Fragments of the Past

The new temporary exhibition brings together, for the first time, all the discovered detached fragments of wall paintings from the churches in Crngrob and Vrzdenec near Horjul. This joint project marks the 90th and 100th anniversaries of the first conservation and restoration interventions on the wall paintings in these two churches. The fresco fragments are accompanied by extensive documentary material, including historical photographs and drawings from the INDOK Centre of the Ministry of Culture.

Around a century ago, France Stele, Slovenia’s chief conservator, together with the academic painter and restorer Matej Sternen, first employed the technique of detaching wall paintings in the Church of St Cantianus in Vrzdenec. This enabled the preservation of the later layers of paintings as well. This technically and academically innovative approach, particularly pioneering for Stele and Sternen and for the local context, was used again, with somewhat less success, ten years later in the Church of the Annunciation in Crngrob. The surviving sections, or fragments, of wall paintings by various workshops from the 14th and 15th centuries were originally intended primarily for the National Museum, but were soon dispersed among several institutions. Over time, this led to the assumption that many of the fragments had been lost or were simply unknown. Fortunately, research carried out over the past two decades has disproved this, and almost all of the documented detached fragments were recently located at the National Gallery, the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, and the Conservation Centre of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Slovenia.

The exhibition therefore not only marks the 100th and 90th anniversaries of interventions on two important monuments of medieval wall painting in Slovenia, but also brings the fragments together again after almost a century and presents them in their original scope. Wherever possible, the layers from Vrzdenec and Crngrob have been arranged to approximate the spatial relationships in which they were originally situated, and are complemented by documentation held primarily by the Information and Documentation Centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the France Stele Institute of Art History at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The exhibition presents 17 fragments of wall paintings, 15 from Crngrob and two from Vrzdenec. They are complemented by later copies, Sternen’s tracings and drawings, and a selection of documentary and visual material.

The detached wall paintings also provide an opportunity to examine their technical execution in much greater detail. This aspect is explored in depth in the conservation and restoration section of the exhibition, where visitors can see the materials and techniques used by medieval painters. Another important focus is the history of conservation and restoration interventions on wall paintings, from their beginnings with Stele and Sternen to the present day.