Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)
NEW ATTRIBUTIONS - Ádám Mányoki: Still Life with Peaches, 1721 (Enikő Buzási)
NEW ATTRIBUTIONS ÁDÁM MÁNYOKI: STILL LIFE WITH PEACHES, 1721 BY ENIKŐ BUZÁSI During restoration of a still life with fruit purchased several years ago, Mányoki's signature and a date were uncovered on the back of the painting. With this discovery, the scholarly study of Mányoki was not only enriched by an addition to the painter's compendium of works, but it also benefited somewhat from some lessons concerning the painter's activities. What scholars learned was manifold. First and foremost, Ádám Mányoki (1673-1757) has primarily been known as a portraitist, despite an early landscape drawing, a Magdalene composition attributed to him, and a few pictures with Biblical themes, most of which, together with a flower-piece, are referred to in the inventory of his estate. 1 Though of a different genre, the painting with flowers has a solid place in the repertory of a portraitist who often made use of flowers or garlands as elements of composition in his portraits of women and children. However, a still life with fruit, especially the one now identified, being a self-enclosed composition placed in a landscape, certainly implies a detour in genre, occasioning broader observations concerning the painterly character of the artist. Most notably, we experience once again that the characteristics of Mányoki's style - the detailed painterly care, the puritan image construction based on few motifs, the pallet of deep tones making use of chiaroscuro, and an intimate, inward presentation remain unchanged regardless of genre or subject matter. Taking into account the above-mentioned characteristics, the cleaned and restored painting can be seen as belonging among Mányoki's works from the early 1720s. Although the picture bears the signature on the back, a carefully formed opinion based on a critical analysis of style is still necessary, because the inscription is rather blurred. The part containing Mányoki's name genuinely matches his signatures from the period, 2 but the written form of the date, however, seems rather problematic, as no analogy of the numeral two in it has yet been found. Nevertheless, the textual content of the signature encourages us to deem it as deriving from Mányoki himself. According to the inscription, the picture was painted in Vienna, which is new information as far as Ádám Mányoki: Still Life with Peaches, 172]. Oil on canvas, 58.5x72 cm Signed on the back in quite blurred brown ink: ADe (in ligatures) Manyoki in (?) Vienn[.] pinxit 1721 Inv: 98.8 M Restored in 2004-2005 by István Juhász the painter's path in life is concerned, a possible starting point for new conclusions. Formerly, we had thought that Mányoki, who had taken up confidential posts during the Rákóczi War of Independence and had thus fallen out of grace in Vienna, returned to the city for the first time as a result of the political thaw in 1722-23. To be more precise, he was thought to have gone back in 1723, when he produced portraits of Emperor Charles VPs daughters, the archduchesses Maria Theresia and Maria Anna 3 - using colours and pictorial means very similar to those of the still life in question. Should we regard the date as an authentic part of the otherwise
