmannsdorf, 14 October 1674–Vienna, 23 September 1718), who depicted himself in fresco technique in full figure in a representative place in the center of the hall as the only person from the present. In the portrait, Ignaz Maria, who, according to archival sources, participated as an architect in the construction and rebuilding of his residences, is presented as an architect-creator and an architect-founder of the new Styrian family. A careful arrangement of historized portraits, with which the proud parents wanted to preserve for eternity the image of an artistically generous and ambitious family that prospers in peace and love, in connection to the painter’s self-portrait, is exceptional. Even though numerous possible sources for the paintings can be named, they served only as an inspiration for a unique work of art.