Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

NEW ACQUISITIONS, NEW RESULTS - Gábor ENDRŐDI: St. Sebastian, place of origin unknown, ca. 1515-20

4. Apostle from the Death of Mary 5. The Death of Mary altar from Dobronya, completed in 1519. HNG altar at Dobronya, completed in 1519. HNG dorf),

2 but, in the lack of any further evidence, we can only tentatively identify it with the sculpture now in Budapest. It would also be unfortunate to forget that Szepesség and Lőcse (Levoca, Leutschau) in particular were vigorously associated with late mediaeval art: the expression "a piece of Lőcse craftsmanship" sometimes implied a relationship with a broad group of monuments rather than actual origin.

3 The examination of the statue itself, in my opinion, renders the provenance in the inventory entry expressly implausible. It is difficult to identify its style as belonging to the sculpture of the Szepes area. This is perhaps one of the reasons why it has failed to attract particular attention. In spite of its simple standing position and thrifty surface treatment, its qualities manifest in the sovereignty of execution and the sensitivity in its carved skin surfaces have prompted only Antal Kampis to make a detailed description of the work.

4 The thrift referred to is obviously related to its original position: on the basis of its size, the original nails in the socle and the trunk near the head, as well as the wholly unworked, split back of the statue, we can surmise that it used to stand in a multistorey side niche of an altarpiece's central shrine, thus, in a subordinate position. The St. Sebastian figure of the St. Simon and St. Jude (?) altar in Mosóc (Mosovce) has a similar function, and is an almost mirror-image replica of the Budapest sculpture.

5 (111. 2) As in many another an instance, whatever we know of this altarpiece, we owe it to Anton Glatz. He was the one to recognize that it was the work of the same sculpture workshop that had made the Death of St. Mary altar, which went from Dobronya (Dobra Niva) to the National Gallery (Ills. 4-5), and the Madonna statue, which is preserved in the neo-gothic church of Karásznó (Krásno nad Kysucou).

6 According to him, the seat of the workshop was probably in Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica, Neusohl), or, at least, in one of the mining towns of the Garam (Hron) area. The two altarpicces are related by not only their sculptural style but also by their ail-too similar cabinetwork; moreover, the lettering of the inscriptions on the fascias under their central niches - whereby the Mosóc altarpiece is dated to 1518, and the Dobronya one a year later - are also akin. Later on, Glatz attributed the sculptures 3. St. Sebastian, place of origin unknown, ca. 1515-20, detail. HNG