Location
Slovenia, Jarenina
Parish Church of St Mary of the Assumption (Župnijska cerkev sv. Marije Vnebovzete)
Artwork
Altar of the Holy Cross in the Parish Church of St Mary of the Assumption in Jarenina
Type
Side altar
Dimensions
Height: 660 cm, width: 420 cm, depth: 196 cm
Inscriptions
- Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum (on the top of the cross)
Critical History
Sergej Vrišer attributed the altar of the Holy Cross in the Parish Church of St Mary of the Assumption in Jarenina to Philipp Jakob Straub.1
In the central niche of the altar, there is a sculpture of Christ on the cross between the two thieves. Behind them, there is a depiction of Jerusalem. On the sides, there is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and a sculpture of St John the Evangelist. In the upper part of the altar, there is a sculpture of the Holy Father with the Globe surrounded with four sad and crying putti on the sides. All the sculptures are of high quality (especially the sculpture of Christ with many realistic details of veins and muscles) and they share similarities with other works by Philipp Jakob Straub. The face of St John the Evangelist, with a long nose and curly hair and the sculpture of the Holy Father, are especially significant. The expressive sculpture of the right thief is similar to the sculpture of a captor from the sculptural group of St John of Nepomuk in Graz (Calvary).
Construction / Execution
The side altar is made of wood. The backside of the sculptures is hollowed out and covered with a wooden plate.
Components
- Carpentry
- Carpentry
- Technique(s): sawing, wood carving
- Material(s): softwood
- Sculpture
- Sculpture
- Author: Philipp Jakob Straub (Wiesensteig 1706 – Graz 1774)
- Technique(s): wood carving
- Material(s): limewood
- Polychromy
- Polychromy
- Technique(s): oil, water gilding
- Material(s): gold leaf, red bole, yellow bole
- Polychromy
- First repolychromy
- Technique(s): oil, water gilding
- Material(s): oil
- Polychromy
- Second repolychromy
- Technique(s): oil, oil gilding
- Material(s): metal leaf, oil
Comment
The side altar has three layers of painting. All three polychromies of the architecture imitate marble, while clouds and some parts of the architecture imitate gold. The original polychromy of the altar architecture imitates marble. The original polychromy of the sculptures is naturalistic, combined with colourful drapery. The wooden support of sculptures and ornamentation is badly damaged by wood-boring insects. Cracks and insect boreholes are visible. The ground is cracking, lifting and peeling off. There is a lot of oil gilding with metal leaves on the drapery and clouds made at the last renovation.
Images
- The altar of the Holy Cross in the Parish Church of St Mary of the Assumption in Jarenina (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The altar of the Holy Cross in Jarenina, detail of the central part (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The upper part of the altar (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The sculpture of the Virgin Mary (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The sculpture of St John the Evangelist (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
Catalogue entry prepared by Valentina Pavlič and Saša Dolinšek
Recommended citation: Valentina Pavlič and Saša Dolinšek, Altar of the Holy Cross in the Parish Church of St Mary of the Assumption in Jarenina, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 15/10/2025) URL
