Under the impression of a disturbing report and based on unfortunate historical experience, The Research Group for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe, an association of experts and professional institutions from Europe and the United States, dedicated to the study of monumental painting of the early modern period, strongly condemns the unjustifiable military aggression of the Putin regime and its army against Ukraine, during which civilians, including women and children, are being murdered and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already been forced to flee their homes. We oppose the unacceptable invasion of the territory of a free state, which is a flagrant violation of international law and a drastic violation of basic human rights. Last but not least, we condemn this aggression by Putin’s Russia as a real and already implemented threat to the values of the world’s cultural heritage, to which Ukrainian cultural property undoubtedly belongs. We call for a halt to Russia’s barbaric war campaign and for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine!
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Baroque Ceiling Painting in Hungary II
János Jernyei Kiss (ed.), Barokk freskófestészet Magyarországon II. kötet – Baranya, Somogy, Tolna és Zala megye [Baroque Ceiling Painting in Hungary, Vol. II. – Baranya, Somogy, Tolna and Zala Counties], Budapest 2020, 560 pp., ISBN: 9786150092843
Following the first volume of the corpus of Baroque ceiling painting in Hungary, the present handbook, published in 2020, focuses on fifty-one murals located in the Southern Transdanubian counties of present-day Hungary. A part of the four-volume corpus edited by János Jernyei Kiss and published by the Hungarian Academy of Arts in collaboration with the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre, this lavishly illustrated large-format book presents new research by fifteen authors on several aspects of monumental mural decoration during the 18th century in Hungary.
CBDD Greetings
Liebe Alle,
liebe Mitglieder und Freunde der BCPCE,
in dieser ungewissen Zeit von Corona senden wir Euch vom Corpus der barocken Deckenmalerei in Deutschland einen herzlichen und aufmunternden Gruß.
Hoffentlich geht es Euch allen gut und Ihr seid wohlauf. Wir denken an Euch, wünschen Euch trotz der widrigen Umstände alles Gute und freuen uns schon sehr darauf, Euch alle wieder wohlbehalten treffen zu können.
Das Wichtigste aber ist, wie man heute trefflich schreibt:
Bleibt gesund!
Euer CbDD-Team /
Stephan Hoppe, Matteo Burioni und das gesamte CbDD-Team
Call for papers: The heaven of the well-to-do citizen. Baroque ceiling painting in townhouses
Peace and Prosperity – both conditions for political stability and economic prosperity always determined the lifestyle of the upper middle classes and are reflected visually in the ceiling
frescoes of the 18 th. century. A speedily executed and therefore affordable medium, ceiling painting was apt for representations of complex subject matters supported by its vast surfaces.
The free imperial city of Augsburg provided ideal conditions. The trade in textiles or silver products flourished as well as banking. In Augsburg, the centre of publishing houses and printing, a rich supply of iconographic and compositional possibilities was available. The bi-confessionally ruled academy attracted many fresco painters from the surrounding territories. Therefore, Augsburg seems to be the ideal place for an interdisciplinary symposium on ceiling paintings in bourgeois houses within a European context.
International workshop New Research on Baroque Ceiling Painting
An international workshop “New Research on Baroque Ceiling Painting” and the Annual Meeting of the Research Group for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe will tak place in Budapest, May 31 – June 2, 2019.
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Building „Sophianum”
1 Mikszáth Kálmán tér, Budapest, ground floor, room 9

Fürstbischöfliche Repräsentation im Spätmitelalter und der frühen Neuzeit
These days, our colleagues professor Stephan Hoppe, Angelika Dreyer and Heiko Lass from the Corpus der barocken Deckenmalerei in Deutschland (LMU München) take part in the conference “Fürstbischöfliche Repräsentation im Spätmitelalter und der frühen Neuzeit”, taking place in Passau, October 5 – 6, 2018.
For more information, please, see: www.passau.de
Baroque Painting in Silesia
Baroque Painting in Silesia
We would like to inform you about a new book by professor Andrzej Kozieł (University of Wrocław) and his colleagues, which offers a new profound and comprenehsive look on baroque painting in Silesia, including a richly illustrated catalogue raisonné.
