The Collection of Baroque Art is a well established term for a
collection that is dominated by Baroque but actually includes
stylistically diverse central European artwork from the period of 16th -
18th century. The focus of the collection always was and remains on
works from the territory from what is now Slovakia.
The forming of the collection began with the founding of the SNG in 1948 and the acquisition of two high quality canvases by J. Bogdan, a native of Prešov with Dutch training. The foundation of the collection consists of works from the Slovak Museum, the Ministry of Education and Adult Education and abandoned and confiscated aristocratic estates. It later grew with the gradual acquisition activities carried out by the expert staff of the gallery.
An overview of the acquisitions of the past
decades (1970 - 80; 1989 - 2000) has also been presented to the general
public in the form of independent exhibitions with catalogues. The
creating of this collection of fine art expression of Central Europe
with an emphasis on the current territory of Slovakia was accompanied by
research and interpretation studies of individual works of art that
were compiled in the scientific catalogue of the collection published by
the SNG in the FONTES series (M. Keleti, 1983). Certain data were
subsequently updated in the SNG publication Art of Slovakia (Bratislava
1996).
The publication A History of Slovak Fine Art - Baroque (edit. I. Rusina, SNG Bratislava 1998) presents the newest overview to date of Baroque art development in Slovakia with the incorporation of some of the works of the above mentioned SNG collection. A representative sample from this collection was also included in the publication entitled 111 Works from the SNG Collections (ed. D. Buran, K. Müllerová, SNG Bratislava 2008) on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the SNG.
The collection is continuously growing through new acquisitions, whose selection is focused on the purchase of works by key artists, as well as quality examples of fine art implementations from local art centres. The most noteworthy of these recent acquisitions are the Lichtenstein casts of Character Heads by F. X. Messerschmidt which added to the largest collection in the property of the SNG.
The collection of damaged works of Baroque art of the 18th century, which the SNG acquired from Kremnica (all but one of which have been restored and presented to the general public), is also unique.This collection features an iconographically unique carving of Plague Crucifix from the beginning of the 18th century, the painting, Adoration of the Magi according to the model of Italian artist, C. Maratta, and a trio of large altar canvases by A. Schmidt, one of the key Baroque artists of the Central Slovak mining towns. They are the following: St. Peter of Alcantara from the Loretto Chapel of Kremnica's Franciscan Monastery; The Death of St. Joseph and Crucifixion from the side altars of the former parish Church of Beatified Virgin Mary in Kremnica).
In addition to the exhibitions mentioned above, acquisitions and smaller exhibitions of restored items of this collection between 1580 and 1780 have been presented in numerous SNG exhibitions, as well as in exhibitions of other domestic and foreign institutions. Twenty-four Baroque works from this exhibition were first displayed in 1966 in Bratislava and later in Zvolen at the retrospective exhibition of a team of authors entitled Twelve Centuries of Fine Art in Slovakia. In comparison with the first presentation of Baroque from Slovakia in Prague in 1937 (Old Art of Slovakia) this comprised a smaller set. The Bratislava exhibition pointed out not only the imbalance between the extent of this collection in comparison with Gothic and 19th century art but also the lack of research on this period.
Intensified acquisition activities and expert research enabled the SNG to open an even more abundant exposition in spring 1977. Shortly afterwards it was reduced to a fragment based on the orders of superiors; however in 1981 it was again complemented according to the original scenario, when a collection of icons from northeast Slovakia was added.
In 1994, the reinstallation of the
SNG's permanent exposition under the title, Baroque Art of Slovakia,
constituted a new opportunity to present the collection in its full
breadth, from works from the end of the 16th century featuring the early
positions of modern art up to the fading of Baroque with an indication
of the trends from the end of the 18th century.
The current
form of the permanent exposition, which is smaller but more related to
its title in terms of content, is from 2001. This collection (except for
publications) is presented at short-term and long-term SNG exhibitions
such as the exhibitions from the cycle A History of Slovak Fine Art -
Baroque (1998) and Renaissance (2009), both accompanied by extensive
publications. Recently, the exhibition-publication projects Place of
Miracles: Baroque Altar Transformations (2005) Ars Inter Arma.: Art and
Culture of Early Modern Times in Eastern Slovakia (2008), Industrial
Country? Central Slovak Mining Towns in the 16th - 18th Century (2010)
and parts of SNG Non-Permanent Exposition (2014) were dedicated to the
issues of Baroque art that dominate in the collection.