Works of art and museum pieces form the stock of galleries and museums. It is the duty of the employees of these institutions to preserve, safeguard and study them. They are exhibited in permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, to give both pleasure and instruction. Catalogues of collections — how many are there in Slovenia? – are a matter of course in national institutions all over the world. They are reprinted and supplemented at regular intervals. Up to the present we had not had publications of this kind.
Old and more recent catalogues of collections – in particular those from before World War I – provided only a text, lists of works and perhaps explanations, data of various kinds and bibliography. Some of them are enlivened by reproductions, in the majority of cases of the most interesting items. There are catalogues in two or more volumes, where the first volume contains the text, and the second reproductions. Then there are illustrated catalogues which present works of art in large format, but sometimes also in very small, almost postage-stamp size reproductions. Such catalogues do not give very much data. Usually we get the name of the artist and the dates of his birth and death. If the editors are generous, they also mention where he was born and where he died, the title of the work, and if we are in luck, also when it was produced, the technique, the size and the inventory number. In recent time many people jump with joy when they see colour reproductions and they tend to be a selling point for catalogues, despite the fact that the colours are often distorted.
The great international collections treat themselves to specialised catalogues: according to the period (a catalogue of mediaeval art for example), the artists’ nationality and school (Dutch and Flemish painters), donors (The Lehmann Collection in the Metropolitan Museum) and similar categories.
Galleries which produce catalogues of collections and guides to collections in languages other than their own provide a valuable service. Guides tell the visitor or reader a little about the most important wings, departments, rooms, individual works of art and pieces in the gallery or museum. The introduction usually mentions when the gallery or museum and the collections were established, also included are enthusiastic words about mostly still living benefactors, to whom the institutions are in any way indebted, above all of course for financial support in the production of the catalogue and the mounting of the collections.
At the highest level of catalogues of collections are comprehensive catalogues, which cover all the material that is all the works of art on exhibition or in the depots (e.g. the catalogue of paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam).
The second director of the National Gallery, Dr. Karel Dobida (Kranj 1896–Graz 1964) was instrumental in the publication of a modest book on the collection Vodnik po umetnostnih zbirkah Narodne galerije v Ljubljani: I: Umetnost srednjega veka na Slovenskem [Guide to the Art Collections of the National Gallery in Ljubljana: I: The Art of the Middle Ages in Slovenia] which appeared in 1956. This guide, which was actually a catalogue of the collection, was written by Dr. Emilijan Cevc in a rather more exhaustive form than was customary for normal guides. It provides quite extensive data on well-known and anonymous artists, a detailed classification of the art works, and a list of bibliography, the introduction presents a condensed survey of mediaeval painting and sculpture in Slovenia.
A year later, in 1957, Dr. France Stele wrote an introductory historical survey for the Vodnik po umetnostnih zbirkah Narodne galerije v Ljubljani: II: Umetnost baroka na Slovenskem [Guide to the Art Collections of the National Gallery in Ljubljana: II: The Art of the Baroque in Slovenia]. Melita Stele provided the catalogue part, which gave biographies of the artists and listed the literature about them. This time only the titles of the works, their size, provenance and inventory numbers were given, while at the end was a short overview of the literature on Baroque art in Slovenia. There were no descriptions of the works. The guide covered sculpture, paintings, drawings and prints from the permanent collection of the National Gallery and works which, due to lack of space, had been put into storage – where some of them have remained to this day - although they form the basis of the earlier art in Slovenia. Both catalogues were also published in French. It was characteristic of the times that these publications had only very few, but good, black and white reproductions. The Baroque guide was also a catalogue rather than a guide.
In 1958 Karel Dobida, set out to produce a text for a real Guide to the National Gallery. This included the history of the gallery and a short survey of the works of art in the whole of the permanent collection from the Middle Ages to artists born before the 1900. This guide also appeared in French and English.
In 1961 the Mladinska knjiga publishing house brought out Dobida’s Sprehod po Narodni galeriji [A Walk through the National Gallery] in its series »Knjižnica: Priroda in ljudje« [Library: Nature and People]. This series was primarily addressed to young readers, but it was also useful to lovers of art and nature and to teachers – in short, readers of all ages, since the texts were of course written by authorities on the subjects.
Dobida hoped that it would be possible to continue the series of guides (catalogues) for the gallery: the third volume was to have presented the art of the 19th century and the fourth the 20th century. After his death in 1964 such guide-catalogues were always on the programme, and they still are today, but a multitude of temporary exhibitions and various events – including some not concerning the gallery or art at all – prevented systematic research into at least the material permanently on exhibition. Our only consolation was that the knowledge acquired in the course of the work on some of the exhibitions and the results published in those catalogues would be useful for the production of the long-awaited »real« catalogues of the collections of the National Gallery.
What should these »real« catalogues of the collections be like? They should include all material permanently on exhibition, which should be in chronological order, with a selection of the very best works, which are a feast for the eyes and not only for the intellect. There should be reproductions of all the art works. Readers should enjoy reading them, gain new knowledge, marvel, and remember things they once knew or saw. Above all, catalogues should not put people to sleep.
