Objects and Prestige: Taste, Status, and Power (Researches of the Material Culture in Slovenia)

Funding: Slovenian Research And Innovation Agency (ARIS)

Duration: 01. 01. 2024 - 31. 12. 2029

Acronim: Research programme P6-0282

Summary

Throughout history, mankind has surrounded itself with artefacts that have shaped time and space. The goal of our research is to interpret the world of objects defining the Slovenian territory to the present day. This world is unique in its own creativity, in accepting initiatives from abroad, and in their adaptation to its own needs. Past studies of these issues have yielded precious knowledge, emphasizing the vital importance of material culture as an integral segment of historiography. Our research helps fill an important, long-neglected niche in Slovenian historiography while also striving to disseminate our knowledge among the general public. We are the only research team in Slovenia active in the field of historiography that systematically cultivates the study of medieval and early modern material culture using modern scientific analytical methods. This approach is made possible only thanks to our research programme.

The narrative significance of material culture cannot be grasped solely with the tools of traditional historiography. A much more interdisciplinary approach is required instead, particularly the inclusion of natural sciences. As part of the submitted research programme, our research will focus mainly on the social elites during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, primarily burghers and nobility, in its many different guises. Special emphasis will be placed on the study of archival sources relevant for the material culture of social elites, the development of warfare and military technology, history of ironworking and metalworking crafts as the mainstay of economic activities in the Slovenian territory. Another important segment of our ongoing research work at the National Museum of Slovenia involves the investigation of its archives, aimed at explaining the formative process of the museum's collections and provenance.

Our interpretations of movable cultural heritage are supported by a wide array of modern analytical methods, incorporating mainly non-destructive or microinvasive techniques which are being relentlessly refined and adapted to suit our needs and the specific nature of museum research. The bulk of our analytical work is focused on archaeometallurgy, specifically metal artefacts of applied art, arms and armour. In the future, the proposed plan aims for even more intense use of synchrotron-based analytical methods and FTIR and µXRF spectroscopy for investigations of museum artefacts made of metals and organic materials, with the additional aim of developing new, advanced methods of conservation-restoration treatment.

Programme group

Leader

Dr Tomaž Lazar

Researchers

Dr Jernej Kotar, researcher (Jernej Kotar - cobiss.net)
Dr Gašper Oitzl, researcher
Dr Jaka Banfi, researcher (Jaka Banfi - cobiss.net)
Dr Jure Volčjak, researcher
Dr Marijan Nečemer, researcher
Neža Lukančič, MA, researcher (Neža Lukančič - cobiss.net)
Veronika Škofljanec Jagodic, MA, young researcher (Veronika Škofljanec Jagodic - cobiss.net)

Main tasks and research activities

The plan of activities proposed for the next research period represents a continuation of work ongoing within the P6-0282 research programme since 2004. Our primary goal remains the in-depth study of objects of movable cultural heritage as exceptionally multi-faceted information carriers and primary sources no less relevant to historiographical research than written sources.

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Our approach goes well beyond a positivist study of museum artefacts, striving towards an holistic interpretation of historical artefacts in a complex context, as testimonies of social, economic and technological development, art styles and fashion tastes. The fundamental premise of our research is therefore to utilize material culture as a starting point that enables a comprehensive understanding of the past – or more specifically, its interpretation through the world of objects that characterized the Slovenian territory through the ages (cf. Hicks, Beaudry 2010, XVIII–21).

This approach is decidedly interdisciplinary, made possible by the diverse composition of our programme group. Its members, specialists in various specific fields of material culture, combine the skills of arts and humanities (history, art history, archival science) as well as natural sciences (chemistry, metallurgy). In undertaking scientific analyses, our team primarily collaborates with the Jožef Stefan Institute as well as experts from other institutions, notably the Department of Materials and Metallurgy at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering of the University of Ljubljana.

Our efforts are primarily directed towards the study of various facets of material culture from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing particularly on the rich collections of the National Museum of Slovenia (NMS). New scholarly analyses, assessments and evaluations advanced by our team generate up-to-date knowledge of museum artefacts as well as their provenance and historical background of museum collections. Scientific analyses can explain how historical artefacts were made, which is particularly helpful in dating and authenticating museum objects while further widening our knowledge of past technologies and manufacturing techniques (Lazar, Nemeček 2013).

Thanks to its systematic efforts, our programme group has asserted itself as the most prominent expert body in Slovenia specializing in the study of material culture from the High Middle Ages to the present, including related topics such as technological development particularly in the field of metalworking, pottery and glass-making, as well as collecting and provenance research and Slovenian museum history. No other similar group of researchers currently active domestically can boast a comparable level of skills in these particular segments. In terms of its research capacity, the only true parallel may be found in the programme group P6-0283, also under the auspices of the NMS but focusing on archaeology and earlier chronological periods up to the Early Middle Ages.

