Giulio Quaglio’s Baroque Scene from Puštal

Creation, Subject and Interpretation of the Fresco The Descent from the Cross

17. 12. 2025 – 30. 4. 2026

Curator: Anja Zver

In the Chapel of the Holy Cross at the Puštal Mansion (also known as Puštal Castle or Manor), Baroque painter Giulio Quaglio from Laino in the Italian region of Lombardy painted the fresco The Descent from the Cross in 1706. The fresco was commissioned by the nobleman Marko Oblak of Wolkensperg, who had bought the Puštal seigniory in 1696, thus acquiring an important work of art for its mansion. Quaglio was the most prominent master of Baroque fresco painting in the historical region of Carniola and his style greatly influenced Slovenian 18th-century painters.

Compared to the other paintings Quaglio created during this period, the fresco from Puštal stands out for how finely preserved it is. The scene of Jesus’ deposition has survived without any major conservation procedures, allowing a direct interpretation of Quaglio’s Baroque concept and painting technique; it is precisely this remarkable degree of preservation that gives it special research and museological (interpretative) value.

The exhibition presents the fresco’s artistic significance, historical background and iconography, as well as its place in early 18th-century sacred art. The “Deeper Insight” section provides more in-depth information about the fresco and its cultural, artistic, commission-related and social context during the Baroque period.

With the exhibition on Quaglio’s fresco in the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Puštal Mansion, we join other museums and galleries in participating in the project Baroque in Slovenia.