Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH. PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Györgyi Poszler: Gothic Panel Painting and Wood Sculpture in Western Hungary

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY GOTHIC PANEL PAINTING AND WOOD SCULPTURE IN WESTERN HUNGARY BY GYÖRGYI POSZLER The purpose of the dissertation is to list and discuss 15th and 16th-century panel paintings and wooden sculptures, fragments of winged altarpieces, originating from Western Hungary. This involves the provision of a comprehensive catalogue of all related relics, one that has not been attempted since Dénes Radocsay's handbook (1967), since the appearance of which several new pieces have surfaced. Some of these were newly discovered - like the tabernacle found inside the baroque altar in the Ják church, dated back to 1505; the panel paintings from the Toponár mansion of the Festetics family, now owned by the Vác bishopric; another piece from the series, now in a private collection, representing Mary visiting Elizabeth; or the Madonna held in the Hungarian National Gallery, dated to ca. 1490 and part of an adoration of the Magi relief-, while others have been recently identified as to originate from the Middle Ages - like the sculpture of Christ resurrected, which is probably of Burgenland provenance, belonging formerly to the collection of Sándor Wolf, Kismarton (Eisenstadt), and now held in the Burgenländisches Landesmuseum. Research and restoration work have also added to, or modified, our understanding of long-known pieces. The cataloguing work was based on detailed status reports that consider the findings of technical analyses as well as the history of the artworks. Since the middle of the 19th century, the majority of the pieces in question have ended up in private collections or museums. This cancelled their original function and changed the way they were approached, their value appreciated: they became works of art cut off from their original meaning, turned into vehicles of solely aesthetic values. This change in function was often accompanied by the modification of the objects. The alteration was often brought about by restoration work, the practice of which was greatly influenced by historical and art historical concepts which necessarily came to apply when the object became a work of art, and which themselves were subject to change with the passing of time. Two altar wings in the Sopron Storno collection, for instance, were altered according to the historicizing ideals of the late 19th century, to make them 'original, medieval'. In the 1950s, thanks to a fallacious concept that sought to emphasize 'pure plasticity', several sculptures - like the Keszthely Pietà or the Alsólendva (Lendava) reliefs - were divested, together with coats of paint added later, of their original medieval colouring, in the workshop of Kálmán Németh in the Museum of Fine Arts. Further points had to be considered in the case of works that retained their function, remained church property. The medieval wooden sculptures were often built into the altars of later ages. The new context or the fact of being Pietà, Keszthely, ca. 1500. Lime, 89 cm. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, inv. no. 52.641