Graduate restorer Boris Frohberg spent his summer in Slovakia this year and visited two exciting exhibitions for us in Košice, which were dedicated to the important Slovakian restorer Mária Spoločníková and the famous late Gothic master Paul von Leutschau. From an art historical perspective, 2017 in Slovakia is the 500th anniversary of the installation of a […]

Graduate restorer Boris Frohberg spent his summer in Slovakia this year and visited two exciting exhibitions for us in Košice, which were dedicated to the important Slovakian restorer Mária Spoločníková and the famous late Gothic master Paul von Leutschau.

From an art-historical perspective, 2017 in Slovakia is dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the installation of a wooden winged altar by the woodcarver Master Paul of Levoča in the Basilica of St. Jacob in Levoča. He is undoubtedly the most famous late Gothic artist who worked in what is now Slovakia. In this context, the East Slovakian Gallery in Košice and St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice dedicated themselves to the life’s work of a well-known restorer: the 90th birthday of Mária Spoločníková was used as an occasion for this tribute. The two exhibitions painted a representative picture of the life and work of this important Slovakian restorer and contributed to research into the works of Master Pavel from Levoča.
The chamber exhibition of the Eastern Slovak Gallery (sometimes also called the Eastern European Gallery) and in St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice showed the most important works of Gothic art that Mária Spoločníková restored, but also those that are less well known. They include altars, epitaphs, panel paintings and painted sculptures alike and demonstrate the quality of her restoration work.

Košice is confident in its approach to restoration history

The presentations show an appreciation of the restoration ethic that we are still very familiar with from the second half of the 20th century. From today’s perspective, it seems quite courageous to confidently stand by the large-scale or complete repainting and re-gilding of the Gothic sculptures, even if these have been documented by studies. Nevertheless, it should be noted that they could have been critically scrutinized as a side note. In this context, the layered staircases running vertically across the face are striking. This is a procedure that was still common in academic restoration a few decades ago, which seems familiar to us older restorers, but today is usually hidden from the critical public. Which colleague would have the courage to admit these earlier mistakes in a comparable exhibition project in Germany and confidently present this approach in the context of restoration history as a (modern) work of art, bearing his or her own signature?

The exhibitions were enriched by multivisual presentations, tangible plaster casts of medieval Madonna sculptures (haptic facsimiles), X-ray images and analysis protocols. They bear witness to the fact that basic scientific research was taken very seriously and provide an insight into the restoration methods used. In the south tower of St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice, the X-ray images are also interpreted as works of art and can be experienced as spatial installations. These representations add a further aspect. Here, the scientific instrument moves into the realm of fine art and takes on a life of its own as an independent work of art – effectively staged.

Mária Spoločníková belongs to the first generation of professional Slovakian restorers

The exhibition also provides a threefold view of the artwork: of the work in the restoration workshop (in the museum), of the artwork in its original location (in the cathedral) and of a by-product of the scientific work, as an independent artwork (south tower of the cathedral). In retrospect, it remains to be said that the appreciation of the life’s work of a female restorer is a rarity in our part of the world and is worthy of the attention of local experts. Mária Spoločníková belongs to the first generation of professional Slovakian restorers. “Our most important works of medieval art have passed through her hands,” explains curator Katarína Nádska.

Information:

Curator of the exhibition: Katarína Nádaská
Collaboration: Juraj Gembický, Ľudmila Zozuľáková
Translations: Janka Jurečková, Denisa Herelová, Veronika Mikulová
Digitization of the photo documentation: Ondrej Rychnavský
Technical cooperation: Copyvait, Esolutions, Union of Blind and Visually Impaired Slovakia, Vis Gravis
Partners: St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice, Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava

The exhibition was supported by the Fund for the Promotion of Art from Public Sources.