jam na Kranjskem delujočih flamskih in holandskih slikarjev druge polovice
XVII. stoletja, Acta historiae artis Slovenica, II, 1997, pp. 33–52), ki ob števil-
nih novih arhivskih podatkih o flamskih in nizozemskih slikarjih na
Kranjskem popravlja tudi edino letnico, po kateri se je časovno opredeljevalo
Almanachovo bivanje v teh krajih: njegova, danes izgubljena portreta zakoncev
Erberg, namreč nista nastala leta 1667, ampak gotovo šele leta 1676 (LUBEJ, op.
cit., p. 44).
V zgodovino slikarstva 17. stoletja Stoparjeva knjiga tako razen
nekaj zmede žal ne prinaša nič novega. Upamo pa, da bo spodbudila nove
raziskave celjskega stropa, ki bi natančneje opredelile avtorstvo in datacijo, ter
nadaljevanje študija grajskih poslikav poznega 17. stoletja. 
Sonja @itko, Ljubljana
TOMBSTONES OF CELEBRATED PERSONS 
IN THE FUNCTION OF PUBLIC MONUMENT 
IN 19
TH
CENTURY SLOVENE CEMETERIES
*
The point at which the focus of the tombstone and the public mon-
ument meet is the homage paid to a celebrated person and the simultaneous
preservation of his or her memory. The idea of a monument, erected in a pub-
lic place and dedicated to all kinds of nationally important personalities,
strengthened with the rise of the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution and
even more after 1848, expanding into the bourgeois cult of monuments in the
final third of the 19th century. The need to erect monuments, particularly to
illustrious cultural and scientific figures, was clearly demonstrated in Germany
partly before and generally after 1848 as one of the most prestigious methods
of self-assertion of the educated bourgeois. Because the educated bourgeois
were also the standard bearers of the national idea, such monuments were
simultaneously national monuments or (to quote Thomas Nipperdey) “nation-
al-cultural” monuments. In line with the cult of the poet, the liberal bour-
geoisie identified itself primarily in the poet himself. After 1848, when the
nations of the Habsburg Monarchy also began to follow German models, the
monument to the poet represented a symbol of national identity; it embodied
the national idea, national and national-cultural consciousness, and bourgeois
political self-confidence at the same time. 
The prevailing cult of monuments also invaded the cemeteries.
The tombstones of more or less important personalities acquired monumental
proportions, and some of them were granted the formal role of monument. The
tombstone became the symbol through which the bourgeoisie asserted itself,
demonstrated its social and financial status, glorified itself and paid tribute to
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its great representatives. I would like to emphasise here that the development
of funerary art and the art of monument was parallel. With its orientation
towards individualism and historicism in the Romantic period, classicist archi-
tectural tombstones were replaced by sepulchral sculpture. As with monu-
ments, the most important role here was played by the rendering of an indi-
vidual. Through the portrait itself, in the form of either a bust or a portrait
medallion, tombstones acquired monumental dimensions. In short, a public
monument and not a tombstone prevailed as the most important public pre-
sentation and affirmation of a famous personality, because the cemetery was
only a semi-public place. According to Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, de-
mands to set up a public monument, not just a tombstone, appeared in France
even before the middle of the century. After mid-century, a tombstone as well
as a public monument was set up. It then became the practice – if it was impos-
sible to erect a monument in a public place, because the person in question was
either of minor importance, or it was politically inappropriate – that the tomb-
stone took over the character of the monument. Whereas other tombstones
were primarily commissioned by families, the erection of such tombstones – as
with monuments – was subject to the establishment of committees, and con-
tributions were solicited from the public at large.
The Habsburg Monarchy of the pre-March period, as a conglom-
erate of nations, was already defined by “linguistic nationalism”, by nations
(including the Slovenes) striving for their emancipation and by issues of their
national cultural identity. Along with state (Austrian) patriotism, the Slovenes
– in spite of the opposition of the regime – also slowly developed a modern na-
tional consciousness. Generally speaking, provincial patriotism prevailed,
which was an important factor in the process of emancipation of the nations
in the Monarchy. Around the beginning of the 1840s, a class of nationally-con-
scious Slovene educated bourgeois started to form, which became the bearer
of the political and national movement. It played a decisive role in national
emancipation, in the development of the Slovene national idea and in the
strengthening of the national cultural consciousness and self-confidence in the
period up to 1914. After 1848, the Slovenes also achieved political affirmation
in the Monarchy, through an active Slovene national-political movement.
