Conservation of the painting Crucifixion with the Holy Hungarian Rulers
Croatian Conservation Institute and the parish St. Nicholas the Bishop from Čakovec are pleased to present the results of several years of successful cooperation on research, protection and preservation of valuable inventory from the Čakovec parish and monastery church.
Church of St. Nicholas the Bishop in Čakovec is equipped with carved polychrome wooden altars from the 18th century with canvas paintings and sculptures by several authors. The monumental main altar equipped with sculptures by one of the best Slovenian Baroque sculptors, Maribor master Joseph Straub, stands out among the others. The altar was built by the great patron of the arts, Ana Maria Pignatelli, widow of Count Johann Michael von Althann, based on a design commissioned in 1742.
The altar was part of the research conducted during the international project Tracing the Art of the Straub Family that documented the entire opus in Croatia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Italy created by five brothers from the famous family of sculptors. The project was co-financed by the European Union with the Creative Europe programme (2017-2019). The collected data was published in the online database and a monograph that was the result of the project cooperation. During the research, it was noticed that the sculpture of St Michael the Archangel from the top of the side altar of Mary Help of Christians was similar to the work of Joseph Straub, so it was also included in the catalogue of work by the Straub family.
Conservation of all sculptures and paintings from the main altar was carried out by employees of the Croatian Conservation Institute between 2001 and 2015, and the work on the altar architecture and architectural sculpture was carried out by employees of a private workshop. Conservation of the paintings St. Joseph and Mary Help of Christians from the side altar Mary Help of Christians was carried out at the Croatian Conservation Institute in 2016. The latter is one of the more faithful replicas of the very famous and popular painting Mary Help of Christians by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the Cathedral in Innsbruck, and it was included in the Cranach Digital Archiveas a likely work by an unknown Viennese master.
As part of the cycle of educational and promotional activities European Baroque in my Homeland: Socializing with the Straub Family Heritage, conservation of the inventory will be presented at Katolički dom in Čakovec on Saturday, September 26, 2020 at 5 pm.