The guiding principle for the production of this catalogue of European paintings in the permanent collection of the National Galleryis the same as it was for the catalogue of European Painters in Slovenian Collections, Ljubljana 1993. The aim is to give visitors to the gallery - whether they be learned, thirsty for knowledge or simply accidentally there - short, concise and accurate information about the painter and his life and work. Beside the biographies is a column in small print giving the latest literature on the artists. Then come the titles of the paintings, and since the motifs of some of these are taken from ancient or biblical stories, literary sources are given in small print below. If the iconographical motif was mentioned by Andor Pigler in the only handbook on baroque themes, Barockthemen I and II, Budapest 1956, this author is also indicated. The same holds for the only comprehensive Slovenian book on the subject of the Virgin Mary – Lev Menaše’s Marija v slovenski umetnosti, [The Virgin Mary in Slovenian Art], Celje 1994.
The painting technique, size and signature of the artist are followed by information on the state of preservation of the picture, which is usually good. The condition of the paintings before it was »good« can be found in the descriptions in the catalogues of the exhibitions from 1989 and 1993. The artists’ signatures and the datings on the paintings are reproduced. The year of restoration and the name of the restorer are also included.
The provenance of a work is an honourable pedigree, which often increases its value and importance, since it often points to a connection with distinguished former owners, collectors, generous donors or ordinary people in various walks of life, of all ages and nationalities. Beside the honourable pedigrees there is also one of a different nature – e.g. the Federal Collecting Centre – which was the source of quite a lot of art works, which were simply delivered to the National Gallery. – The location of the paintings is given in square brackets, offices in various institutions, where the paintings were temporarily hung, also in corridors, above radiators, above electric cookers where coffee was brewed, and the like – until suitable premises could be found for the collection of European masters.
The catalogue of the present one hundred and fifty-five works of art could not have been compiled in such a relatively short time had not many of the paintings been treated previously in the catalogues of European painters from the years 1983, 1989 and 1993. As an exception, a small mediaeval wooden casket with carved bone panels (Cat. No. 155) is also exhibited among the paintings.
Every one of the catalogue units has been reviewed, many of them were expanded. The old literature on the individual paintings and their journeys to exhibitions has been supplemented with the latest data and new knowledge and discoveries; there are also some corrections. The bibliography and the data on exhibitions show how our paintings have finally also come to life, how they travel the world and attract the interest of foreign researchers, who can no longer ignore them. Fifteen additional works have been researched and are presented here for the first time.
The artists and their works are classified according to nationality and schools. Nineteenth and twentieth century paintings are covered in one chapter. The artists are arranged by generations, that is in chronological order according to date of birth, anonymous masters according to the approximate time of their activity.
The world really is just a single country. Eberhart Keilhau, called Monsu Bernardo, was born in Helsingor in Denmark, where he received his first training. His father was a German painter who had fled to Denmark. Monsu Bernardo undertook further studies »abroad« in Holland, with Rembrandt in Amsterdam. There he adopted the Dutch manner. Then he went to Italy, where he was active for thirty-six years. He worked in Venice, Bergamo and Rome, where he died in 1687. Beside Dutch features there are also Italian elements in his style. How can we classify him? What was he? He was so successful in Italy that it never even entered his head to consider going back to the North. Studies of Italian art – honi soit qui mal y pense – include Keilhau, called Monsu Bernardo. Carl Ruthart, Melchior Roos, Karl Henrici and others are Germans in German surveys, in Italian surveys they are found among the Italians, but this »are found« is not meant in a negative sense, at least not in the majority of cases. An excellent way out, although it is above all also a historical truth, is the concept of the »Central European painter«, where we can include Hungarians, Czechs, Slovenians, »real« Austrians and other inhabitants of the old Austro-Hungarian empire and, if we do not look too carefully, also various »real« Germans, who were active in the Austrian empire. Discussions on European painters, for example Almanach, draw attention to the difficulty and even senselessness of the attempts to define what is »ours« and what – as we used to call it – »foreign«, European. Almanach brought the Flemish and Italian manner of painting to Slovenia, but he was also susceptible to the influence of the German and Central European area, which includes the Carniola of the time, which is today part of Slovenia. It is only right and proper that at least one of Almanach’s works is exhibited in the permanent collection of the art of Slovenia in the old building of the National Gallery (The Card Players I, Cat. No. 94), while four are among the European masters.
Big nations have adopted the art of foreign-born masters and include them in surveys of their art (the French adopted Italians, the Italians Flemish painters, Dutchmen, etc.), because such artists, who lived among them for many years, absorbed the influence of the new environment, or vice versa: they enriched the host country with the style of their homeland and their own personal style (e.g. the Flemish enriched the Italians, etc.). This is also the case with Almanach and Metzinger in Slovenia. The painter Francesco Caucig/Kavčič is another example – he was of Slovenian origin, born in Austria, where he was for many years professor and director of the Academy in Vienna, although he was trained mainly in Italy and retained the Roman Neo-classicist style, which includes the influence of French painters schooled in Rome, all his life. Any problems with regard to where some painters have been classified can be solved by reference to the alphabetical index of artists.
