Stage 3 (Koper, Monastery and Church of St Francis)

Corpus » Monastery and Church of St Francis

Art-historical analysis

Together with its sinopia, the fresco was taken down in 1957 using the “stacco” method. A year later, it was detached, and the two layers of murals were transferred onto separate supports.[1] The sinopia remained in Koper and is now stored in the depot of the local Regional Museum, while the fresco was transported to Ljubljana to the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, where it is still in the Restoration Centre depository, awaiting restoration.[2] The fresco depicts Mary with the Child on an architecturally rich Gothic throne with a tall back, terminated by a shell-headed niche. A full-body image of St Francis and a kneeling knight in intercession are depicted on Mary’s left.

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[1] See Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, Koper – spomeniško varstvo, No. 12, Poročilo Mirka Šubica o službenem potovanju v Hrastovlje in Koper 29. in 30. 7. 1957 of 2 August 1957 with the annex Predlog za restavriranje dveh fresk v gimnazijskem poslopju (bivši frančiškanski samostan) v Kopru, written by Mirko Šubic and Emil Pohl in Ljubljana on 2 August 1957; cf. ŽELEZNIK 1959, pp. 81–82.
[2] Cf. Informacijsko-dokumentacijski center za dediščino Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Ljubljana, Koper – spomeniško varstvo, No. 12, 20, 36, poročila iz časa med letoma 1957 in 1595. The procedure of taking down the frescoes was described in ŽELEZNIK 1960, pp. 77–80.

Poor.

Antonio Alisi believed that the details of the painting – such as the Virgin Mary’s elegant aristocratic figure, the knight kneeling at her knees, and St Francis intervening on the knight’s behalf with lively gesticulation, as well as the overall composition and the Cosmatesque bordure – correspond to the post-Giotto era painting (the period between 1350 and 1375), when painting in the Venetian Terraferma was characterised by names such as Guariento, but especially Altichiero and the painters who worked in his style.[1] Examples of such votive paintings can be found in Verona in the Church of San Zeno and the Church of St Anastasia, while the style spread across the Adige Valley to Bolzano (Bozen) and Bressanone (Brixen).[2] Due to the complex Gothic architecture of the throne, Janez Höfler also places the fresco in the context of Venetian painting of the second half of the 14th century.[3]

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[1] ALISI s. a.
[2] According to the opinions prevalent in the 1940s, similar murals were created mainly by itinerant painters from Rimini and Reggio Emilia. For the year 1365 in Piran, ALISI s. a., mentions the painter Simon from Reggio (Simone da Reggio), who died in Piran. However, it is not known where he had lived or travelled earlier. His wife died in 1401.
[3] HÖFLER 1997, p. 99.

The second half of the 14th century.

Venetian master.[1]

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[1] QUINZI 1999, pp. 82–83, believed that the same fresco painter also painted another lunette, which featured the Mary and the Child between St Francis and St Anthony scene and was once in the monastery but is known only from a photograph published by SEMI 1972, p. 396. However, this was actually a case of the same lunette being painted twice: the more recent mural had been removed in 1939, while the older 14th-century painting remains visible in situ. The photographs from the time when the murals were uncovered are kept in the archives of the Trieste Soprintendenza. The murals were therefore painted by two separate masters in two different time periods.

The fresco depicts Mary with the Child on an architecturally rich Gothic throne with a tall back, terminated by a seashell-shaped niche. On Mary’s left, St Francis and a kneeling knight in intercession are portrayed. When the fresco was discovered, Antonio Alisi wrote that the composition with the saint and the knight in intercession was probably repeated on the right side of the throne, where, according to his report, a part of a standing saint’s figure had been visible at the time of the discovery, but later crumbled away. From this fragment, St Dominic could allegedly be identified, while the armour of a kneeling knight was also visible on the other side of the throne.[1] Alisi assumed that the depiction of the knights was that of a father and son, who had this votive image painted above his father’s tombstone in memory of him.[2]