Throughout the period before the First World War, they had to face more or
less constant issues, from economic and social ones, to issues arising from lin-
guistic inequality (in most provinces, German and Italian prevailed as official
languages) and from ethnic division resulting from the administrative division
of the Slovene lands into provinces, ranging from national differentiation and
painful German nationalism to slow urbanisation, industrialisation and the
growth of a capitalist bourgeoisie. Naturally, the Slovenes strove all this time
for the affirmation of the Slovene identity and the Slovene language as the
basis of the formation of a national identity – particularly in opposition to the
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German language – and dedicated themselves to raising the level and status of
culture and education. 
Whereas the generally scarce public monuments of the pre-March
period primarily conveyed provincial and country patriotism, the modern
national consciousness presented itself in the erection of tombstones to per-
sonalities that reinforced the Slovene national and cultural identity. The mem-
ories of the poet Valentin Vodnik, the philologist Matija Čop, and the play-
wright and historian Anton T. Linhart were honoured by placing their tomb-
stones in the municipal cemetery of Ljubljana in 1840. The nationally con-
scious liberal poet, France Prešeren, composed an epitaph in Slovene for Čop
and Linhart, and selected verses from one of his own poems for Vodnik.
Finally, the Slovene language affirmed itself, which was never to be found in
inscriptions on public monuments from that period and was even rarely found
on tombstones of the time. The neoclassicist tombstones of these three great
Slovenes still cannot be said to function as public monuments, but they cer-
tainly show obvious monumental pretensions. 
Ljubljana was the centre of the most Slovene province, Carniola.
It was here after 1848 that all attention was paid to the erection of public mon-
uments to Slovenes deserving the gratitude of their nation. Through them, the
Slovenes – and consequently also liberal, educated, bourgeoisie – would be
affirmed. The personalities with whom they identified were the poets Vodnik
and, especially, Prešeren, who became a national poet, a national myth, towards
the end of the century. As late as the late 1880s, the Slovenes, due to unfavo-
urable political, economic and cultural conditions, were unsuccessful in realis-
ing most major monumental projects. However, in slowly developing urban
cemeteries, monumental tombstones to Slovenes that had contributed to Slo-
vene literature, culture and science started to appear in increasing numbers. At
the same time, the Slovenes began to set up tombstones to figures that were
important for their national cultural identity and political affirmation. These
functioned as public monuments. They were compensation for the lack in the
area of monuments. Among the selected personalities we find national politi-
cal leaders although, as with the art of monuments, poets and writers took
precedence. Such a practice can also be seen in the other nations of the Monar-
chy; among the Czechs, for example. Initiatives for the erection of such tomb-
stones came from the same circles as for monuments. Committees were
formed, in most cases within cultural and literary societies. The collection of
donations was a broad public activity, and they were inaugurated with appro-
priate Slovene national celebrations. All of this was an explicit presentation of
Slovene national political and national cultural consciousness and self-confi-
dence. Through their form, as well as with the portrait of the deceased or their
size, the tombstones were given a monumental imprint, and a national imprint
through the inscriptions in Slovene and the declarative contents.
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The first tombstone to adopt the character of a monument was
that of Prešeren. The campaign to honour the poet with a prestigious tomb-
stone lasted three years, from the poet’s death to 1852, when the tombstone in
the Kranj cemetery was inaugurated and unveiled with a ceremony appropriate
for a public monument. Two components occurred here, unknown in practice
until then: a special committee was formed for the occasion and appeals for
contributions were addressed to the public at large. A column-type memorial
was selected, with elements of neo-Romanesque style that, in contrast to the
neo-Gothic as a German style, was considered to be a Slovene or Slavic style.