International Summer Study Days on Baroque Ceiling Painting
France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU, in association with
the Institute of Art History at the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Research Group for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe (BCPCE), have prepared International Summer Study Days on Baroque Ceiling Painting in Slovenia and Austria (Styria), on August 30 – September 5, 2017. The program contains visits of different monuments, presentations of student projects and
lectures by researchers from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany and Slovenia.
International Summer Study Days on Baroque Ceiling Painting have been organised at the time of the exhibition Hercules Stiriae – Štajerski Herkul – Hercules of Styria. Following the Traces of Ignaz Maria Count of Attems’ Commissions of Frescoes in Slovenska Bistrica Castle (June 15 – December 31, 2017) and in the scope of the research program Slovenian Artistic Identity in European Context and research project Visual Representations of the Nobility. Early Modern Art Patronage in the Styria Province (No. J6-7410 (B), conducted at the France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana) financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.
The Role of Religious Confraternities
The Role of Religious Confraternities
in Medieval and Early Modern Art
International Conference
Ljubljana, France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU,
May 10–12, 2017
Call for Papers, deadline March 10, 2017
PDF CFP Confraternitates Ljubljana 2017
Program “Religious Confraternitie”, Ljubljana 2017
Researching religious confraternities is a great challenge not only in the fields of general and church history but also in art history, as the activities of confraternities reflect strongly in fine arts. Confraternities connected European religious, cultural and artistic space in a way similar to monastic orders. Therefore, only a comprehensive understanding of their activities and role in fine arts can yield complex findings and new evaluation of these themes in a wider context.
BCPCE Annual Meeting, Munich 2016
Current Research on Baroque Ceiling Painting
in Europe
An international workshop “Current Research on Baroque Ceiling Painting in Europe”, including the Annual Meeting of the Research Group for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe, will take place in Munich, on October 5-7, 2016, organized by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Institut für Kunstgeschichte LMU, CbDD and BCPCE.
The Research Group BCPCE
Welcome to the blog of the Research Group for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe (BCPCE). In the next future, we would like to inform you about the activities of the group focused on monumental painterly decoration of Central European and Italian sacral and profane architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries, on its documentation and art historical interpretation.
Herzlich willkommen auf der Blog- und Website der Forschungsgruppe für barocke Deckenmalerei in Zentraleuropa. Wir möchten über die Aktivitäten der Gruppe informieren, die sich auf monumentale gemalte Ausstattung in mitteleuropäischen und italiänischen Sakral- und Profanbauten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, auf deren Dokumentation und deren kunsthistorischer Interpretation konzentrieren.
Angels Castle in Carpathians: Carpoforo Tencalla
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book by Jozef Medvecký, senior research fellow of the Institute of Art History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The monograph Anjelský hrad v Karpatoch [Angels Castle in Carpathians] presents results of Jozef Medvecký’s long-time research into the residence of the Count Pálffy family at Červený Kameň (Western Slovakia) and its rich and splendid painterly decoration by Carpoforo Tencella (1623–1685), the famous painter from Bissone (Ticino, Switzerland).
Jozef Medvecký, Anjelský hrad v Karpatoch. Carpoforo Tencalla a ranobaroková výzdoba hradu Červený Kameň [Angels Castle in Carpathians. Carpoforo Tencalla and the Early Baroque Decoration of the castle Červený Kameň], Bratislava 2016
Societas historiae artium & Institute of Art History, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 190 pp., ISBN: 9788097030445
Grandeur & Piety
Andrea Steckerová – Štěpán Vácha (edd.), Vznešenost & zbožnost. Barokní umění na Plzeňsku a v západních Čechách [Grandeur & Piety. Baroque Art in Pilsen Region and West Bohemia], Plzeň 2015
Studio JB, Západočeská galerie v Plzni, 364 pp.,
ISBN: 978-80-86512-56-3
Josef Stern (1716-1775)
Michaela Šeferisová Loudová (ed.), Josef Stern 1716-1775, Olomouc 2015
Muzeum umění Olmouc, 219 pp., ISBN: 978-80-87149-93-5
Ars 47/1, 2014
ARS, Časopis Ústavu dejín umenia Slovenskej akadémie vied / Journal of the Institute of Art History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 47/1, 2014
An issue dedicated to the baroque ceiling painting in Central Europe. See the content…