Contextualizing a Monument of Art History

Portrait of Coloman Dorninger and His Family, Pernštejn Castle, Moravia

Abstract

Located in Pernštejn Castle, not far from Brno in present-day Czechia, is a remarkable Renaissance panel painting. It portrays 23 people in front of a veduta of a town; presiding over them, enthroned on clouds, is God the Father and the dove of the Holy Spirit. The latest research has revealed that the painting is a previously unknown family portrait of the Steyr burgher and city judge (from 1522 to 1525, and then in 1531) Coloman Dorninger (died 1552), his deceased first wife Martha Trodl, his second wife Anna Oefferl, and their 20 children. The landscape in the background represents the oldest known view of the Upper Austrian town of Steyr. The work is thus a rare and valuable locus for historical and genealogical research. Building on such research, this article also acknowledges the panel painting’s great art historical significance. I analyze the iconography, technique, and size of the object as typical of a culture of memorialization in which a strong desire existed for highly individual and recognizable memorial objects with a close connection to the location in which they were to be viewed. By exploring how the object was used, I investigate the organizing principles and interactions that shaped this multifaceted work. Such an examination—which places a work in the context of its functions, the motivations of its donor, and its spatial contexts—enables a richer and more realistic understanding of medieval and early modern pictures.