The memorial related to the Slovene tradition of sacral monuments. The
national emphasis thus emerged in the form of the tombstone, as well as in the
Slovene dedication and selected verses of the poet. In the 1870s two more
tombstones were created as public monuments. Through a collection of con-
tributions, a special committee had a tombstone erected to the poet Simon
Jenko in the Kranj cemetery. It was unveiled with a national ceremony. The
tombstone is larger than Prešeren’s, its quotations from Romanesque formal
vocabulary are more expressive and, in addition to the obligatory lyre, it is
adorned with the poet’s portrait. The collection of contributions for the tomb-
stone for Anton Tomšič, the first Slovene professional journalist and a central
figure of the political and national movement in Slovene Styria, was a success-
ful national political campaign. The tombstone in the form of an obelisk was
set up in the cemetery in Maribor. Today it stands as a public monument in the
town centre. In 1881 a special board, with the help of contributions, set up a
tombstone in neo-Greek style, over three meters high, for the author Josip
Jurčič in the municipal cemetery in Ljubljana. The solemn inauguration was
reported by all the newspapers of the day. The fashioning of these tombstones
was entrusted exclusively to local master stone cutters and sculptors. With
Jenko and Jurčič, the inscriptions with selected quotations from their works
relate to national emancipation, whereas with Tomšič the inscription “To the
brave champion of freedom and progress of the Slovene nation” also has a “rev-
olutionary” connotation. In each case, Slovene patriots or the Slovene nation
are cited as the initiators of the tombstones. None of the three men received a
public monument in the period in question. 
The cult of monuments, as bourgeois public monuments to various
worthy persons, through which – as a distinguishable sign – towns, major and
minor municipalities and regions present and affirm themselves, started spread-
ing towards the end of the 19th century and before the First World War. The
most important national monuments are those to Vodnik (inaugurated in 1889)
and Prešeren (inaugurated in 1905) in Ljubljana. They serve the political affir-
mation of the Slovene liberal bourgeoisie and simultaneously a confirmation of
the city of Ljubljana as the cultural and political capital. Slovene Styria, in partic-
ular, also produced monuments that conveyed a pro-German consciousness. 
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In a similar way, bourgeois funerary art flourished, along with
sepulchral sculpture. The richest and the most prestigious art was found for the
most part in the economically developed major urban centres of Ljubljana,
Maribor, Celje and Koper, and naturally also in Trieste. Considering that dur-
ing this time the Slovenes could and did realise monumental projects, the char-
acter of public monument was mostly held by tombstones erected to such per-
sonalities that were considered to be nationally and politically controversial. It
is understandable that only a tombstone and not a public monument could be
considered upon the death of the poet Simon Gregorčič, who underlined the
Slovene national idea in his patriotic poems, and especially resistance to
German oppression. In Gorizia a committee for a monument started collecting
donations, announced a public competition and then commissioned the mon-
ument from a fellow countryman, the sculptor Anton Bitežnik. On an obelisk-
type stele, Bitežnik combined a portrait medallion and a selected presentation
of Gregorčič’s poems, symbolising the struggle of Slovenes for emancipation.
The monument was erected in the cemetery near the poet’s native village,
Vrsno, and was unveiled in 1908, with great national celebration. This was a
manifestation of the Slovene liberal bourgeoisie in the Gorizia area and its
national cultural and national political consciousness. The erection of a tomb-
stone to the September victims as a public monument, because of its explicit
national political character, was however impossible during the monarchy. In
the decade prior to the First World War, national conflict between German and
Slovene urban populations, especially in Carinthia and Slovene Styria, escalat-
ed into demonstrations and clashes. Furthermore, in September 1908, there
were two fatalities in Ljubljana in anti-German demonstrations. Immediately
afterwards, a special national committee invited entries to a public competition
for a monument to them. The sculptor selected, Svetoslav Peruzzi, completed
a marble female figure and bronze relief medallion with a double portrait of
the young men, which was to adorn the cover of the sepulchre, in Vienna in
1910. Only in 1933 was the sculpture placed on the tomb of the two victims in
the municipal cemetery in Ljubljana. The stylised and simplified statue, remi-
niscent of a grooved column, enjoys monumental quality. The figure was called
by contemporaries the “Genius of Slovenia”. It is a personification of sadness,
and an allegory of the nation: Slovenia mourning her sons. 
(Prevedla Tatjana Culiberg)
* Preliminarna verzija besedila za zbornik referatov na mednarodnem kolokviju
Mémoire sculptée de l'Europe et de ses aires d'influence XVII
e
– XX
e
siècle, ki je bil od
3. do 4. decembra 2001 v Strasbourgu. V zborniku bo objavljeno razširjeno in z znanstve-
nim aparatom opremljeno besedilo v francoščini. 