Narodna galerija - National Gallery of Slovenia
The National Gallery was established as an association on 18 September 1918, at a time when, as the newspapers reported, the guns were still echoing on the Isonzo front. It was established by Slovenians interested in the arts, nationally conscious Slovenians from various walks of life, both rich and poor, who had a clear intellect, were full of enthusiasm and prepared to make sacrifices. In the second paragraph of the regulations of the National Gallery Association they wrote: »The purpose of the association is the establishment, development, maintenance and preservation of a Slovenian public art gallery, that is, collections of paintings, sculpture, graphic art and architectural masterpieces by artists of Slovenian descent, both of the modern period and from older times. Nor is the art of other artists excluded.«
The question: »Where do your art works come from?« is often raised.
In the old inventory book of the National Gallery, which was begun before World War II, we see that after the plaster casts of ancient sculptures which Izidor Cankar ordered from the Louvre and paid for out of his own pocket, the first of the paintings by European masters to be registered was a mediaeval panel, The Nativity (Cat. No. 85), by a Styrian painter ca. 1435 entered as No. 67. This panel had been transferred to the National Gallery from the National Museum in Ljubljana in 1934. This was not the first work by a European master which the National Gallery acquired; as early as 1930 it had purchased part of the Strahl collection from Stara Loka, and in 1932 the Maribor Provincial Committee passed on works of art from the spas at Dobrna and Rogaška Slatina. It was a time of great Slovenian national consciousness, people were generous and there was considerable intellectual power in the country. We must show what we are and where we belong by our knowledge, our behaviour and our respect for human principles. This will enable us to rise or fall to our rightful place.
So where do the pictures by European painters in the permanent collection of the National Gallery come from and how were they acquired? Through purchases, donations, bequests, loans and, from 1948 onwards, from government premises and depots, from around 1951 onwards also from the »legacy« of the disbanded Federal Collecting Centre, which had come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education in 1948.
The Collection of Eduard and Karl Ritter von Strahl
From 1920 onwards, France Stele, art historian, conservator and later university professor, was active in attempts to save one of the richest art collections in Slovenian land, that of Eduard and Karl Ritter von Strahl in Stara Loka. In this he was supported by the administrator of the National Gallery, Ivan Zorman (Ljubljana 1889–Ljubljana 1969), who was later to become its first director. On 4 October 1929 Karl von Strahl made a will before the diocesan notary Števo Šink. In this, his last will, the last member of the Strahl family provided that the Ethnographic Museum (he had the National Museum in mind) and the National Gallery should be permitted to buy everything they needed to complete their collections from his legacy on preferential terms. »Preferential terms« meant three-quarters of the market price. The assessment for the auction of the collection was made by Ivan Zorman, the classical archaeologist Dr. Balduin Saria and Dr. Izidor Cankar. The legal settlement was ideally assisted by Dr. Janko Polec, a jurist, who subsequently also provided great assistance in the publication of the list of art works, the biographies of the Strahls and other important data of a cultural and historical nature. The National Gallery first chose 90 paintings, and four more at the auction itself. The National Museum chose 135 objets d’art and paintings, the Ethnographic Museum 75 pieces and books. Dušan Srnec, the first Slovenian ban (governor), provided the funds required.
The National Gallery thus acquired a number of works of art, some of which are today in the permanent collection, e.g. Bettera’s Musical Instruments and a Celestial Globe (Cat. No. 28), a still life from the Lombard (?) school of the first quarter of the 17th century, Vase with Flowers (Cat. No. 32), Almanach’s Peasant Family (No. 96), Roos’ Herd at Rest and Frightened Herd (Cat. Nos. 102 and 103), Meytens’ Emperor Francis I Stephen(Cat. No. 119), Kremser-Schmidt's Diana and Actaeon, The Punishment of the Danaids and The Rape of the Sabine Women (Cat. Nos. 121–123), etc.
All the acquisitions were shown in the National Gallery at a special exhibition opened on 16 November 1930.
Eduard Ritter von Strahl
Anton Josef Eduard von Strahl was born on 28 April 1817 in Novo mesto. He died on 26 September 1884 in Stara Loka. His father, Friedrich Anselm Strahl (1784–1821), was a member of an old patrician family from Thuringia living in Erfurt. His mother, Terezija Justina Demšar, was the daughter of Jožef Demšar, the owner of Stara Loka Castle from 1755 onwards. Friedrich Strahl had owned the castle in Stara Loka for only two years when he died as a consequence of the injuries he had suffered in the battle of Aspern.
After their mother’s death in 1829, twelve-year old Eduard and his sister became wards of their mother’s brother, Franz Xavier Demšar (1790–1846), an appeals judge in Milan and Vienna. Demšar had already bought paintings in Milan and elsewhere, and these later came down to Eduard. Eduard Strahl was a lawyer, poet, translator, publicist and art collector. He was considered to be one of the best legal minds in Ljubljana. In 1861 he was among the founding members of the Ljubljana Law Society. His wife, Cäcilia von Petteneg, who died young, was a talented amateur painter.
