UDC 929 BERNEKER F.
Author: MATJAŠIČ FRIŠ MatejaPh.D., assistant professor, scientific collaboratorZRC SAZU, Institute for Cultural HistoryNovi trg 5, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Title: "THE POWERS ARE WANING, AS THERE IS HOPE NO MORE, THIS ART, WHAT IS ART?"Subtitle: The misery and suffering of the sculptor Franc Berneker
Studia Historica SlovenicaČasopis za družboslovne in humanistične študije / Humanities and Social Studies ReviewMaribor, 5 (2005), No. 1-2-3, pp. 643-670, 130 notes, 5 pictures
Category: 1.01 Original Scientific PaperLanguage: Original in Slovene (Abstract in Slovene and English, Summary in English)
Keywords: Franc Berneker (1874-1932), sculpture, Slovenian modern, Davorin Trstenjak, Pavel Turner, patronate.
Abstract: The author, in her paper, represents the life and work of the sculptor Franc Berneker (1874-1932), who is known to the public only as the first Slovenian modern sculptor and the author of one of Ljubljana's most beautiful monuments, the one dedicated to Primož Trubar. Already in his time, he was considered an extremely talented sculptor, who was not able, though, to achieve his artistic mission, owing to unfortunate fate. During the gravest times of his studies in Vienna he was supported by Dr. Pavel Turner, through the latter's connections and financial support.
SUMMARY
Franc Berneker was born as an illegitimate child on 4 October, 1874 in Gradišče, in the parish of šmartno Pri Slovenj Gradcu. His mother was Marija Berneker, the younder daughter of a tenant at the Berneško Estate, situated to the North-West of the Church of St. Barbara. After the death of her father she began to serve with various employers, mostly as a cook and housewife at various parish homes. Thus young Franc spent a portion of his childhood in Stari Trg, with the famous parish oriest Davorin Trstenjak, which is testified by a memorial plaque built into at the house of Stari Trg no. 31.Already early on the young Berneker demonstrated his artistic talent, but the stubborn deicison for art by this young man of such social and economic position seemed almost out of reach. In 1891 he went to learn with the image maker and gold plater Ignacij Oblak from Celje, but he left the workshop before finishing schooling and without the master's certificate, going abroad to learn and earn. Firstly he was employed in the Colli brothers' factory in Innsbruck, in Gradec/Graz he attended an artisanal school and carried out occasional jobs. After successfully passing entry exams in October 1897, Franc Berneker was enrolled to the Academy of Plastic Arts, the Department of General Sculpture. His studies with Professor Edmund Hellmer were successfully completed after four years and he further attended a special school of sculpture until 1905. During his academic schooling and life he made ends meet barely with the assistance of his benefactors, particularly from the circle of Slovenian intellectuals in Vienna, among which it is necessary to underscore Dr. Pavel Turner and Dr. Fran Vidic and with various orders which he acquired through their intervention. In spite of great lack of means, the Vienna period was a merrier time for his sculpture production, in his own studio the artist produced according to private orders. He also devoted himself to studio sculpture and monumental studies. During this period the greatest part of his best works came about, including the Trubar monument; simultaneously Vienna with its dynamic academic and cultural life was a significsnt European centre of arts. By way of his friends from the Slovenian Society Sava, the artist took part at numerous artistic exhibitions and competitions, being present in the Slovenian professional and general public.Berneker remained in Vienna until 1915, when he was conscripted to the armed services in spite of his invalidity (due to tuberculous inflammation of the hip). Later, a series of unfortunate circumstancesd caused that the sculptor not be able to return to the environment where his created his best works, but he was forced to return to his homeland, to provincial Ljubljana. Without relatives, regular income and major orders, he often went back to his native land to see friends and acquaintances, living and working occasionally in Celje, acquiring marble at Pohorje, planning sculpture projects he was not able to realise any more.Lonely and forgotten, he died, after short illness, on 16 May, 1932 in one of the halls of the National Gallery in Ljubljana.The sculptor Franc Berneker is known to the wider public only as the first Slovenian modern sculptor and author of Ljubljana's most beautiful monuments, the one dedicated to Primož Trubar. Already during his lifetime he was considered as an exceptionally talented artist, who was not able to achieve his artistic mission, owing to unfortunate fate. Thus, his numerous ambitious sculptural projects were never carried out, setting Berneker as epoch-defining Slovenian artist of the modern era.