Tuesday, August 31, 2010

New research on the Bibliotheca Corviniana (updated)

The Bibliotheca Corviniana, the library put together by King Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490) was one of the largest libraries of medieval Europe. A humanist library, comprised largely of the works of classical authors, as well as modern historical and scientific works, the collection included a vast number of beautifully illuminated manuscripts. The library was dispersed soon after the death of the king, and today just over 200 volumes of it have been identified.

Frontispiece of the Didymus Corvina
 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library)


In 2005, the Bibliotheca Corviniana was added to the list of the UNESCO Memory of the World heritage. Perhaps not coincidentally, there has been a renewed interest in the library during the last decade, resulting in a number of exhibitions as well as popular and scholarly publications. These include among other the following:



Digitization








Friday, August 27, 2010

Medieval winged altarpiece to travel to London

After the London exhibition of the Liechtenstein collection was canceled, plans were quickly made to fill the void with an exhibition based on the holdings of Hungary's premiere art museum, the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest). An article in the Guardian (15 May 2010) gives one some idea about the selection process: when the show's curator, David Ekserdjian inquired about the possibility of including a Leonardo drawing in the show, the response from Budapest was: "Why don't you have two." In addition to important pieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, several objects will be included from the Hungarian National Gallery, the museum dedicated to the history of Hungarian art. The result will be: Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele (25 September, 2010 - 12 December, 2010).

Little if any art historical significance can be expected from such exhibitions - although in addition to providing viewing pleasure to their public, they presumably draw some attention to Hungary and the rich artistic collections of the country. In this context it was quite surprising to learn, that one of the pieces included in the upcoming exhibition is a complete medieval winged altarpiece, the main altar from the church of Liptószentandrás (today Liptovský Ondrej, Slovakia). The altarpiece, made in 1512 and illustrated below, survived fairly intact along with its intricate carved canopy.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Holy Crown of Hungary

It is August 20th, Saint Stephen's day. Saint Stephen was the first king of Hungary, ruling from 1000 until 1038. He was canonized in 1083. Saint Stephen received a crown from the pope and was crowned as first king of the new kingdom in 1000. This original crown did not survive - although tradition associated the surviving crown with the holy king. The Holy Crown of Hungary, as it survives to this day, consists of two parts: the lower part, or "Corona greca" was made around 1075, and was sent by Byzantine emperor Michael Dukas VII to King Géza's wife. The upper part, the "Corona latina", also dates from the 11th century, and the two parts were fitted together at an unknown date, probably around 1200. Of the other coronation items, the coronation mantle and maybe also the scepter both date from the time of Saint Stephen.


You can find more information on the Hungarian coronation regalia on my page dedicated to the Hungarian regalia.
There is an excellent and detailed photo documentation of the crown and other regalia on the website of photographer Károly Szelényi (this is the material of an online exhibition put together by Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, therefore all the commentary is in German).

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Masolino in Hungary

Reliquary bust of Saint Ladislas from Várad cathedral and drawing after
a fresco of Masolino, inspired by the reliquary

It is a well-known fact that Florentine painter Masolino worked for some time in the Kingdom of Hungary, starting from 1425. Leaving the decoration of the Brancacci Chapel incomplete, he left in September, invited by Filippo Scolari (Pipo Spano) with a lucrative three-year contract. His employment was cut short by the death of Scolari at the end of 1426. We know that he stayed in Hungary even after the death of his patron, as Florentine tax reports filed in July of 1427, mention that he was still there. He likely did not return to Florence until May 1428 - the time when he collected part of his payment from the Scolari commission. After this, Masolino went on to work in Rome, and later in Castiglione Olona.
It is not know what commissions he had in Hungary. Filippo Scolari had a castle built at the town of Ozora, with a chapel dedicated to his patron saint. He also rebuilt the parish church and the Franciscan church of the town. In one of the centers of the Kingdom, at the royal basilica and coronation church of Székesfehérvár, he had a chapel built, intended for his burial. When in May 1426, Florentine ambassador Rinaldo degli Albizzi visited these places, he mentions all these newly built and decorated edifices - but does not mention the presence or the works of Masolino. Most people are inclined to believe that the funerary chapel at Székesfehérvár was frescoed by Masolino - the chronology allows this (he could have painted in during the summer and fall of 1426, explaining why the ambassador did not mention it), but sadly there is no clear proof of this.
Recent research (PDF of Hungarian article by Krisztina Arany) revealed that Masolino probably carried out some works for another Florentine family in Hungary, the Melanesi family. The brothers Simone and Tommaso Melanesi owed "Florentine painter Masino, who is staying in Hungary" 133 florins, according to a catasto entry of 1427. Their third brother, Giovanni, was bishop of the wealthy town of Várad, in eastern Hungary. He became bishop after the death another Florentine, Andrea Scolari. Melanesi was bishop for just a short year: from the Spring of 1426, until the beginning of the next year. I uncovered an interesting piece of evidence indicating that Masolino most likely visited the town of Várad - and thus perhaps even worked there.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Late antique and medieval buildings at Pécs in 3D reconstructions

The town of Pécs is one of Europe's Cultural Capitals in 2010. Not much in terms of new buildings was completed by this year - but Pécs has a 2000 year old history, with remains of a number of very important Early Christian and medieval buildings. The early Christian necropolis of Sopiane (Roman name of Pécs) is in fact a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The early Christian buildings survived in the level below the medieval ground-level, thus a number of burial chambers have been preserved, with their decoration more or less intact. Buildings above ground did not survive, but can be reconstructed based on archaeological excavations. In preparation for an exhibition, the company SketchUcation Hungary prepared a number of 3D reconstructions.

