Location
Slovenia, Malečnik
Parish Church of St Peter (Župnijska cerkev sv. Petra)
Artwork
Side Altar of St Francis Xavier in the Parish Church of St Peter in Malečnik
Type
Side altar
Dimensions
Height: 340 cm, width: 190 cm, depth: 50 cm
Inscriptions
- SV. APOLONIA (on the base of the sculpture of St Apollonia)
- SV. LUCIA (on the base of the sculpture of St Lucy)
- Mili darovi za cerkev (on the new predella in front of the altar)
Critical History
In the Parish Church of St Peter in Malečnik there are six side altars placed in the side chapels, facing the entrance. Sergej Vrišer attributed two of them (the altars of St Francis Xavier and St Anthony of Padua) to Joseph Straub and all the others to Philipp Jakob Straub.1 Vrišer also wrote that according to the chronicle, the polychromy was done by Dominik Cocconi in 1746.2
The side altar of St Francis Xavier is placed in the last chapel on the right side of the church. The altar painting with the depiction of St Francis Xavier baptising a black man is usually attributed to a certain Gottieb Gessor, because of the signature which used to be on the painting, but is lost today.3
On the left side of the painting, there is a sculpture of St Apollonia, and on the right of St Lucy. Both sculptures have many similarities with the sculpture of St Lucy from Podlehnik. One should point out also the ornamentation of the altar – for example the wreaths of roses on the upper part of the altar painting – which is significant for Joseph Straub`s altars.
Construction / Execution
The altar is made of wood and is placed on the stone altar table. The sculptures and ornaments imitate gold. The clouds, attributes and some decoration parts on sculptures are imitating silver.
Components
- Painting
- Painting of St Francis Xavier
- Technique(s): oil on canvas
- Carpentry
- Carpentry
- Technique(s): sawing, wood carving
- Material(s): softwood
- Sculpture
- Sculpture
- Author: Joseph Straub (Wiesensteig 1712 – Maribor 1756)
- Completed: 1746
- Technique(s): wood carving
- Material(s): limewood
- Polychromy
- Polychromy
- Author: Dominicus Cagoni
- Completed: 1746 –
- Technique(s): oil, water gilding
- Material(s): bole, calcium carbonate, gold leaf, natural resin, silver leaf, size
- Polychromy
- First repolychromy
- Technique(s): oil
- Material(s): oil
- Polychromy
- Second repolychromy
- Technique(s): oil, oil gilding
- Material(s): metal leaf, oil
Comment
The side altar has two repolychromies except for the sculptures of St Apollonia and St Lucy, which only have one thin layer of repolychromy. The original polychromy of the architecture imitates marble in brown-orange and grey-green shades. It is well preserved under the oil painting repolychromies. There is dirt on the saints' skin surface. The construction of the altar is in a stable condition. The limewood of the sculptures and ornaments is badly infested by wood-boring insects. There are some losses of ornamental carving. The ground is lifting, cracking and there are some paint losses. Some gilded parts are covered with metal leaves.
Images
- The side altar of St Francis Xavier in the Parish Church of St Peter in Malečnik (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The upper part of the side altar of St Francis Xavier in Malečnik (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The sculpture of St Apollonia (Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, photo by Valentin Benedik, 2018)
- The sculpture of St Lucy (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, Side Altar of St Francis Xavier in the Parish Church of St Peter in Malečnik, in: TrArS – Tracing the Art of the Straub Family, 2018, (accessed 23/10/2025) URL
