The little-studied painted hall of the Goričane Mansion has long called for further research from the perspectives of patronage, authorship and iconography. The first (and practically only) scholar who had, already in 1942, addressed the question of the mural paintings’ subject-matter in some detail was Viktor Steska (followed by Damjan Prelovšek). It is commonly (and rightly) held that the frescoes were commissioned by Ernst Amadeus Attems, the Prince-Bishop of Ljubljana, who was also known for his sizeable art collection and several ambitious architectural projects of renovation within the then Diocese of Ljubljana. Given that art historical literature is still divided on the question of attribution, the present study examines the respective merits of either of the two potential authors; the first is the lesser-known Jesuit artist Anton Werle, while the other happens to be one of the best-known Baroque fresco painters of the 18th century in Carniola, Franc Jelovšek. The final section of this M.A. thesis focuses on the complex (and thus far largely unexplored) iconography of the six narrative scenes from ancient history. Based on a critical review of meager factual evidence that had been made available in the scholarly literature to date, these chapters seek to reassess past interpretations of each single painted episode. By means of a comparative analysis of pertinent passages from Classical authors and by drawing upon a selection of comparable pictorial representations dating from the Baroque period, it can now be demonstrated that not all the subjects of individual scenes depicted in the frescoed hall at Goričane had been correctly identified in the past.
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