|
|
|
DEUTSCH_
EngliSH
The history of the
Castle:
A three-storey Renaissance castle with extensive estate buildings, the noble
seat was built on the Parz lands in the market town of Grieskirchen in 1515.
The new castle was built using material from the earlier moated fortress of
Tegernbach. Permission to build was granted to Sigmund Ludwig von Polham by
the Emperor Maximilian I as an inscription at the entrance records. After
completion of the building work a highly provocative fresco cycle
illustrating the system of beliefs of a Protestant noble was painted on the
southern facade of this country seat and castle on the commission of Sigmund
Polheimer. The 100 metre long fresco sequence dates from around 1580.
History of the painting:
The sequence of images painted with the compliance and probably the direct
influence of the proprietor that is to some extent striking in the message
it presents, is a unique testimony to the massive conflict between the
Catholics and Protestants of the time that was carried out on virtually all
levels in the life of the times. The plainest indicator of the ideological
nature of this work (the iconography of which has only recently been
deciphered) is a representation of pope and clergy at the side of the
Egyptians being swallowed by the waves of the Red Sea in the Old Testament
scene of the pursuit of the Israelites. This scene alone would appear to
have been sufficient grounds for the painting over of the frescos during the
Counter Reformation in the 17th century. The self-assured posture of the
Upper Austrian country nobility, autonomous in questions of belief and
acting on their own responsibility, or directly under that of God, is put as
a challenge to the conformity of belief compelled under Catholic absolutism.
This form of Protestantism was only able to continue later ”under the
surface”.
Restoring the frescos:
The frescos began to more or less reveal themselves as the baroque stucco
peeled and crumbled away from the images below. The task of the
international team of restorers was to completely remove the layers above
the paintings, to consolidate the base for the paintings and to do some
restoring work, but simply as an aid to seeing the frescos with all
restoration clearly recognisable as such and differentiated from the
original. The result is a game with time and transience independent of the
quality of the work. It is an attempt to explore the intention, the material
and artistic techniques employed and ultimately an approach to the original
historic state in the awareness that this can never be fully achieved.
Sources:
http://www.burgenkunde.at/oberoesterreich/parz/parz.htm |
