In 1701, the construction of a new Baroque cathedral that replaced the
medieval church of St Nicholas in Ljubljana symbolised the arrival of new Roman
Baroque ideals to the small capital of a duchy on the outskirts of the Holy
Roman Empire. The patrons commissioned the plans from the famous Roman
architect Andrea Pozzo and entrusted the illusionistic painting to Giulio
Quaglio. The funds for a real dome ran out, so until the 1880s, a faux dome
painted on a plain plastered wooden ceiling adorned the building. In 1685,
Andrea Pozzo used a similar solution in the Church of St Ignatius in Rome,
where he painted the illusion of a coffered domed vault on canvas. In 1703,
Quaglio painted the faux dome with the Coronation of the Virgin Mary surrounded
by personifications and saints associated with the land of Carniola and its
capital Ljubljana. Three fragments have survived to this day (National Gallery
of Slovenia, National Museum of Slovenia), but the whole can be imagined from a
reduced copy painted by Matej Langus before he took it down, which served as a
template for the murals of the new, this time built, dome.
5 February – 5 March 2025
National Gallery of Slovenia
Prešernova 24
1000 Ljubljana