From 1864 onwards Eduard Strahl bought paintings (about 27 of them) from the art dealer and Doctor of Fine Arts, Alessandro Volpi. Volpi traded in paintings by Italian and other artists all over Austria. He also bought art for Bishop Strossmayer of Zagreb.
Another more important source of art works was a connection through Strahl’s housekeeper Nepomucena Strupi, who was a cousin of the craftsman Karl Götzl, who lived in Kranj.
In the autumn of 1868 Eduard von Strahl moved to Graz, where he remained until the summer of 1870. There too he bought antiques.
Franc Pustavrh, the chaplain at Velesovo, and the painter Ivan Franke also found works of art for him. The painter Pavel Künl restored his paintings.
One result of Strahl’s enthusiasm for art – his collection was certainly the largest in Carniola in the last century – was his contribution Die Kunstzustände Krains in vorigen Jahrhunderten, which appeared in instalments in the Laibacher Wochenblatt, beginning on 5 January 1884 – later in the same year it was published in Graz in book form.
Karl von Strahl
Karl Friedrich Josef von Strahl, a lawyer and art collector, was born on 12 September 1850 in Trebnje in the Dolenjska area of Slovenia to Eduard von Strahl and Cäcilia von Petteneg. He died on 24 December 1929 in his castle at Stara Loka.
As a lawyer he worked in various towns in Carniola and Carinthia, and of course also in Ljubljana. In 1886 he married Mimi von Lehmann, the daughter of a Counsellor of Justice; there were no children. In 1899 he retired and devoted himself to the management of his property, the maintenance of the castle and the collection, which he also enlarged.
The castle in Stara Loka suffered considerable damage in the earthquake of 1895. During World War I the army was billeted there, which did nothing to improve the old building. Although he was secretary of the local provisioning commission, he was himself forced to request food aid during the war.
With the establishment of Yugoslavia in 1918 the National Government stopped his pension. His property, including the art collection, was sequestered. Strahl was deeply hurt and humiliated by these unjustified measures. The National Government also ordered him to draw up a detailed list of his art works, which he undertook scrupulously with the help of Ante Gaber, a journalist and art collector. In the catalogue of the collection he included the history of the acquisitions and added a great deal of interesting data. He wrote his autobiography. A lawyer, Dr. Karl Triller was able to make good the damage done by the authorities – he persuaded them to confer a pension on him in the new state.
Strahl at first considered selling his property and emigrating, but then decided to stay. In 1925 he wrote a text with illustrations entitled Zakaj ne vzame hudič optimistov [Why the devil doesn’t take optimists]. Old age and financial problems forced him to sell about 45 works of art, but he was anxious to retain as much of the collection as possible for his country. He had promised his wife, who had died before him, to leave a large part of his wealth to her relatives abroad. After Strahl’s death his wife’s relatives did inherit, but in his will he stipulated that a 25% discount be allowed on all works bought for the National Gallery and the National Museum in Ljubljana.
Narodni muzej - National Museum of Slovenia
On 22 June 1933 the permanent collections of Slovenian art were opened in the National Gallery in all the rooms which still house them today and possibly in two more. Everyone had joined in the efforts to round off the collections of the National Gallery: related institutions, individuals, associations, mayors, etc.
The National Museum is the oldest Slovenian museum. It was established in 1821. In 1934 it handed over to the National Gallery not only works by Slovenian artists, but also a number paintings from other parts of Europe – the Hoče Madonna (Cat. No. 2), Frans Francken's The Virgin and Child (Cat. No. 70) and others. Among the paintings from the Museum was also Ecce homo (Cat. No. 4), which Bernard Berenson had attributed to Palma the Younger on the occasion of his visit to Ljubljana in 1936, however Federico Zeri suggested that it is closer to Alvise Benfatto, who was a pupil of Veronese.
Around 1951 the National Museum also received a number of paintings from the Federal Collecting Centre. Some of these were on exhibition from 1952 to 1969 on the island in Lake Bled, in the so-called Church Museum, the former provost’s house. When that collection was closed the paintings were brought to Ljubljana, to the National Gallery. The Museum gave some paintings to the National Gallery, among them, for example Suffer the little children to come unto me (Cat. No. 66), which is ascribed to Otto van Veen. Around the year 1983 there was considerable alarm, the picture could simply not be found. It is still not known how it came to be in the rooms of the Institute for the Preservation of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Slovenia. It could have happened at the time when the Institute moved from its rooms in the Gallery to its present location.
The National Museum has lent five paintings for the collection of European masters. They all came from the Federal Collecting Centre: Eberhart Keilhau: Old Woman with a Child (Cat. No. 14), Gaetano Cusati: Fish (Cat. No. 54) and three others.
