Projects / Programmes
ART IN SLOVENIA AT A CULTURAL CROSSROADS
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.09.00 |
Humanities |
Art history |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.04 |
Humanities |
Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music) |
Art, art history, art heritage, iconography, patronage, migrations, digital corpora, art topography, art reception, art propaganda and representation, collecting, provenance, art market, art and politics, the Middle Ages, the Modern Period, the 19th-21st century
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
April 26, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
24 |
61 |
58 |
2.42 |
| Scopus |
76 |
142 |
114 |
1.5 |
Researchers (17)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The research of the programme team at the France Stele Institute of Art History of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (UIFS ZRC SAZU) builds on the contents that had already been researched during the previous programme periods and systematically upgraded ever since 1999. In the new programme period, these contents will be significantly enhanced and extended. During the 2015-2021 period, research took place in all the envisioned areas. Simultaneously, new fields of research were introduced, ensuring that the predicted results were achieved in their entirety and even significantly exceeded. All of the planned contents were finalised. During the research in almost all areas, many new aspects and topics have revealed themselves that we will focus on during the next programme period. Art research will encompass the time from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and include all art genres. Geographically, they will cover the entire Slovenian territory. Art monuments will be explored in the broad European and international context. The studies will encompass analyses of the socio-political circumstances and their impact on visual arts, overlooked art phenomena, and underresearched or completely unresearched topics. The programme research objectives are introducing new - especially interdisciplinary or disregarded - art historical methodological approaches; expanding the knowledge and understanding of artworks; placing the examined monuments in the European and broader international space more precisely; upgrading partial research; and analysing the artworks from the viewpoint of their function. In the new programme period, the contents will be expanded significantly. Comparatively, they will include a significantly more extensive international space, and they will be much more systematic and interconnected. As such, they will allow for an overview of the development of various artistic phenomena over the centuries and a variety of analyses of the transfers of artistic influences. They will touch upon various areas comprising five closely interrelated and internationally most topical issues: iconography, art patronage, provenance studies, art migrations, (digital) corpora and collections. The programme group includes young researchers at the beginning of their careers, researchers who are gradually asserting themselves in the art historical profession, as well as older internationally renowned researchers. These include the three most successful art history researchers in Slovenia according to the ARRS methodology. Another three programme team researchers are ranked among the ten best art history researchers in Slovenia.
Significance for science
The programme team's researches contribute significantly to the development of the discipline of art history in the wider European territory. The research into various aspects of medieval art has filled lacunas in the knowledge of the medieval artistic heritage while building firm basis for further research into the various phenomena and their social and representative functions. Monasteries - the medieval centres of the economic, intellectual, cultural, and artistic progress - represent an essential research segment. Monastic networks allowed the best artists to travel around Europe and spread the most advanced artistic achievements. Due to the interrelation between monasteries and medieval European aristocratic elite, it is imperative that the monuments at the periphery of artistic development - within which the Slovenian lands belonged in the Middle Ages - are comprehensively researched as well. Only by knowing the entire picture including these monuments, the significance and development of the medieval arts in the European territory can be scientifically evaluated. As the programme group research touches upon many other areas as well, the new discoveries are of utmost importance for the development and progress of many other humanities and even social sciences. The research into the Modern Period - much of it pioneering - has brought crucial finding regarding many desiderata and filled several gaps of knowledge. The research related to the Slovenian Littoral region should be especially underlined, as due to the inclusion of this territory in the Italian state, it had not started until after World War II (more systematically even as late as in the 1980s). The exploration of Nova Gorica's urban and architectural development has decisively contributed to the understanding and evaluation of the modernist heritage of this city and to the establishment of the methodology for further research into the urban morphology of similar settlements. The examination of the influence of imperial ambassadors from the ranks of the Gorizia nobility on the Central European architecture, the spreading of new architectural models, and migrations of architects who did not rely on imperial commissions represents a completely new field of research - not only from the viewpoint of the Slovenian art history, but even worldwide. Apart from the exploration of the Early Modern Period collections, we are introducing a new combined approach to researching provenance, transfers, collecting, and commissioning in this territory and during this period, which aims to be interdisciplinary. This has been made possible by the close cooperation with historians and architects. The reseraches into collectors, buyers, and owners enable further studies into art traders, agents and intermiedieries, thus for significant progress in art market research. A pioneering work is taking place in the context of the 19th, 20th, and 21st-century art analyses. Some of the studies regarding restitution, visual propaganda, and the first female architects, conservators, designers and engineers have been pioneering. They have filled many gaps in the state of research in each of these fields and represent the foundations for further work. Many archival collections have been reviewed and newly interpreted. The inquiries into female architects, conservators and designers in Slovenia and Europe encourage further research into female artists in other fields of art like sculpture, painting and photography. The programme group research has also focused on the poorly researched period of the first decades after World War II and resulted in the first detailed analyses of certain artworks that had earlier been completely unknown and unresearched. The realisations related to the role of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia as an art commissioner are particularly important, as the 1950s state art politics have been insufficiently explored, though this knowledge represents the crucial foundations for the insight into the post-war artistic (and cultural) production. These research results are not only important for art history but also for many related fields (history, ethnology, architecture, cultural heritage protection, etc.). Topographical research, which represents the foundation for art heritage studies in Slovenia, is significant at the national as well as wider European level. In Slovenia, it has been systematically conducted exclusively within the UIFS ZRC SAZU programme. The fundamental biographical research into the Slovenian artists and art historians has entailed the verification of the existing and the introduction of novel reliable data. The team's research into patronage, iconography, and aristocratic representation has been highly valued within European research community. With perfected methodology, it contributes to the understanding of the functions and iconographic contexts of artworks in the secular and ecclesiastical spaces and places them more appropriately into the wider European context. All research draws on archival sources, including artistic, social, historical, societal, political, and theological aspects, thus crucially contributing to further development of art history. The model of the nuanced analyses of the commissioners' motives contributes significantly to the other humanities as well, especially to cultural, economic, and ecclesiastical history, theology, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology. The in-depth analyses of art monuments enable improved evaluation and treatment, thus providing a vital basis for effective heritage protection. Moreover, results are highly relevant for education (especially at the university level), tourism, and heritage protection planning. By publishing original novel contributions and presenting findings on national and international conferences, the research team resumes a relevant position within the international research community.
