Saint Joseph and Baby Jesus by Valentin Metzinger and Other Paintings from the Strahl Collection in the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb

Abstract

Karl Ritter von Strahl (1850−1929) was the last owner of the renowned collection of paintings and art objects kept in his castle of Stara Loka (Altenlack) near Škofja Loka in Carniola. In 1929, Strahl sold 32 paintings to Stanko Senečić, an antique dealer from Nova Ves in Zagreb. In the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, there are five paintings of hitherto unknown provenance, which undoubtedly originate from the Strahl Collection. The paper discusses the circumstances of Senečić’ s purchase and the earlier provenance of the five paintings. Furthermore, different paths by which the paintings came to the museum in Zagreb are analyzed. As previous research of the interwar art market in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia) has shown that Croatian private buyers and professional antique dealers visited regularly the sales of castle and manor furnishings in interwar Slovenia, we can assume that there are more art heritage items originating from Slovenia in present-day Croatian public and private collections, awaiting an analysis of their provenance.

Keywords

• Karl Strahl (1850−1929)
• Strahl Collection
• Stanko Senečić
• Valentin Metzinger (1699–1759)
• Museum of Arts and Crafts Zagreb