LBG - Landesbildergalerie
In the old pre-war archives of the National Gallery we find the correspondence of the director, Ivan Zorman. On 19 October 1927 he requested the Provincial Committee in Maribor to hand over paintings originally from the Landesbildergalerie (LBG) in Graz, which had hung in various rooms in the spas at Dobrna and Rogaška Slatina since 1903. This move was supported by the mayor of Maribor, Dr. Josip Leskovar, Dr. Andrej Veble, a lawyer and member of the parliament, and the priest and politician Marko Kranjc. The conservator Dr. France Stele assisted in the procedure. In 1932 the National Gallery received 21 paintings from Dobrna and 30 from Rogaška Slatina. The majority of them were in bad condition.
The pictures in the Landesbildergalerie in Graz had come from two sources: the old picture gallery (Bildergalerie) and the collection which was established and developed by the Archduke Johann in the framework of the Joanneum. In 1903 a new gallery for 525 paintings was opened on the second floor of the Joanneum. 325 paintings were left in the depot, some of them were considered to be »unsuitable for a gallery« and these were sent to decorate the rooms in the spas at Dobrna and Rogaška Slatina and to the County House in Graz, one painting went to the Town Hall in Graz, etc. After the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire the Treaty of Saint Germain of 30 June 1920 provided that works of art would remain in the countries in which they were located.
Pictures from this source have the initials LBG and the old inventory numbers printed on the back of the canvases. As is the case for almost all other works of art in the present permanent collection of European painters, these paintings too were in the main rescued from anonymity by Federico Zeri: Luca Forte: Fruit (Cat. No. 7), Giacomo Cipper, called il Todeschini: Shepherd Playing a Flute (Cat. No. 42), Giuseppe Recco: Fish and Vessels (Cat. No. 21) and others.
Donations and Bequests
Dr. Fran Windischer
Donations were made for various reasons. It could be that the four panels Christ Before Pontius Pilate, The Flagellation of Christ, Saint Helen Asking about the True Cross,Saint Helen and a Jew Go to Fetch the True Cross (Cat. Nos. 86–89) by the Master of the Velenje panels were the first donation of works from the European area. They were purchased and donated to the gallery around the year 1936 by Dr. Fran Windischer (Postojna 1877–Ljubljana 1955), a lawyer, businessman and patron of the arts, who was president of the National Gallery Association from 1929 onwards.
Peter von Klarwill
Peter von Klarwill had decided to move from Vienna to the countryside somewhere in the south because his wife was in poor health. He was one of the owners of the »Ferdinand Rappold« factory for grinding wheels and grindstones in Vienna. He bought Podsmreka castle near Višnja gora and moved his furniture, an extensive library and an art collection which had already been well known in the professional literature in the previous century, there. He lived at Podsmreka, where he buried his wife, from 1 April 1935 onwards. He wished to acquire Yugoslav citizenship and at that time it was possible to achieve this with some act of merit. In this he was assisted by the Ljubljana lawyer Dr. Andrej Drušković, who was probably acquainted with Dr. Fran Windischer, the president of the National Gallery at that time. The conservator Dr. France Stele was also involved. Beside Peter von Klarwill’s commercial connections with Ljubljana, it is clear that Klarwill’s relative, Georg von Klarwill had ties with Ljubljana – in 1928 he had offered to sell his art collection to some gallery. The director of the National Gallery Association, Ivan Zorman, advised Georg von Klarwill to offer his collection to the Strossmayer Gallery in Zagreb. The connection between the Klarwills and the National Gallery was obviously through Fran Pretnar, whom George’s brother Viktor von Klarwill had met at the spa in Bad Hall.
Peter von Klarwill was advised to establish his merit by donating a painting from his collection to the National Gallery. When he made this donation he was not only recommended for citizenship, but also for the Order of Saint Sava, 4th class.
On 12 November 1936 the National Gallery accepted the donation of the painting Landscape with Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter (Cat. No. 71). At that time it was attributed to Paul Bril, today it is attributed to Jacob Pynas, who probably painted it with the help of one of his assistants. On the back of the canvas is the mark of the London auctioneers Christie’s where the painting, which was owned by Ralph M. Bernard, was sold to a certain Mr. »Louis« on 1 July 1872; later it came into the possession of the Klarwill family.
*
For the acquisition of Martin Johann Schmidt’s Annunciation(Cat. No. 120), which was hung in the chapel of the military hospital in the former mansion house in Selo near Ljubljana, the National Gallery had to request permission from the Ministry for the Army and Navy. This was granted in 1939.
Dr. Alfred Perl
The story of the textile engineer Dr. Alfred Perl began at the beginning of World War II. He had come from England to Zagreb, where he was representative of the Horoxis company. He spoke Croatian and joined the Croatian Jewish community.
Through Dr. Živko Lapajne, Dr. Friderik Juvančić of Zagreb informed the National Gallery that Dr. Perl would like to donate Jawlensky's Flowers, Fruit and a Jug (Cat. No. 145) to the Gallery. The proposal was enthusiastically received and a letter of thanks dated 21 December 1940 was sent to the donor. Since Dr. Perl went skiing in Slovenia at Christmas, the presentation of the painting was postponed until the beginning of 1941. Dr. Juvančić proposed that one of his acquaintances, who was on his way from Zagreb to Ljubljana, could bring the picture to the Gallery, since this would be the most suitable and cheapest method of transport. This was obviously undertaken by the lawyer and amateur art historian Dr. Marijan Marolt. On 28 February 1941 a letter of thanks was sent to Dr. Perl, with the assurance that his name as donor would be affixed to the painting.