As a generator of professional knowledge and innovation, the P6-0282 research programme produces important multiplicative benefits, particularly stimulating to the Slovenian historiography due to its long-standing neglect of material culture. As a study topic, it was excluded from academic courses until very recently, and despite fresh interest still remains marginalized within the formal realm of history studies. This negative attitude has had an unfortunate impact on the professional development of Slovenian historiography, leaving knowledge gaps in many areas of study. By and large, Slovenian historians have made little effort to incorporate material artefacts into their research, no doubt also due to a lack of necessary specialist skills. There have been only a handful of exceptions to this rule, notably in the context of probate inventory studies (Štuhec 1995; 2009) and popular, primarily art historical, overviews (ie. Stopar 2007a, 2007b, 2009).

The research strategy of our programme group is centered on several main areas. The central object of our investigations is thematerial culture of burghers and nobility. Several factors dictate this orientation, among others the sheer nature of artefacts in the NMS holdings, though it also has a deeper logic. Ever since the High Middle Ages, towns and cities have been the most important cultural, intellectual, industrial and technological centers of Europe. They were created more or less deliberately due to the specific activities of their inhabitants, initially above all commerce, trade and handicrafts. In this segment, metal- and specifically ironworking activities have been of particular importance to the economic development of the Slovenian territory (Kotar et al. 2019; Nečemer et al. 2020).

In many cases, urban settlements also assumed major importance in relation to their agrarian hinterland due to fulfilling various other functions: as a traffic node, hub of cultural interchange, a center of cult/religion, education, culture, defense/military organization, government or industrial production. Their material legacy has left deep marks, as evidenced by the artefacts in the NMS holdings that also reflect lively contacts between the Slovenian territory and its neighborhood. Unfortunately, Slovenian scholarship has devoted little attention to this topic either from a perspective of historiographical studies (Kosi 2009) or analyses of material culture (Lozar Štamcar 1995).

In contrast, the upper classes, specifically the nobility, represented the social elite of its time and therefore the main consumers of high-quality, technologically advanced products. In turn, their lifestyle exerted a deep influence on other social strata. The material culture of noble dwellings illustrates the mentality of the ruling classes (Žvanut 1994). Particularly telling testimony to their tastes is found in private collections of antiques. Many have been incorporated into the NMS holdings (Horvat 2010), but their provenance is largely unknown and has only become a subject of research quite recently – focusing, for instance, on art (Komić Marn 2019; 2020a; 2020b), furniture (Lozar Štamcar 2015) and arms and armour (Lazar 2015b; 2015c). Major gaps still remain (etc. the Smole and Wurzbach collections), urgently calling for a more thorough examination.

The study of social elites during the medieval and early modern periods significantly overlaps with military history, a subject long virtually excluded from Slovenian historiography. Its development into a modern scholarly discipline has been shaped to a large extent by the activities of our programme group, specifically thanks to our research into arms and armour. Among the major achievements in this field completed during the last five years, one should note the first published metallurgical analyses of medieval swords found in the Ljubljanica River (Williams, Lazar 2018), the discovery of unique prototype breechloaders invented by E. Pistotnik (Lazar 2019c; 2019d), and above all highly systematic research of armour (Lazar 2021; 2022a).

Thanks to its close integration into the structure and tasks of the NMS our programme group plays a key role in the development of the museum profession and introduction of new methodological approaches. Our studies of the provenance of museum collections and the history of the Slovenian museum network (Lazar et al. 2021; 2022) have paved the way towards a more modern, interdisciplinary and inclusive interpretation of movable cultural heritage.

Research objectives

The study of material culture from the High Middle Ages to the present is an area only sparsely addressed by Slovenian historiography. The P6-0282 programme group is currently the sole qualified expert team in Slovenia systematically focusing on this particular field through the lens of an interdisciplinary approach combining the arts and humanities with scientific analytical methods. The results of our work bring forth important original findings, introduce new methodologies and open up new, unexplored venues of research.

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During the years 2024–2029 our efforts will be primarily directed towards the following research questions:

material culture of burghers and the nobility during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, collection provenance,
history of ironworking in Slovenia in the context of social, economic, and technological development,
military history of the Slovenian territory during the medieval and early modern periods, with an emphasis on arms and armour,
Carniolan princely government and administration during the 15. c.,
research of archival documents in the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia pertinent to the material culture of social elites,
new permanent exhibition at the NMS – historical overview of the Slovenian territory,
development of new analytical methods and approaches for the investigation of metal artefacts of cultural heritage,
improvement of conservation-restoration techniques used to treat metal artefacts of cultural heritage,
synthesis of the work completed by the programme group during the last decade culminating in an international conference,
dissemination of knowledge, training of young PhD's, mentoring BA and MA students.

The above goals reflect the current research priorities both in regard to the professional challenges identified by the NMS as well as addressing critical omissions in Slovenian scholarship. In the field of the material culture of burghers and the nobility, a thorough analysis of archival sources will be carried out, particularly probate inventories and testaments of Carniolan elites from the Early Modern Period. The compiled data will be studied in relation to the surviving artefacts at the NMS and other Slovenian museums. Special emphasis will be placed on historical terminology, provenance of artefacts and cultural interchange and influences on the Slovenian territory. The findings will be published in a comprehensive monograph, providing a foundation for a future temporary exhibition.

