"mit gleicher andacht alle Ins gesambt Täglich betten" : nástěnné malby Josefa Sterna v kapli Paláce šlechtičen v Brně

Abstract

The chapel of the Palace of Noble Ladies represents a unique sacral space, decorated in 1756 with murals by Josef Stern (1716–1775), a leading painter of the second half of the 18th century in Moravia. In the interior of the chapel, poor maidens from aristocratic and burgher families met for daily prayers; they lived in the palace by the cut-down rules for monastic communities under the protection of a specially established foundation. It was to them that the remarkable, didactically focused iconographic programme of Stern’s paintings was to speak. Recently completed restoration work, the aim of which was the complete restoration of the murals and the entire interior of the chapel, have given rise to new reflections not only on the formally stylistic aspects of Stern’s ceiling paintings and their themes, but also on the broader context of their origin, including the functioning of the foundation and the upbringing of its wards.