At the outbreak of war Dr. Perl, like a number of other Jews in Croatia, fled to Ljubljana. The Italians soon imprisoned him, later he was confined in the area of Aprica in northern Italy. After the Italian capitulation Dr. Perl and his daughter Rosemarie, together with a number of fellow confinees, fled over the mountains to Switzerland. Since he had influential friends in London he was able to save many people from expulsion from Switzerland and death in the German concentration camps. His daughter Rosemarie is said to live in Argentina.
Information about Dr. Perl was kindly provided by Helena Zorčić and Miško Begović of Zagreb (1988) and Professor Dr. Pavle Kornhauser of Ljubljana.
The Italian Occupation Authority
In 1942 the Italian occupation authority – the High Commissioner for the Ljubljana Province – purchased a number of works by modern Italian artists for the National Gallery; these included paintings by Gino Severini (A Girl from Olévano, Still Life), Giorgio Morandi (On the Outskirts of a Town), Cipriano Efisio Oppo (Portrait of the Artist's Daughter Eugenia), Renato Birolli (Portrait of the Poet Salvatore Quasimodo), Filippo De Pisis (The Blessed Labre) and Ladislao De Gauss (Still Life) (Cat. Nos. 147–154). In 1989 De Gauss' widow, Mrs. Nerina Canciani De Gauss, related that the Italians had ordered the provincial conservators to choose works by artists from various Italian centres: Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, Fiume(!), etc. – The idea was that Italian generosity in the sphere of the arts should distract attention from their other activities.
Professor Mira Neffat Danilova
In her will Professor Mira Neffat Danilova, née Cerar (Ljubljana,3 June 1899–Ljubljana 3 February 1979) left the National Gallery the painting Venus Nursing Cupid (Cat. No. 6). The court decision on the legacy is dated 27 November 1979. – Mira Neffat Danilova was a well-known theatre actress and teacher at the Theatre Academy. She had inherited the painting from her father, the actor, director and author Anton Cerar Danilo (1858–1947), who was said to have bought it in Venice before World War II.
Milena Stare
In 1985 Mrs. Milena Stare (Sušak 1893–Ljubljana 1987) donated two paintings by the German school, Still Life with a Pie(Cat. No. 106) and Still Life with Fish, a Mortar and Vegetables (Cat. No. 114). Mrs. Stare, née Bačić, was a member of a Croatian family. She first married Colonel Viktor Andrejka (1881–1947), a brother of the lawyer and local historian Dr. Rudolf Andrejka (1880–1947). Her second marriage was to the lawyer, bank director and official art assessor Bruno Stare (Kranj 16 July 1886-Ljubljana 3 March 1969). Bruno Stare was an art collector, but he had also inherited some family heirlooms. Both donated paintings came from Bruno Stare's collection.
Dr. Dušan Mis
The last donation to the present permanent collection was presented to the National Gallery in 1988. Dušan Mis, M.D., a specialist general practitioner, and his wife, Marija, donated The Wounded Sacred Heart (Cat. No. 36) by Robert De Longe. It had been the property of his father, the well-known humane physician and hygienist Dr. Franta Mis (Ljubljana 1 April 1900–Ljubljana 24 Oct. 1975).
FCC - The Federal Collecting Centre; The Government; Official Buildings; Government Offices, etc.
On 27 January 1945 the Presidium of the Slovenian National Liberation Council (SNOS) issued a decree on the protection of libraries, archives, and monuments of cultural, historical and natural interest. After the war, the decree was published with clarifications in the 19th issue of the newspaper Slovenski poročevalec. – On 20 February 1945 a Yugoslav »Decree on the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Monuments and Antiques« (Ur. 1. DFJ, No. 10, 6 March 1945) and a »Decree on the Establishment of a Commission for the determination of the damage caused by the occupation to cultural and historical objects and natural monuments in Yugoslavia and their return to the homeland« (Ur. 1. NKOJ, 9.2.1944) were issued. As early as 11 May 1945 representatives of this Commission, Professor Božidar Jakac and Čoro Škodlar, visited Dr. Stele, the head of the Office for the Protection of Monuments, who had replaced the conservator Dr. France Mesesnel, who had been arrested at the beginning of October 1944 and was murdered near Turjak on 4 May 1945.
Under the »Law on the collection, protection and distribution of books and other objects of cultural and historical value« of 24 May 1945 and the instructions for the establishment and operation of "collecting" centres of 31 July 1945, the Ministry for Education issued an order on the establishment of collecting centres for objects of cultural and historical interest (Ur. 1. SNOS in Narodne vlade Slovenije, No. 33, dated 8 September 1945), which established the Federal Collecting Centre (FCC) for objects of cultural and historical interest at the Ministry for Education in Ljubljana for the whole of the territory of Slovenia, and another centre especially for the Ljubljana region and the city of Ljubljana. District collecting centres were set up in Maribor, Celje and Novo mesto. The order was signed by the Minister for Education of the time, Dr. Ferdo Kozak.
