Baroque in Slovenia

Baroque is an art style that emerged in early 17th-century Rome before spreading across Europe, profoundly shaping the artistic image of present-day Slovenia too. The term originates from the Portuguese word "barocco", meaning a pearl with an irregular shape. Initially, it carried a negative connotation, describing anything twisted, overloaded or unusual. Both in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, the artistic expressions of the 17th and 18th centuries are highly diverse, but some shared characteristics include luxury, dynamism, dramatic contrasts between light and shadow, and a pronounced emotional charge.

The territory of present-day Republic of Slovenia was then divided into the Habsburg and Venetian domains. The larger portion, which fell within the Habsburg hereditary lands of Carniola, Styria, Carinthia, and Gorizia, belonged to Inner Austria that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Today's Prekmurje region lay outside the empire, but as part of the Kingdom of Hungary was a Habsburg territory nevertheless, closely related to adjoining Styria. On the other hand, Istrian coastal towns belonged to the Republic of Venice and hence were part of the Venetian art context. A strong influence of Venetian artists and their occasional presence can also be observed in the Gorizia region, as it bordered the Venetian region of Friuli.

The last major exhibitions on this period – Barok v Sloveniji (Baroque is Slovenia) and  Umetnost XVII. stoletja na Slovenskem (Seventeenth-Century Art in the Slovene Lands) – were organized in the National Gallery of Slovenia  more than half a century ago. Proceeding from later research, we are now able to offer the public a much more profound insight, also different in many ways, into 17th- and 18th-century art. It was a period when social, political and economic circumstances enabled a true golden age for arts, thanks to both ambitious patrons and artists, whether the local ones or those who immigrated from the broader space of Central Europe and the Italian peninsula.

The exhibition showcases over 170 carefully selected artworks created on or for the territory of present-day Slovenia during the 17th and 18th centuries. This period marked a significant artistic revival, filling the void left after the Middle Ages. Displayed on the first floor of the Narodni dom Palace (National Hall), the representative works provide an overview of painting and sculpture from the era of Re-Catholicization, when artworks still demonstrated the late-Renaissance and Mannerist styles, to the waning of the Baroque era, foreshadowing the emergence of Neoclassicism. The selected artworks are further enriched by prints and items of applied arts, adding depth to their exploration.

The exhibition delves into the Baroque artist's working methods and showcases the highlights of ecclesiastical art, characterized by monumental altarpieces and marble or richly polychrome wooden statues. It also features artworks that once adorned provincial, municipal and private secular buildings. This era was also distinguished by representative portraits of royalty and aristocracy, which, along with ancestor galleries, genre scenes, still lifes, landscapes and history paintings, formed essential components of Baroque collections. Ceiling and wall Baroque paintings are represented through selected surviving fresco fragments, enlarged photographs, and a multimedia projection of painting decorations in both ecclesiastical and secular spaces. However, important Baroque monuments in Ljubljana remain at their original locations, so, for a comprehensive understanding of the period, it is advisable to visit them in situ.

The exhibits are works by renowned masters, who were active in the nearby art centres or gained recognition locally. Coming from the Italian area are Giulio Quaglio of Lombardy, Venetian Francesco Fontebasso and the Koper/Capodistria-born Roman painter Francesco Trevisani. Central Europe was the home of the Swabian sculptor Leonhard Kern, the Vienna court painters Martino Altomonte and Martin van Meytens the Younger as well as Johann Lucas Kracker and Kremser Schmidt. The image of local Baroque was influenced in particular by the painters such as Franz Karl Remp, Franz Ignaz Flurer, Valentin Metzinger, Franc Jelovšek, Fortunat Bergant, Anton Cebej, Franc Mihael Strauss, and Anton Jožef Lerchinger, and by the sculptors Joseph Straub, Veit Königer and Joseph Holzinger, in addition to the greatest, Francesco Robba.

10 April – 9 November 2025
National Gallery of Slovenia
Cankarjeva 20
1000 Ljubljana