Projects / Programmes
Visual Representations of the Nobiliy: Early Modern Art Patronage in the Styria Province
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.09.00 |
Humanities |
Art history |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H310 |
Humanities |
Art history |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.04 |
Humanities |
Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music) |
representation, patronage, nobility, Styria, secular art, religious art, aristocratic residences, collecting practices, painting collections
Researchers (11)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Hitherto no thorough study on aristocratic representation in early modern period has been made in Slovenia and in the territory of the historical Styria. Although nobility had a crucial role in development of the province, the patterns they practiced as patrons, commissioners and collectors and their representation by means of architecture and fine art in the provincial context as well as in the context of the Habsburg Empire have not been researched comprehensively. For the purposes of innovativeness and detailed study, a significant part of this project will focus on a circle of noblemen (predominantly Counts of Attems, Gaisruck, Herberstein, Khisl, Leslie, Sauer, Princes of Eggenberg, and Maximilian Bishop Gandolf Khuenburg as representative of church aristocracy) who between the 16th and 18th century excelled with high quality and large number of ambitious commissions and with a frequent use of architecture, fine and decorative arts for representation in secular and religious context. The manners of artistic representation will be studied thoroughly as well as mechanisms of its execution, and its social role. Due to specific political, social and economic reasons, Styrian noble families that possessed estates mostly in the present-day Slovenia have not been researched comprehensively, and their surviving legacies, such as manors and art collections, are in relatively poor state of preservation. Therefore, project results will be of crucial importance also for increasing awareness of significance of cultural heritage and its preservation. Research will focus also on analysis of relations between historical events (Ottoman wars, Thirty Years' War, Reformation, Recatholisation, and a relatively peaceful 18th century), political iconography, propaganda and artistic representation, on the role of education and its effects on the activities of individual patrons and collectors, on thorough study of familiar, political, diplomatic and other international networks, relationships with role models (such as the House of Habsburg, Louis XIV of France, and other representatives of high nobility) and political circumstances. Studies will be based on archival documents (such as probate inventories, estate inventories, itineraries and records of commissioners' social status), other written sources (chronicles, historiographies, memorial and dedication texts), and visual material (prints, drawings, photographs, field documentation on the appearance of towns, mostly Graz, Maribor, Ptuj, Celje and Slovenska Bistrica, aristocratic town palaces and country residences and church institutions. Based on comparative analyses, studies will focus on the role of education, knowledge, personal devotion, social status, military and court services, practices of commissioning and collecting, manners of introducing visual representation into urban centres and landscape, as well as reception of representation, i.e. how commissioners formed or acquired certain social status and eternal memory through art. Comparative analysis will significantly contribute to pinpointing common early modern strategies of representation, specific practices of individual representatives of nobility and the role and significance of art in the lives of ambitious noblemen and noblewomen.
The project team comprises researchers of the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor and of France Stele Institute of Art History. The team will closely cooperate with the Institute of Art History of the University of Graz and other researchers who have dealt with art representation (e.g. from Vienna, Prague and several German universities). Research results will be published as scientific articles, monographs and presented to wider public by means of exhibitions, lectures, conferences, summer schools and openly accessible web publications. A special attention will be dedicated to the participation of doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and students.
Significance for science
The significance of this project for the development of the discipline and science has several aspects. The project will bring fundamental new findings in the field of art history. It will contribute to more comprehensive understanding of early modern art in Styria and neighbouring regions. Project findings will be of significant value for other humanistic disciplines (especially for history, anthropology, theology) and other fields of research into cultural, national and political past. The project researches will enable evaluation and enable the Slovenian artistic heritage to be more effectively placed within European context. One of the objectives of this project is to establish a leading research team for this field of research into representation, which will include researchers of all generations, including senior researches with long-year experience, junior researchers at the beginning of their careers, such as postdoctoral researchers, doctoral students, as well as graduate students, whose work will be supervised by the established research team. By strengthening and promoting cross-generational cooperation, knowledge and experience exchange, we will include younger generations of art historians in the research work. The project theme opens numerous opportunities for research cooperation with other European countries. Above all, we will upgrade the cooperation with Art History Institute of the University of Graz. In cooperation with Graz University three summers schools will be organised in 2015, 2016 and 2017 addressing the role of commissioners in Styrian art. Students of the Department of Art History of Graz University and Department of Art History of Maribor University will participate at the summer school under mentorship of project team members and professors from Graz University. This form of education, which aims at disseminating research results directly in the study program, we will encourage students' interests for this theme and for art historical research. Emphasizing the importance of fundamental knowledge of monuments in the field, significance of archival sources and relevant literature, the students will be encouraged towards innovative research methodologies.
Significance for the country
The results will be important and directly applicable in the preservation of cultural heritage and in the protection and presentation of cultural monuments and art collections. They will also have a great significance for tourism and education. Although, as a rule, fundamental research in humanities does not have an immediate economic value, the inclusion of castles (which are extremely endangered in Slovenia) will result in a greater awareness of their owners, managers and users. The findings will be directly applicable in the heritage protection and restoration services. Expert and popular-scientific publications will be available for tourist marketing and promotion (such as series Art in the Pocket). Project team will cooperate with owners of castles as to assist them to provide better conditions for the castle heritage in their local environment. The research team will increase awareness of the significance of representational buildings for tourism and local communities. The project will be of crucial social significance also for all the three levels of the university study.
Most important scientific results
Interim report,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Interim report,
final report