The story of the FCC, its documentation and everything about it is long and very, very interesting, full of all sorts of first and family names … and activities. It would all deserve a detailed study and publication sometime in the future.
In October 1945, Dr. Stele drew attention to the castles which had been burned down or preserved and confiscated. He proposed that a museum of feudal residential culture be established in the castle in Slovenska Bistrica, which could be furnished with the furniture confiscated from the Attems castles (Komelj 1975, p. 25).
A good year after the establishment of the FCC, in October 1946, the Ministry for Education already ordered an investigation into its activities. It was found that »there really is a great amount of work and absolutely honest people are needed«. In 1947 the same Ministry set up a commission to make a professional survey of the collected items of cultural importance, assess them and determine to which institutions they should be entrusted.
On 1 January 1948 the FCC was disbanded and the Ministry for Education assumed all business connected with it.
In 1951 the two leading employees of the FCC were remanded in custody. In the same year 201 paintings from the former FCC went to the Academy of Fine Arts.
The FCC depots in Ljubljana were in the Cukrarna (an old disused sugar factory), in Ljubljana castle, in the Kresija (once the district office), some material was in the depot of the Modern Gallery and probably also elsewhere. In the FCC register which has survived – we do not know how many registers there were – the objects of cultural and historical interest and the works of art are more or less exactly described, sometimes giving the size, usually with the name of the former owner or the castle from which they came, with luck the name of the person or institution who received the object was noted in the margin. Many of the paintings were earmarked for the Academy of Fine Arts, which was housed in the attic of a secondary school in the suburb of Poljane and had dreams of a new school building and exhibition rooms for an academy gallery of old and newer paintings, from which the students could learn, as is the custom all over the world. The paintings were taken to the seat of the Academy, where Tempesta's A Storm at Sea (Cat. No. 23) is said to have hung in the rector's room. The first rector of the Academy, Professor Božidar Jakac, and other professors strongly advocated the establishment of an academy gallery.
After the ignominious end of the FCC, and with a gallery for the Academy of Fine Arts not in sight, various receipts show that the Academy of Fine Arts gave »its« paintings to other cultural institutions, to decorate their offices. The Ministry for Education permitted private individuals and cultural institutions to take works of art from the FCC depot. »We simply took them away in pushcarts«, Professor Filip Kumbatovič (1910–1989), the first rector of the Academy for Theatre Arts, said. Works of art also ended up at the Music Academy, masses of them at the Academy of Sciences and Arts, these probably mainly from the stocks of the Academy of Fine Arts, further in the Design School, the National and University Library, in the rooms of the Writers' Association, etc. People and institutions which were given temporary custody of these works of art had to pledge to ensure that they would safeguard them and return them when requested to do so. On 20 February 1959 the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts notified the Academy of Fine Arts that it was returning 35 works which it did not need. We cannot tell whether all the pictures from the FCC stocks published in this catalogue will really hang in the more or less permanent exhibition of European masters of the National Gallery.
On 6 March 1986 the Executive Council of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia issued an »Agreement on the regulation of the mutual relationships with regard to the transference of the rights to the management of the works of art on the premises of the Executive Council of Slovenia, the premises of other bodies and organisations and works of art which are temporarily in the care of individual persons« (No. 410–02/84–2/13). But this chapter too is not yet concluded.
We do not know who the good spirits were who, without fanfares or fuss of any kind, transferred Maliavine's Female Nude(Cat. No. 146) from the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia to the National Gallery on 25 October 1948, from the »Government« Giovanni Andrea Carlone's Aurora (Cat. No. 29) in 1950, and Flurer's Coastal Landscape with Fishermen(Cat. No. 110) in 1951 – just as we have no idea where these paintings had come from in the first place.
Purchases
Ivan Zorman's letters were concise and purposeful. That was the style of his letters to Baroness Edith Müller-Dithenhof of Bokalce (Stroblhof) castle near Ljubljana regarding the purchase of Almanach's painting The Card Players I (Cat. No. 94). The transaction was concluded in 1937. This was probably the first purchase of an individual painting by a European master for the National Gallery.
In 1982 a private owner sold the Gallery an inherited 17th century Venetian painting entitled Allegory (?) (Cat. No. 34)
After a guided tour of the exhibition of European paintings in 1983 one of the visitors offered the Gallery a painting by Luca Giordano, Prometheus Bound (Cat. No. 22). It was purchased in 1984.
In 1989 Caucig’s painting A Girl Rescuing Aristomenes from Captivity (Cat. No. 130) was bought at an auction in the Dorotheum in Vienna. The greater part of the funds for this purchase was provided by the Gorenje concern in Velenje.
The poet Dr. Alojz Gradnik (Medana 1882–Ljubljana 1967) collected art on a modest scale. In 1991 the Gallery purchased Still Life with a Wicker Flask and Asparagus (Cat. No. 52) from his estate.
In 1991 Martino Altomonte's oil sketch The Immaculata, signed and dated 1719 (Cat. No. 100), of unknown provenance, was purchased from a private owner.