Below you can see how a late Roman basilica was reconstructed (video showing steps of the reconstruction):





Monday, August 09, 2010

Hungarian Medieval Charters Digitized

Patrohi armorial, 1437
Hungarian National Archives, Dl 50.529
As of Spring 2010, over 100.000 Hungarian medieval charters have been fully digitized and made available by the Hungarian National Archives. This means that they are fully digitized, with high resolution photos of the charters, with additional photos of seals, and all this material is incorporated into a fully searchable database.
LINK: http://mol.arcanum.hu/dldf/opt/a100516htm?v=pdf&a=start

In addition to their varied content and sometimes beautifully preserved seals, a number of these documents are true masterpieces of manuscript illumination. This is especially true of armorial letters, which usually include a depiction of the family's newly given coat of arms. The series of illuminated armorials started in the period of King Sigismund, and stretches right to the end of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (later as well - but the coverage of this database goes up to 1526).

You can check out a few beautiful examples, if you carry out a search by serial numbers. You will be asked to install a small image-viewing software, and you'll have to click around until you get to the images. For example, check out these armorials: (Dl) 13.000; 50.521; 104.871; 105.029.

If you would like to see more, enter the search term "címereslevél" in the search box as "document type". This gave me 149 hits - many more armorials are preserved in various other archives not covered by this database.
I wouldn't call this a very user-friendly system, but with a bit of patience, the database can give you all the information these charters hold.

New research on medieval wall-painting

The number of medieval wall-paintings known from the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary has greatly increased. In Transylvania, a complex program of inventorization uncovered numerous monuments, many of which had been fully uncovered and restored during the last decade. In the north-eastern part of the Kingdom (which is now split between Slovakia, the Ukraine, Hungary and Romania) similarly a number of exceptional find have been made, and many key monuments have been fully restored. Thanks to these discoveries, in these regions we can better appreciate the regional characteristics of medieval wall-painting - thus several local workshops have been identified, and the chronology of many works has been clarified.
I had the pleasure of contributing to two large volumes presenting these discoveries. In both cases, I worked together with restorers. Both volumes were edited by Tibor Kollár, and photographed by Attila Mudrák. The first volume, published in 2008, was written together with Loránd Kiss, and it presents two dozen monuments from Transylvania. The second volume, published last year and written together with József Lángi, focuses on North-Eastern Hungary. The volume also includes an introductory study by Ernő Marosi.


Buy it at Bookline.hu




Loránd Kiss - Zsombor Jékely: Középkori falképek Erdélyben. Ed. Tibor Kollár. Budapest, Teleki László Foundation, 2008. 363 pages, ISBN 978-963-7081-14-9









Thursday, August 05, 2010

Ernő Marosi 70


Ernő Marosi, the doyen of Hungarian art historians, celebrated his 70th birthday this Spring. To celebrate his birthday, a conference was held at Budapest's Eötvös Loránd University, where he was asked to respond to each and every paper (Disputatio de Quodlibet) - an event, which proved to be a great success.
Ernő Marosi was also presented with a beautifully prepared Festschrift, written by a team of international scholars, focusing almost entirely on the history of medieval art in Hungary. Apart from a few studies in French and German, the entire volume is in English - thus accessible to the international scholarly community. Titled Bonum ut pulchrum, the study collection provides a much-needed overview of the questions in the focus of Hungarian art historical research. The book is available from the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The book was presented to Marosi at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on April 16th, here is a report on the event.



BONUM UT PULCHRUM. Essays in Art History in Honour of Ernő Marosi on His seventieth Birthday.  Eds. Lívia Varga, László Beke, Anna Jávor, Pál Lővei, Imre Takács. Budapest, 2010. ISBN 978-963-7381-97-3. Hb., 567 pp., ills.

The contents are available in the Union Catalogue of the Art Libraries Network.



The Hungarian art history journal, Enigma, also dedicated its latest issue (no. 61) to Ernő Marosi.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Changes in Heritage Protection

As of last week, Judit Tamási replaced Tamás Mezős as President of the National Office of Cultural Heritage. This office is in charge of all monument protection, including research, inventary, building permits and actual construction, see http://www.koh.hu/english.html
Here is the official statement, in Hungarian: http://kultura.hu/main.php?folderID=911&ctag=articlelist&iid=1&articleID=303912

Also of great significance that archaeological excavations will be regulated differently. Instead of the much-criticized organization, KÖSZ (Heritage service), once again only national and county museums will be allowed to carry out such digs.  KÖSZ will be integrated into the Hungarian National Museum, see:
http://www.nefmi.gov.hu/miniszterium/sajtokozlemenyek/kormany-uj-alapokra

Library catalogues

When working on the art of the Middle Ages, it can be sometimes hard to find a specific book or article if you are based in Hungary. Online resources such as BHA, Art Index or JSTOR are not always available, and there is no central catalogue for art history libraries.

To find a citation, I suggest the following three free resources:

RI OPAC within the context of the Regesta Imperii Online

Union Catalogue / Art Libraries Network Florence -- Munich -- Rome (kubikat.org)

BHA and RILA at the Getty (up to 2007)

Once you know what you need, here are the online catalogues of those libraries in Budapest, where you are most likely to find the book or article:

Library of the Art History Institute of the Hungarian Academy

Library of the Museum of Fine Arts

Library of the Museum of Applied Arts

Library of the Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design

ELTE-CEU Medieval Library

OSZK (Széchényi National Library) OPAC

University Library of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest - the OPAC includes the holdings of the Library of the Art History Institute

Joint catalogue of other museum libraries

Can't find it in Budapest? The most important specialist library close to Budapest is the Library of the Art History Institute at the University of Vienna