Iconography of Kinship. The Holy Family and Attems Family in the Holy Virgin’ s Church at Zagorje near Pilštanj

Abstract

Memorializing his family was a key concept of Ignaz Maria Count Attems’ visual propaganda. The role of personal iconography has been recognised mainly in his secular fresco commissions. This paper focuses on the analysis of the ceiling painting and furnishings of the pilgrimage church of the Holy Virgin at Zagorje near Pilštanj in Styria (Slovenia) and decodes the interweaving of Virgin (Madonna with Grapes, Assumpta, Regina Coeli, the Immaculate Conception), Holy Family, Holy Kinship and other saints worship with representations of the Attems family. In 1708 and 1709, the church was frescoed by Matthias von Görz, and in the following years, it obtained the main Virgin’ s altar and the altars of St Joseph and St Dismas in the lateral chapels. The Baroque decoration followed a unified iconographic concept in which the family memoria systematically builds on and complements the theological programme. Attems presented himself in the imitatio of the Holy Family, following the example of the Habsburg family.