Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)
Miklós GÁLOS: An Antonio Tempesta Rediscovered in the Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
prototype of the verso scene, the capture of Christ. This work incorporates more of the support into the composition than do the Paris and the newly discovered Budapest images. On both sides of the Di Castro work, the tunics of numerous figures are represented by unpainted stone, and on the verso unpainted stone is also used to portray the shields of several soldiers. The herd of sheep in the right background of the Old Testament scene are conveyed by whitish patches of stone—with a few painted embellishments. This approach was used by the painter in the Budapest work too. The head of the drowning horse immediately to the right of Moses is also expressed by an area of unpainted stone, which the painter enhanced only by adding the contours of the horse’s cheeks. The stone slab serving as the support for the Di Castro picture consists of three parts, with the joints also incorporated into the composition, following the contours of the tree trunks.27 The Budapest painting also has two joints along the border of the ovals, which can be distinguished from the many later fractures by their rounded edges. In addition to the unusual form of the inserted frame, the double-sided painting, and the analogous painted details, this feature offers further support that the newly discovered Budapest work is closely related to the painting from the Di Castro collection. 4. Aristocratic patrons Both the painting in the Louvre and that formerly in the Di Castro collection boast of illustrious provenances. Pearl Diving in India came from the Medici collection. Pier Vincenzo Strozzi, the segretario dei brevi of Pope Paul V, gave the painting to Cosimo II de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, as a present. The orientalist Strozzi may have suggested the Indian theme to Tempesta as well. A letter of 14 February 1618 confirming the arrival of the gift also attests to Tempesta’s authorship.28 The painting in the Louvre is not the only one that can be connected to the Medicis. One of the rooms of the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio, the Guardaroba Medici, was recorded on 18 April 1618 as containing a lapis lazuli work by Tempesta, painted on both sides with an ebony frame decorated with mother-of-pearl inlays. One side showed the capture of Christ while the other showed Joseph being sold by his brothers.29 The description matches perfectly with the painting from the Di Castro collection, with the exception of the section about the frame, as this differs slightly from its present state. The text mentions an ebony frame with mother-of- pearl leaves and garlands in the middle and corners, trimmed with gilt copper, as well as a silver-gilt ring and a tendril of vine. While the mother-of-pearl leaves and garlands can be seen on the frame of the Old Testament side of the Di Castro work, no traces can be found of the gilt copper border and the gilt silver elements.30 The 1753 inventory of the Uffizi in Florence provides a more precise description of the frame. At the time, it was placed in the palace’s so-called Camera di Madama (Camera degli Idoli)?' The description reveals that the frame was originally decorated with mother-of-pearl inlays on both sides— in contrast to its present-day state. With the expression tutta ombra di nero it even refers to the engraved decoration on the mother- of-pearl sheets. Expanding on the earlier text, the description also mentions masks between the inlays, one of which can be seen 18
