Location
Slovenia, Maribor
Regional Museum Maribor (Pokrajinski muzej Maribor)
Original location:
Slovenia, Kamnica pri Mariboru
Road Chapel
Artwork
Sculpture of St John of Nepomuk from Kamnica in the Regional Museum Maribor
Type
Sculpture
Dimensions
Height: 192 cm, width: 94 cm, depth: 50 cm
Critical History
Jakob Kokl (1698–1771), parish priest in Kamnica between 1745 and 1771, wrote a request for a permission to hold holy masses in the chapel of St John of Nepomuk on 18 April 1771.1 The bishop from Seggau sent his answer on 1 May 1771 and allowed celebrating holy masses in the chapel, but only on working days.2 At the moment, this is the only known archival evidence of the chapel. It must have been built at least by the mid 1750s, when the statue of St John of Nepomuk was placed in it. Due to political reasons, the chapel was demolished in 1959; the official excuse was that its location was the only appropriate place for a bus stop. The sculpture of St John of Nepomuk was transferred to the courtyard of the Maribor Castle (Regional Museum Maribor) on 25 April 1959 and the chapel was demolished in the following days.3 Sergej Vrišer attributed the sculpture to Joseph Straub.4
The iconography of the saint is rare: it represents St John of Nepomuk as a pilgrim on his way to a pilgrimage site Stará Boleslav (Altbunzlau) in Czech Republic.
Construction / Execution
The sculpture is made of sandstone. It is painted naturalistically with some gilded details.
Components
- Sculpture
- Sculpture
- Author: Joseph Straub (Wiesensteig 1712 – Maribor 1756)
- Technique(s): hewing
- Material(s): sandstone
- Polychromy
- Polychromy
- Technique(s): oil
- Material(s): gold leaf, oil
Comment
The polychromy of the sculpture is abrased on exposed areas.
The chapel was renovated in 1936 – it got a new roof and the wooden doors were replaced with iron ones.5 Marija Jarčič paid all the costs.6
Images
- The sculpture of St John of Nepomuk in the Regional Museum Maribor (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The sculpture of St John of Nepomuk in the Regional Museum Maribor, detail (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- Road chapel in Kamnica with the sculpture of St John of Nepomuk, old photograph (source of the photo: Regional Archive Maribor)
- The sculpture of St John of Nepomuk in the chapel in Kamnica, old photograph (source of the photo: Regional Archive Maribor)
Catalogue entry prepared by Valentina Pavlič and Saša Dolinšek
Recommended citation: Valentina Pavlič and Saša Dolinšek, Sculpture of St John of Nepomuk from Kamnica in the Regional Museum Maribor, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 19/10/2025) URL