In military history studies our main focus will be on the Late Middle Ages as a period marked by innovations of arms technology as well as methods of warfare and military organization (cf. Lazar 2015a). These topics will be explored in a scholarly monograph on the military activities of the Counts of Celje, the most prominent noble dynasty of the time in the Slovenian lands and one actively involed in international politics.

In the closely related field of history of political institutions, considerable work has been done in recent years on the study of Carniolan princely government and offices in the 15th c. Our aim is to bring this work to conclusion in the form of a comprehensive monograph first published in Slovenian and later in a German version adapted particularly for the Austrian professional public. Upon completion of the monograph, we will also prepare a temporary exhibition at the NMS dedicated to the era of Frederick III of Habsburg in Slovenia.

In studies of museum collections, the subject of arms and armour will be further explored focusing on cut-and-thrust weapons. Some pioneering research has been completed in this field in recent years already (Williams, Lazar 2018), but we intend to improve upon that foundation by publishing the entire collection of medieval swords using the same interdisciplinary methodology recently applied with success to armour (Lazar 2021; 2022a).

Our work on the systematic evaluation of metallurgical heritage (Kotar et al. 2019) will continue with the completion of the new permanent exhibition of metalwork in the Art and History Collections at Metelkova. These efforts will coincide with analyses of important segments of the museum's metalwork collection that are of particular interest from a technological viewpoint – namely, pewter and silver. Major efforts will be invested into history of ironworking. Based on G. Oitzl's doctoral dissertation Social and Economic Effect of Ironmaking in the Slovenian Territory in the Late Middle Ages (2021), a major monograph will be published presenting a new scholarly synthesis and the first major update in this field since A. Müllner's seminal Geschichte des Eisens in Inner-Österreich von der Urzeit bis zum Anfange des 19. Jahrhunderts (1909).

In addition to the study of probate inventories and testaments, our archival research will include a systematic analysis of the charters of ennoblement (SI AS 1064), a collection of 135 documents dating from the 16th to the 20th c. that was initially formed at the Carniolan Provincial Museum. Approximately one half of the documents survive in the original form while the rest are copies. Due to its historical significance, the entire collection will be transcribed and published together with charters of ennoblement kept in other institutions, including the NMS, making these documents accessible to researchers.

Thanks to the relevance and originality of its research achievements, the programme group has repeatedly affirmed itself as a top expert team in the field of historiography and interdisciplinary studies of cultural heritage. For this reason, it has assumed the lead role in the preparation of the new permanent exhibition at the NMS, ongoing since 2022. The project also involves a total of 20 top-ranking historians from the University of Ljubljana, the Milko Kos Historical Institute of the ZRC SAZU, ARS, and the Institute of Contemporary History. For the first time, the exhibition will present a modern, up-to-date historical overview of the Slovenian territory from the end of the Antiquity to the present. As the main desideratum of the Slovenian museum profession for over 50 years, this exhibition will certainly represent a ground-breaking achievement in international promotion of Slovenian scholarship and cultural heritage.

Among the development of new analytical methods, more intensive use is envisaged of recently acquired FTIR spectrometer Bruker (2020) suitable for analyses for organic materials, particularly horn, ivory, and bone, as well as the µXRF spectroscope Horriba (2022) used above all to determine the composition of base matrix and corrosion products on pewter and silver. This research will prove instrumental not only for identification of materials but also as a prerequisite for innovations in conservation-restoration techniques, where the Slovenian state-of-the-art is currently lagging behind international standards. Furthermore, the recently established collaboration in the field of synchrotron-based analytical techniques (XANES, EXAFS, FTIR imaging etc.) promises new breakthroughs especially given the current lack of established research methodology in Slovenia.

An international conference is planned towards the end of the tentative 6-year programme period, on the one hand presenting to the scholarly public a synthesis of the ongoing work performed by the programme group – with the last such overview taking place in 2017 with the exhibition The Past under the Microscope, and on the other hand emphasizing the importance of methodological innovation by promoting the introduction of modern analytical techniques. Other groups and institutions active in the field of cultural heritage studies in Slovenia will be invited to collaborate, with the publication of a major monograph planned upon the conclusion of the conference.

The programme group is actively involved in the dissemination of knowledge, taking part in educational events and workshops at the NMS and other venues as well as participating in other research projects and academic courses. Throughout the 6-year programme period, we will keep training at least one young PhD as well as providing mentorships to BA, MA, and PhD students at the University of Ljubljana.

Methodology

The primary purpose of the programme group is to improve upon our knowledge of material culture in the Slovenian territory from the High Miggle Ages to modernity in the context of wider historical and social development. To this end, we are striving to maintain a consistently interdisciplinary approach combining the arts and humanities with natural sciences.

Importance for the development of science or profession

The research programme P6-0282 fills a unique and highly specific niche in Slovenian historiography. The programme group currently represents the only dedicated body of experts systematically involved in the study of Slovenia’s material culture from the Middle Ages to the present, relying on a highly interdisciplinary research methodology that combines the skills of traditional historiography and art history with the analytical tools of natural sciences and engineering.