!!!Fresken

Frescoes, paintings on freshly applied, wet lime-plaster walls with 
colours made by grinding artists' dry-powder pigments in pure water, 
which set with the plaster and become a permanent part of the wall. 
Corrections and the addition of details of the al fresco painting can 
be executed as fresco secco (applied on the dry plaster), which is 
considerably less durable.

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Earliest examples of fresco painting in Austria date from the 
Romanesque period. Superior achievements from that period are extant 
in Lambach (ca. 1070-1090), the Nonnberg monastery in the city of 
Salzburg (ca. 1140) and Gurk (ca. 1210, renovated in the zackenstil 
mode after a fire in the period 1260/70). Other remarkable Romanesque 
frescoes are found in the Provostry Church of Maria Woerth (late 
11%%sup th/%  century), the Church of the Teutonic Order 
(Deutschordenskirche) at Friesach (2%%sup nd/%  half of the 
12%%sup th/%  century) and St. John's Chapel (Johanneskapelle) at 
Puergg, Styria (mid-12%%sup th/%  century). By the second half of the 
12%%sup th/%  century, strong Byzantine influences made themselves 
felt in Austrian frescoes (as had actually been the case 100 years 
before at Lambach).

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During the last third of the 13%%sup th/%  century a most expressive 
fresco style, which already heralded Gothic painting, developed in 
Austria: it has come to be known as "Zackenstil" or 
"zackbruechiger Stil". The frescoes on the west gallery of 
Gurk Cathedral, which stem from the forties of the 13%%sup th/%  
century, mark the time when this style was at its best. Other works in 
this style, which gradually disappeared around 1300, are found at 
Seckau, Goess, Mauthausen, Michelstetten and Moedling.

\\
Gothic frescoes are particularly frequently found in South Tirol, for 
instance at Runkelstein Castle near Bozen/Bolzano, in 
Brixen/Bressanone, Terlan/Terlano and in the monastery of Neustift, 
which influenced M. Pacher's frescoes in the Abbey Church of San 
Candido/Innichen and at Neustift.

\\
Bohemian and in particular Italian influences became increasingly 
important in the course of the 14%%sup th/%  century. In 1339-1343 the 
western portico of Gurk Catherdal was decorated with a fresco cycle - 
a "biblia pauperum" of 19 scenes from the Old and 26 from the New 
Testament - which clearly reflects Upper Italian models (Giotto).

\\
By 1400 the weicher Stil (International Style) had also come to the 
fore in fresco painting. The oldest secular murals in Vienna (ca. 
1400), which were based on a literary text by Neidhart von Reuental 
belong to this style.

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Most medieval frescoes in Austria date from the 15%%sup th/%  century. 
Of the wealth of frescoes from that period, many of which were the 
work of artists whose names have been handed down, mention should be 
made of the frescoes in the churches of Thoerl (Thomas von Villach, 
1470), Millstatt (inter alia the Passion frescoes by Friedrich von 
Villach, 1428, and the Last Judgment by Urban Goertschacher, 1518), 
Maria Saal, St. Paul (frescoes by Friedrich Pacher, around 1470, 
and Thomas von Villach), Metnitz, Gerlamoos, St. Peter in Holz, 
Zweinitz and Zwickenburg in Carinthia. The province of Salzburg boasts 
valuable frescoes at St. Leonhard bei Tamsweg, Styria on the 
south wall of Graz Cathedral ("Landplagenbild", 1481), East 
Tirol at Strassen, Lower Austria in the charnel house of Duernstein, 
in the Heiligenblutkirche (Holy Blood Church) of Pulkau und at St. 
Martin am Ybbsfeld.

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During the Renaissance fresco painting largely gained importance in 
secular art. Amongst the foremost works from that period are the 
decorations of the Spanish Hall (1570) in Ambras Castle near Innsbruck 
and the Knights' Hall of Goldegg Castle in the Pongau area (1536). As 
regards the decoration of religious buildings, fresco painting 
frequently lost ground to sumptuous stuccowork.

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The desire to achieve a union of architecture, painting and sculpture 
resulted in a dramatic upswing in ceiling frescoes during the Baroque 
era. Fresco decoration assumed virtually equal importance in churches 
and palaces.

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There was hardly any opportunity for fresco painting on a large scale 
in the early 19th century, and it was not until the period of late 
Romanticism and Historicism (Ringstrasse in Vienna) that monumentalism 
in art saw a new flowering, though the fresco technique was used only 
sparingly.

!Literature
F. Reichmann, Gotische Wandmalerei in Niederoesterreich, 
1925; J. Garber, Die romanischen Wandgemaelde Tirols, 1928; W. Frodl, 
Die romanische Wandmalerei in Kaernten, 1942; Die gotische Wandmalerei 
in Kaernten, 1944; W. Frodl and J. Weingartner, Die gotische 
Wandmalerei Suedtirols 1948; H. Hutter, Trecentoeinfluesse auf die 
Wandmalerei in Oesterreich, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1959; E. Weiss, 
Der Fresken-Zyklus der Johanneskapelle in Puergg, doctoral thesis, 
Bonn 1964; I. Krumpoeck, Studien zur Wandmalerei des 
14. Jahrhunderts in Vorarlberg, 1992; A. Besold, Fresken in 
Kaernten um 1400, master's thesis, Vienna 1992.


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