The Only (Self)Portrait of Quaglio and the Consequences of Its Renovation
Varstvo spomenikov, 44 Mateja Neža Sitar The Only (Self)Portrait of Quaglio and the Consequences of its Renovation Key words: Ljubljana cathedral, Giulio Quaglio, self-portrait, monument preservation service, conser- vation and restoration procedures, Baroque painting technique, removal of impurities, retouching Abstract In the early 18th century, in the heyday of Baroque art in Ljubljana, the dean and patron of the construc- tion of the new Ljubljana cathedral, Janez Anton Dolničar, commissioned the northern Italian painter Giulio Quaglio (1668–1751) to adorn the cathedral of St Nicholas with frescoes. The Lombard Baroque painter, who was born in Laino on Lake Como, was a distinguished mural painter in Friuli and Gorizia, and he created his greatest masterpiece of his virtuoso artistic career in the illusionist murals in the inte- rior and on the exterior of the Ljubljana cathedral (1703–1706). Later, in 1721–1723, he returned with his son and completed the murals in the chapels of the nave. At that time the frescoes in the Ljubljana cathedral represented one of the largest cycles in Slovenia, and moreover, they were the most important commission of the artist. Because of this, he added his self-portrait to the images, which, according to research, is the only such example in his oeuvre in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. In 2002 a team from the Restoration Centre initiated one of its most complex and demanding conserva- tion and restoration projects on approximately 532 square metres of murals on the vault and western wall of the Ljubljana cathedral. The difficulty level of the project is evident from the methodology and organisation of the four-year work process, which in addition to concrete restoration procedures on the murals also entailed ongoing research, analysis, verification, study and documentation from various ex- pert points of view.
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