The project titled “Transformacije – iz materialnega v virtualno. Digitalni korpus stenskega slikarstva – nove razsežnosti raziskav srednjeveške umetnosti v Sloveniji” (Transformations – from Material to Virtual. Digital Corpus of Mural Painting – New Dimensions of Medieval Art Research in Slovenia, J6-2587) took place between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2024 at the France Stele Institute of Art History of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, with the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, as its project partner.

The primary goal of the project, led by Associate Professor Dr Mija Oter Gorenčič, has been to establish a bilingual online scientific corpus of medieval mural painting in Slovenia with the universal title Corpus picturarum muralium medii aevi. Since no representative corpora of medieval mural painting for an entire country exist yet, and as the Slovenian territory is geographically manageable, the project group hopes to create a model corpus and eventually connect it with the corpora currently being developed in other countries. As the Slovenian corpus would thus become a part of a global, interconnected, all-European database of medieval mural painting, it was deliberately given a Latin name. In the framework of the project, a corpus of mural paintings in the territory of today’s Slovenia until approximately 1380 has been created. During subsequent projects, it will be further upgraded to include murals until around 1500.

The corpus, consisting of the most diverse aspects of analysing medieval mural paintings, can be searched according to various criteria. It includes thematic maps, a glossary of technical terms, and the following contents for each location: historical information, architectural development, state of research with bibliography, technical drawings of the murals, photographic documentation, floor plans, 360° photos, written and visual sources, level of preservation, description, stylistic analysis, iconographic analysis, analysis of the iconographic programme, dating, authorship, patronage, particularities of the execution, technical analysis, restoration interventions, and reception. For each location, parameters have been selected according to relevance. Such an in-depth analysis, far superior to all the previous attempts, has led to many new discoveries. The research that has been carried out has thus yielded several new attributions, datings, connections, iconographic interpretations, and new realisations related to patronage. Chemical analyses for all locations have also been carried out, and the results are presented in the relevant sections of the corpus.

The comprehensive digital corpus ensures a much better understanding of medieval mural paintings and represents a crucial research tool for future research, as it provides many new possibilities for medieval mural painting research and facilitates the identification of patterns and phenomena that have been overlooked until now.

All textual and visual materials published on the digital corpus website constitute the copyrighted work of the project team’s members and associates. As such, it is prohibited to copy, modify, or reproduce the corpus for any purposes or in any manner except with written consent from the France Stele Institute of Art History of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The citation method is indicated for each location. For visual materials authored or copyrighted by other persons or institutions, the relevant information is clearly stated.

The remaining project results can be found at the following link: https://uifs.zrc-sazu.si/sl/programi-in-projekti/transformacije-iz-materialnega-v-virtualno-digitalni-korpus-stenskega