CULTURE: ART

During the twelfth century. Slovenian architecture is characterized by Romanesque and Byzantine elements, often mixed together, alongside still pre-Romanesque characters. The Gothic it appeared in the region in the second half of the 13th century. and dominated the architecture until the seventeenth century. Significant examples of this style are the Cistercian church of Kostanjevica, dating from the 13th century, and the late Gothic churches of Crngrob (14th-15th century) and Kranj (1491). Gothic also achieved remarkable results in painting (fresco of the “macabre dance” in the church of the Holy Trinity in Hrastovlje) and in sculpture (carved altar in the church of the Virgin Mary in Ptujska Gora). With the seventeenth century the late-Baroque style of the Italian masters was established, to whom we owe the cathedral of San Nicola, built on the designs of A. Pozzo, and the church of the Crociferi by D. Rossi in Ljubljana. Strongly influenced by Italian sculpture is the Slovenian sculptor of Venetian origin F. Robba, also active in Croatia. In the field of painting one of the masters of the time is considered F. Bergant, author of the Stations of the Cross in the abbey church of Sticna. In the nineteenth century. Slovenian painting followed the trends that were establishing themselves on the art scene in Austria and Germany, while classicism prevailed in architecture. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in reaction to the devastation caused by the earthquake in Ljubljana in 1895, there was a great urban renewal thanks to the representatives of the secessionist movement, and in particular of M. Fabiani and I. Vurnik. J. Plečnik contributed decisively to the rebirth of the city with his eclecticism, combining neoclassical inspiration with ideas drawn from the Egyptian, Byzantine and Islamic world. Always at the dawn of the twentieth century.Slovenian Impressionists, including I. Grohar, R. Jakopic and M. Sternen, were close to the Yugoslav national unity movement; but after the unification of 1918 with Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a reaction to impressionism developed in Slovenia, as well as in other regions, which ended with the birth of an expressionist movement, whose main exponents were F and T. Kralj, founders of the “Club of Independents”. According to globalsciencellc, after the end of the Second World War, art conformed for a certain period to the canons of socialist realism, whose greatest representatives were the sculptors I. Savinšek and L. Dolinar, while around the middle of the century new currents emerged in Ljubljana that were linked to the European artistic avant-garde and which received a new impetus after the proclamation of the independence of the Slovenian Republic in 1991. The multimedia group Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK, New Slovenian Art) and the Irwin Cooperative, founded by five artists who renounced their individuality to express themselves in collective form. The NSK group is also open to other artistic expressions, welcoming the Betontanc dance troupe, an exponent of an expressive form that mixes live music with choreography,

CULTURE: MUSIC

The musical tradition in this European area has its roots in the mists of time, as evidenced by the discovery in a cave near Cerkno, in 1995, of a sort of bone flute, datable between 15,000 and 35,000 years ago and considered the most ancient musical instrument of which we have news. In historical times, the ethnic-linguistic variety found on the Slovenian territory has in turn generated a great variety of texts and musical forms that reflect themes and rites, many of which have disappeared (P. Merkù has collected and transcribed over 600). The songs are generally for two voices without accompaniment, sometimes in style drone, and when accompany traditional festivals often have a magical quality, as Kresnice for St. John’s Day. However, cultured music is influenced by the West; the first book of songs in Slovenian dates back to 1576 by P. Trubar, while local musicians worked mainly abroad, such as the most famous Slovenian composer, J. Gallus Carniolus (Petelin) (1550-91), or, in the 17th century, G. Plavec, D. Lagkhener, JK Dolar. In 1660 the first Italian opera was performed in Ljubljana, where the Teatro dei Nobili was built in 1765. The best known Baroque work is Belin by J. Zupan (1780). In the nineteenth century, in the wake of the Slavic independence movements, a Slovenian national school arose, favored by the birth in Ljubljana of cultural organizations engaged in dissemination and research, and which published collections of popular songs and music. In particular, the foundation of the Academia Philarmonicorum labacensis dates back to 1701 (which became a Philharmonic Society in 1794), which could boast among its members FJ Haydn, L. van Beethoven, N. Paganini, J. Brahms and B. Smetana, while the Conservatory was established only in 1919. Among the romantic composers, who contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness by recovering ancient popular traditions, we remember K. Masek (1831-59), D. Jenko (1835-1914), B. Ipavec (1829-1908), while later FS Vilhar (1852-1928), R. Savin-Sirca (1858-1949), M. Kogoj (1892-1956) and S. Osterc (1895-1941) operated. Among the contemporaries stand out L. Lebic, M. Kozina and V. Globokar, who lives in Paris.