Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 24. (Budapest, 2006)

István SIMONYI: Questions and answers. An attempt at defining the so-called „Bethlen-Násfa"

feathers. The colour symbolism is also intriguing: white is the colour of innocence, chastity, female virtues, while black symbolizes masculine strength. The predominance of the former on the Dresden pendant suggests a female bearer; a man must have worn the latter. The remarks about the enamel ornaments of the back also reinforce the analogy with the Dresden násfa, as on the back of the silver-gilt pieces no trace of enamel can be found, and probably there never was any. Another important analogy is the exclusive use of diamonds (93 pieces), which does not apply to any other násfa. Apart from the great similarities found in the contemporary description, great visual similarity can be discovered between these two jewels with the help of the archive photo of násfa "no. 13" (fig.

6). With its graceful proportions and refined appearance the latter - just like the Dresden jewel - is very dissimilar to its clumsier counterparts, (fig. 1 ) Based on the above-said, I presume that the two jewels once constituted a pair, the Dresden piece being worn by Catherine of Brandenburg, the other one by Gábor Bethlen in March 1626. How can this hypothesis be supported by information about the proveniences? In the registration of the Dresden piece, the earliest mention of the jewel dates from 1706;" Augustus the Strong ordered the inventory of the treasures of the collection. Since then it has been preserved there, as a starting piece of the Grünes Gewölbe collection.

12 If the jewel remained in Catherine of Brandenburg's possession - which is logical to presume - she probably took it with her when she left Transylvania upset with political turmoil after Bethlen's death in 1629. Later she married Francis Charles, duke of Saxon-Lauenburg in 1639 and lived in Germany until she died in 1644. The subsequent route of her jewels is unknown including this piece before it was included in the princely collection of Augustus the Strong. The tracing of this route might enrich science with important results in other regards as well. It is nevertheless not far-fetched to presume that the jewel came to German areas and then to Dresden via Catherine. Mapping the authentic provenience of the "princely" násfa, number 13 in the 1884 inventory owned by count Antal Zichy at that time is hopeless for lack of sources, so let us tentatively accept the relevant oral tradition. After the hypothetical wedding násfas of the princely couple, let us take a look at the násfas of the six pages, of which four could be seen by the public in 1884 and two are available today in Hungarian public collections and one in Brussels to base our inferences on. The Bethlen-/7£/.s/ü of the Museum of Applied Arts is silver-gilt; hence, formally it could be one of the pieces worn by the pages. It was described in the 1884 exhibition catalogue as item 11 in the following words:

1

" (fig.7/a) "... Symbols of faith, hope, love. Below a skull in white enamel with a key between its teeth. Above it, on a fibrous ly engraved ground, there is a translucent red enamelled heart between two white and pink enamelled ringed hands. Above that, an anchor composed again of diamonds, emeralds and rubies, with a translucent green, dark blue and red enamelled serpent. On the two arms of the anchor a pair of doves, one in white the other in black enamel are sitting, under the princely crown. The whole group is placed in openwork foliage adorned partly with translucent green, blue and red enamel, partly with cold enamel, diamonds and emeralds. On either side of the anchor there are wings and two arrows.... " Its exhibitor was count Edmund Zichy, but in the catalogue of the Millenary Exhibition when it was not on display - it was owned by count Jenő Zichy. The art treasures of count Edmund (1811-1894) were inherited by his son Jenő (1837-1906) called the "industrial count", whose rich lifework was crowned by the foundation of an art museum later bequeathed to the capital. That was how the jewel came into the Kiscelli Museum and in 1951 to the Museum of Applied Arts. No trace of the virtuosic ease characterizing the Dresden piece can be found here. It is an utterly different construction. With a goldsmith's eye, one sees a brazed and assembled construction of robust sawn pieces of metal sheets as the