Significance for the country
The studies conducted within the programme are of high significance for Slovenian socio-economic and cultural development. They contribute significantly to the nuanced and optimal comprehension, and evaluation of the medieval, modern, and contemporary artistic heritage and inform the appropriate decision-making process of the relevant bodies and institutes in the field of cultural heritage protection regarding monument interventions. The planning of restorations, presentations, revitalisations, and functionality can only be successful when it is based on in-depth research, as confirmed with the analysis carried out by the programme team. Original scientific studies reveal the European importance of art monuments in the Slovenian territory, contributing to the awareness of their broader impact and specific nature. This has a direct impact on the increased popularity of these monuments, which contributes significantly to development of tourism. The innovative inclusion of art monuments in the sustainable and cultural tourism offer and the development of new tourist services and products contribute to the preservation and effective management and revitalisation of heritage as well as to the regional and rural development. It allows for the establishment of innovative itineraries that make use of scientifically verified facts and high-quality photography to guide the visitors around art monuments that are often not widely known, thus introducing them to the Slovenian artistic heritage in the European and international context. The itineraries are consistently accompanied by online applications with additional linked contents and interpretations, representing a top-notch tourist service. The research results importantly upgrade the digital (photographic) documentation databases of the Slovenian artistic heritage. Thus, the programme team target contributes to the development of the so-called digital humanities, which bear the potential of becoming the primary tool for art historical research and cultural heritage preservation. New discoveries that place monuments in the European art context, crucially impact the development of the national cultural identity that stems from knowing and understanding the past and present of this area. The ongoing studies into female architects, designers, conservators, and artists contribute importantly to gender equality, while the results of the research into art after World War II allow us to understand the complexity of artworks in this period. The research results and their dissemination also influence the broadest public understanding and awareness of the social role of art and significance of the cultural heritage, which is also vital because the research encompasses all art monuments in the entire Slovenian territory. The teams reserach results are promptly disseminated in the educational programmes of Slovenian schools and universities, especially at the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor. Thus, the results are transferred directly to the university environment, implemented in art history study programmes at all levels of higher education, and used for upgrading the higher-education curriculum. They are communicated to art history students through mentorships as well. The expert monographs published in the series Umetnine v žepu (Art in the Pocket) collection as well as other expert publications, the expert scientific qurterly Umetnostna kronika (Art Quarterly), digital collections, consultations, round tables, summer schools, exhibitions with expert public leadership, public lectures, and other events aimed at the popularisation and education in the fields related to the artistic heritage are important for the Slovenian socio-economic and cultural development. All these events and expert publications are concepted in such a manner as to bring together the past scientific realisations about art monuments with the reflections regarding the modern social challenges. The programme researches provide fundamental basis for museum and gallery presentations thereby increasing the education and living standard of the population. The studies of castle heritage and furnishings in the Early Modern Period have a profound impact on the awareness of significance of the preservation of movable cultural heritage - particularly the collections that keep being modified due to their changing ownership. In this regard, the contacts with private collectors and the monitoring of the situation in the international art market by searching for the objects originating in Slovenia need to be underlined as well. Furthermore, the programme group members regularly cooperate with national and international experts and institutions (e.g. line ministries, local communities, monument protection institutes, galleries, museums, archives, research institutes) and owners of artworks and monuments (e.g. monasteries, dioceses, and castle owners). The art topography that is also being established in the framework of the programme group belongs among the fundamental tasks of Slovenian art history. It is of key importance for the protection of the cultural heritage as well as the Slovenian national cultural identity. Moreover, the monumental book series Novi slovenski biografski leksikon (New Slovenian Biographical Lexicon), highly relevant for the strengthening of the Slovenian cultural identity, is among the primary tasks of the Slovenian art historical research. Intense international cooperation, establishing contacts with the leading experts in the topics under consideration, publications in international scientific monographs, and participation at international conferences contribute to recognisability of Slovenia and to its scientific reputation, and enable the inclusion of the Slovenian space into the international scientific discourse in the field of art history and humanities.
