Between Uniformity and Uniqueness

Depictions of Benefactors of Stična Cistercian Abbey

Abstract

The article focuses on the largest surviving ensemble of portraits of lay dignitaries from Slovenian monasteries, i.e. depictions of the benefactors from Stična abbey. It draws particular attention to their typology, comparisons with similar surviving works from (Inner) Austrian monasteries as well as their models and written sources. Full-figure life-size depictions of Leopold III, Duke of Austria and his wife Viridis (National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana), hitherto ascribed to Ferdinand Stainer, reveal strong parallels with a series of six benefactors of Viktring abbey by Josef Ferdinand Fromiller, now in the Carinthian State Museum in Klagenfurt, and can be, based on Fromiller’s benefactor drawing, which is identical to Leopold III, attributed to Fromiller. Similarly, comparative analysis of ten oval portraits of the provincial princes and benefactors of Stična (in the National Gallery and the National Museum of Slovenia) reveals that they were also most probably made in Fromiller’s workshop, closely following illustrations in portrait books, which are identified here. Moreover, the chronicle of Stična ab- bey by Paolo Puzel dating to 1719, has been identified as the source of the inscriptions on the lower part of the oval portraits.