The subject of this final paper is the collection of the diapositives that Izidor Cankar, the first professor of art history at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, used for his lectures. When these diapositives become obsolete from the technological point of view, art history professors started using newer diapositives, while digital photos are used today. Although Cankar's diapositives were no longer in use, the Department of Art History saved them. It still keeps one box of his diapositives, while other boxes with his diapositives were put into storage in the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana due to lack of space.
Izidor Cankar (1886–1958) started giving lectures as an assistant professor in 1920; he became an associate professor in 1923 and a full professor in 1928. Sixteen years later, in 1936, he left the Faculty to pursue a career in diplomacy. In the academic year 1919/1920, he went to Vienna and, in getting advice from his former professor Max Dvořak, who closely followed the work of his former students, he prepared the study programme and took care of the purchase of books. He also bought two thousand diapositives and – in order to be able to show them - a sciopticon. By 1926, Cankar's collection consisted of 2492 items. Cankar gave priority to the artworks that range from the antiquity to the 19th century and have their focus in Europe. His collection was constantly enriched. However, due to a gap in the records of the inventory, it can only be speculated how it expanded in his 16-year-long tenure at the Department of Art History.
Cankar's diapositives travelled the path from useful objects to objects of heritage that are kept, researched and saved for their special meaning. His diapositives are objects from the past and as such hold a historical value. They speak of the past, narrate the story about the beginnings of art history teaching in the area of today's Slovenia and bear witness to what certain buildings and artworks looked like in the past.
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