V referatu obravnavam nagrobnik slavnim osebnostim v vlogi javnega spomenika na
slovenskih pokopališčih v 19. stoletju. Glede na to, da je jedro stičišča nagrobnika z javn-
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im spomenikom v počastitvi slavne osebnosti in obenem ohranjanju spomina nanjo,
najprej predstavim spomeniško dejavnost v nemških deželah po letu 1848. Nato opo-
zorim na sočasno prakso v Franciji, namreč, da je, v kolikor spomenika na javnem pros-
toru niso mogli postaviti, bodisi zato, ker je bila izbrana osebnost manj pomembna,
bodisi zato, ker je bila politično neprimerna, nagrobnik prevzel značaj spomenika.
Potem ko so po letu 1848 tudi narodi v habsburški monarhiji začeli slediti nemškim
vzorom, je javni spomenik zaslužni osebnosti – predvsem pesniku, veljal kot simbol
nacionalne identitete, v njem se je utelešala nacionalna ideja, nacionalna in nacionalno
kulturna zavest in obenem meščanska politična samozavest. Vse obvladujoči
spomeniški kult, ki se je razširil zlasti v zadnji tretjini 19. stoletja, je prodrl tudi na
pokopališča, in nagrobniki bolj ali manj pomembnih osebnosti so imeli spomeniške pre-
tenzije, nekaterim pa so dodelili vlogo spomenika. Na Slovenskem v predmarčni dobi
sta se pri redkih javnih spomenikih izražala predvsem deželni in državni patriotizem,
moderna nacionalna zavest pa se je prezentirala v postavljanju nagrobnikov za sloven-
sko nacionalno in kulturno identiteto zaslužnim osebnostim. Nagrobniki Vodnika,
Čopa in Linharta iz leta 1840 na mestnem pokopališču v Ljubljani imajo očitne spome-
niške pretenzije, v epitafih  pa se uveljavi slovenščina. Slovenci tja do poznih osemde-
setih let 19. stoletja zaradi neugodnih političnih, gospodarskih in kulturnih razmer niso
uspeli realizirati večino večjih spomeniških projektov. Na počasi razvijajočih se urban-
ih pokopališčih pa narodno zavedno izobražensko meščanstvo začne postavljati nagrob-
nike za nacionalno kulturno identiteto in narodno politično afirmacijo pomembnim
osebnostim, ki so imeli funkcijo javnega spomenika. Bili so nadomestilo za primankljaj
na spomeniškem področju. Med izbranci najdemo narodno politične voditelje, pred-
vsem pa so tako kot pri spomeniški umetnosti prednjačili pesniki oziroma pisatelji. Za
postavitve takšnih nagrobnikov so prišle pobude iz istih krogov kot za spomenike,
ustanavljali so odbore, največkrat v okviru kulturnih in literarnih društev, zbiranje
prispevkov je bila široka javna akcija, odkrili pa so jih z ustreznimi slovenskimi narod-
nimi slovesnostmi (nagrobnik pesnikoma F. Prešernu in S. Jenku v Kranju, pisatelju J.
Jurčiču v Ljubljani, časnikarju in političnemu voditelju A. Tomšiču v Mariboru). V vsem
tem se je izrazito prezentirala slovenska nacionalno politična in nacionalno kulturna
zavest in samozavest. Z obliko, tudi s portretom pokojnega ali z velikostjo, so nagrob-
nikom vtisnili spomeniški pečat, nacionalnega pa z napisi v slovenskem jeziku in
deklarativno vsebino. Pri vseh so kot postavitelji navedeni slovenski patrioti oziroma
slovenski narod. Jenko, Jurčič in Tomšič v obravnavanem obdobju niso dobili javnega
spomenika. Glede na to, da so Slovenci proti koncu 19. stoletja in v času pred I. sve-
tovno vojno lahko uresničili in uresničevali zastavljene spomeniške projekte, so imeli
značaj javnega spomenika predvsem nagrobniki postavljeni takšnim osebnostim, ki so
veljali za nacionalno politično sporne (nagrobnik pesniku S. Gregorčiča pri Sv. Lov-
rencu na Libušnjem iz leta 1908). Postavitev nagrobnika kot javnega spomenika dvema
mladeničema, ki sta padla v protinemških demonstracijah v Ljubljani septembra 1908
pa zaradi svojega izrazito nacionalno političnega značaja v monarhiji sploh ni bila
možna. Projekt so lahko realizirali šele leta 1933 in kip »Genij Slovenije« postavili na
grob obeh žrtev na mestnem pokopališču v Ljubljani. 
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