Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)
Miklós GÁLOS: An Antonio Tempesta Rediscovered in the Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
commissioned a picture of Christ Carrying the Cross while Francesco ordered two paintings on stone and Taddeo paid for one Tempesta work in October and for another in December of that year.35 Among Pope Urban VIII’s nephews, Taddeo Barberini (1603-1647) had the closest connection to Tempesta, and according to Baglione’s account even studied drawing with the artist.36 Tempesta’s works were among the most important acquisitions by Taddeo Barberini, who commissioned, in addition to the two mentioned above, another three pictures depicting battles in 1627.37 The patronage activities of the Barberinis suggest the possibility that the Budapest picture is also connected to them, especially given that the subject matter of some of the works they ordered is unknown.38 In fact, the first work Taddeo Barberini commissioned from Tempesta allows for more far- reaching conclusions. On 24 October 1624 Taddeo Barberini paid Antonio Tempesta 100 pieces of gold for an oval lapis lazuli work painted on both sides, with one side showing Creation and the other the Drowning of the Pharaoh:39 100 m[oneta] in oro a Sachetti con mio m[andato] 169 al An[tonio] Tempesta per un quadro ovale dipinto da due bande in pietra lapis lazzaris da una La creazione del Mondo, dali altra La sommersa difaraone. The correspondence in subject matter of the newly discovered Budapest painting and the work described in the purchase record above make it highly likely that the two are the same. No other work in Tempesta’s known oeuvre matches this description. In fact, his only depiction of Creation on stone can be found in the Budapest painting. The date of payment suggests the work was made in the earlyl620s, which corresponds to the date proposed for the painting of the Budapest work—several years after the picture from the Di Castro collection was made. At the same time, the mention of the work’s oval format gives us pause, although it is not inconceivable that it refers to the double oval image field of the Budapest painting, which is difficult to describe. We also need to keep in mind that this is merely a payment summons, which would not contain the kind of precise description we would expect in an archival entry. An inventory of Taddeo Barberini’s treasures was never made during his lifetime. After his death, an estate inventory— which fails to attribute any of the works to any artists—was compiled in 1648 and 1649, but the above-mentioned picture is impossible to identify.40 It does not appear in the inventories of Taddeo Barberini’s second-born son, Maffeo Barberini, either, who inherited a large portion of his father’s treasures. Furthermore, no traces have been found among the artwork owned by other members of the Barberini family, although they also had Tempesta works in their collections.41 5. Intertwined stories—two Tempesta paintings in Budapest Just as the picture was not a ‘glass painting’, it was similarly incorrect that it had never been inventoried (‘not inventoried’), as the interior of the frame preserved the work’s original inventory number.42 The entry in the Museum of Applied Arts’ inventory record states: Painting. Bible scenes painted on both sides of one sheet of lapis lazuli. In a Renais20