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[1] ALISI s. a. The figure of the kneeling knight on the right side of the throne is also visible in one of the photographs from the time of the discovery, kept by the Trieste Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Ufficio di Belle Arti a Trieste, Archivio fotografico, Capodistria, prov. di Pola, Ex Istituto Magistrale ora scuola marinara – affresco nella volta del sottoportico, ottobre 1939, nr. 5722.
[2] ALISI s. a., mentions that in the 18th century (i.e., at the time of the reconstruction of the monastery complex) and during the restoration in the 20th century, no attention was paid to the tombstones of the individual noble families, embedded in the floor of the cloister as well as in the walls. In the same text, he mentions one of the elaborate tombstones in the great cloister: that of the Carli family bearing a carving of a man in full knightly outfit, who, according to Alisio, was “indubiamente del Trecento”. We do not know how many tombstones of knights the cloister of the Minorite Monastery contained in the 14th century. However, the Mary on the Throne fresco could be a votive image of the Carli family. For more information about the families whose tombstones were located in the monastery’s cloister, cf. ALISI s. a.; BONIN 2004, p. 114.

Francesco Semi concluded that the lunette and the fresco of Mary on the Throne with Child and Saints, uncovered to the right of the portal with the lunette, formed a part of a cycle dedicated to St Francis. However, it is more likely that the two murals were created at different times and that the Mary on the Throne fresco is a votive image, most probably a part of the tombstone decoration of one of the noble knightly families buried there.[1]

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[1] SEMI 1975, pp. 396–397.

Technical analysis

Pigments: presumably white lime, yellow ochre, red earth, organic black, umber (?), azurite (?)

Analytical techniques: /

As no samples have been obtained, the precise composition of the plaster remains unknown, though it probably consists of lime and sand. When the mural was taken down, it was discovered that there was also a rougher layer of arriccio under the smoother intonaco, which was also removed.

Without samples, it is impossible to carry out any chemical analyses. However, traces of brighter and darker ochre, pink, red, and dark blue have been preserved. This suggests a standard medieval painting palette, i.e. white lime, yellow ochre, red earth, perhaps azurite, and probably some sort of organic black. The painter might have also used brown umber. Many of the pigments must also have been impregnated with some organic binder (egg yolk, animal glue, or casein), while lime was also used, to a lesser extent.

The mural’s poor state of preservation suggests that most of it was painted al secco. It is likely that at least some of the colour layers were applied to a still-fresh plaster. However, without samples, this cannot be confirmed.

During the mural’s removal, a sinopia was discovered under Mary with Jesus. It was applied in yellow, red, and grey colours using a broad brush. The painter used red colour to draw a few vertical and horizontal lines, perhaps to divide the space, although the lines are not evenly spaced. He then outlined the figures in grey, as a few strokes can still be discerned both on Mary’s drapery and Jesus’ halo and drapery. He emphasised the final form with yellow, which he also used to more precisely shape all the elements of the composition. As the mural painted on the intonaco is in extremely poor condition, it is almost impossible to evaluate the painting process and modelling. We can glean a few characteristics from the preserved black-and-white photographs of the mural, taken while it was still in situ. The shapes of the round halos, incised with double lines and decorated with ray-shaped pouncings, have been preserved. Jesus’ halo was designed with a central cross, which functions as a four-leaf clover; only the four leaves feature pouncings. The architecture behind Mary was also incised with thin lines (Fig. 6). The black-and-white photograph still shows Mary’s beautiful oval face, featuring a straight nose and pouted, fleshy mouth. The eyebrows rise steeply from the nasal root, straighten out high above the eye, and end above the last third of the eye. Mary’s hands are narrow and feature excessively long and thin parallel fingers. Meanwhile, the figure of Jesus and the face of St Francis had been mostly destroyed already before the mural was taken down. The colour modelling can no longer be determined.

Gallery

Koper, Monastery and Church of St Francis, Stage 3 (Koper, Monastery and Church of St Francis), 2024 (last updated 7. 1. 2025). Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi, https://corpuspicturarum.zrc-sazu.si/en/poslikava/phase-3-koper/ (27. 8. 2025).

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