Works of art owned or collected by prominent art lovers, heirs and collectors, make a valuable contribution to Slovenian cultural and general history. For example, the Gallery owns two paintings from the collection of Dr. Izidor Cankar (Šid 1886–Ljubljana 1958), art historian, critic, writer, translator, diplomat, founder of the Chair for Art History at Ljubljana University, founder of the Art History Society, initiator and first editor of the Journal of Art History.
While Cankar was ambassador to Argentina, he bought Saint Jerome (?) (Cat. No. 44) and Cleopatra's Suicide (Cat. No. 9) in 1937 from the art dealer Don Lorenzo Pelleran in Buenos Aires. Due to a rather unusual chain of events both these paintings decorated Marshal Tito's residence in Brdo near Kranj for many years. The National Gallery bought the first from Cankar's daughter and heir, Dr. Veronika Cankar, in 1992 and the second in 1994.
Three Bouquets of Flowers (Cat. No. 63), probably a Spanish painting from the first half of the 17th century, became known a good ten years ago, when I was collecting material for the exhibition of European Still Lifes from Slovenian Collections. It was owned by the well-known Ljubljana family of the engineer Viljem Killer and remained on loan to the Gallery after the exhibition closed in 1989. Due to the generosity of the family it became possible to purchase it in 1995. Several months after the transaction was completed Amway Slovenija donated the funds for the purchase.
The research undertaken by Professor Zeri and myself for almost twenty years also led to the purchase of Almanach's painting The Card Players II (Cat. No. 95) from the oldest Swiss auction house, Fischer in Lucerne, in 1995. Professor Mauro Natale of Geneva, assisted by the 1983 catalogue, had been the first to recognise the picture as a work by Almanach. Thus fate rounded off the individual purchases before the war and now, with the purchase of two Almanachs.
Our thanks go to all those who have helped in any way with the compilation of this catalogue and the mounting of the collection. Allow me to quote our poet Prešeren’s verses and to hope that: Slovenians will read pure books.
Dr. Ksenija Rozman, 1996
*
For the English edition the text was revised and a number of additions were written by the authors in July 1998.
The paintings Cat. Nos. 5 (Giovanni Baglione, Hercules at the Crossroads), 23–24 (Pieter Mulier, A Storm at Sea and An Ideal Landscape), 25–26 (Andrea Celesti, two paintings named Imaginary Portrait of a Captain), 39–40 (Giuseppe Vicenzino, A Vase with Flowers and a Tulip Hanging Down to the Shelf and A Vase with Flowers), 50–51 (Pietro Navarra, Still Life with Peaches, Grapes, Figs and Flowers and Still Life with a Pumpkin, Grapes, a Citrus Fruit and Flowers), 61 (Tertulliano Tarroni, Ruins), 79 (Godfried Maes, Allegory of Hope), 104–105 (Johann Josef Karl Henrici, Concert at an Oriental Court and A Lute Concert), 107 (Franz Ignaz Flurer, Sea Coast with a Ship in Dock) and 113 (Franz Ignaz Flurer, pupil, Landscape with a Waterfall and Two Hunters), which are marked with asterisks (*) were confiscated from various private owners after World War II. They were taken to the Federal Collecting Centre, which had unsuitable storerooms in the Cukrarna (an old sugar factory), in Ljubljana castle and elsewhere. The Ministry for Education permitted various institutions and privileged individuals to take these works temporarily to furnish offices and apartments. A considerable number of paintings went to the Academy of Fine Arts [ALU] because it planned to establish a Gallery of European Masters. This gallery was to have been open to the public and students of the Academy were to study there. However, due to the lack of suitable premises this plan was never realised and the Academy of Fine Arts »lent« the paintings on to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
In 1993, a new wing was built for the National Gallery, the aim being to show the public at long last the most important honestly acquired works of European painters from the collection of the National Gallery and the most important of the works which had been unlawfully confiscated after World War II and were located in the rooms of various institutions. As can be seen from the information provided on the provenance of the paintings, the majority of Slovenian institutions showed great understanding and agreed to cede the confiscated paintings which Professor Zeri and I had treated many years earlier and chosen for the present permanent collection. However, so far it has not been possible to come to any agreement with representatives of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts or the Academy for Theatre, Radio Film and Television. The two Academies »lent« the confiscated paintings for the opening of the permanent collection of European masters and for the duration of the »Month of European Culture« in 1997, after which they had to be returned and were again hung in their offices. The painting Cat. No. 26 (Andrea Celesti, Imaginary Portrait of a Captain), for example, was once in the castle in Slovenska Bistrica, where it hung in the office of Dr. Ferdinand Attems, who was killed in Slovenia after World War II or died in some unknown prison. Today this painting allegedly still hangs in the office of the President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dr. France Bernik.
For the time being the wooden casket with bone reliefs, Cat. No. 155, is no longer on show either. It had formed part of the decorations of the former residence of Marshal Tito in Brdo castle and it is again there today. Negotiations to exhibit it in the National Gallery are in progress.
Ksenija Rozman, PhD, 1999