Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)

Enikő Buzási: ÁDÁM MÁNYOKI (1673-1757) Conclusions from a Monograph

his family estates and settling permanently. Failing to reacquire the old property or obtain new ones, he returned to German territory in spring 1731. The status of court painter, which he had lost, was only restored to him in 1736, by the new ruler Augustus III, after a lengthy period of applications. In the meantime, he worked in Leipzig again. His salary as court painter ceased in 1749, but he was only pensioned off in 1753. He died in Dresden on 6 August 1757, at the age of 85, and is buried there in Johannis Friedhof. A monograph normally starts with the exploration of the master-disciple relationship, which determines a painter's studies and early works. A workshop or master at the outset of his career can usually be identified as the artistic starting point, serving as a basis for the analysis of initial influences. Mányoki's apprenticeship is unusual, and no such analysis can be carried out, at least not in the customary manner. There is just a single source about the beginning of his career: a brief biography by Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, a later friend of the painter and main collector of his works, who eventually became the director of the Art Academy and Royal Gallery in Dresden.

7 It reveals that his first master was Andreas Scheits of Hamburg, with whom he spent a mere four months learning "brushwork and the use of paints," and it is also noted here that he practically acquired his experience in painting by copying the pictures in the Salzdahlum collection, "thanks to his natural gifts and keen observation." The picture gallery in the Salzdahlum castle of Anton Ulrich, duke of Braun schweig-Wolfenbüttel, at that time labelled the "German Versailles," had a decisive influence on the development of Mányoki's artistic outlook and style. In accordance with the duke's tastes, the gallery had the most important collection of 17

th-century Dutch painting in German areas, but it also had works by the great contemporary French portraitists, Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas Largillière.

8 The workshop and painting school serving as Mányoki's training ground should certainly be sought in the gallery of Duke AntonUlrich. There are stylistic and technical traits permeating Mányoki's painting that have their roots in the period spent there and derive chiefly from the experience of copying: the acquisition of the "fine manner" in painting, characteristic of Dutch middleclass portraiture after Rembrandt, and a touch of the buoyant elegance of French court portraiture, detectable especially in the composition and structure of his pictures. For it was not just that he was copying painters and their works in the absence of a decisive master, but also he was acquiring skills which made him receptive to both the approaches and practices of various schools and also to the alternating use of different painterly solutions, which characterised his later period as well. In addition, his efforts throughout to model on the basis of firm draughtsmanship and his relish for detail unmistakably reveal their origin: the intimate modelling and touches of Dutch middle-class portraits. A good example is his first signed and dated work, the miniature portrait of Michael Bertold de Gileno painted at the next venue of his work, Hamburg, in 1702 (cat. no. 5). Lázár's monograph deals just as little with Mányoki's studies as with his two major early periods, both in Berlin, the first from 1703 to 1707, until he came to Hungary, the second in 1711. In 1703, Mányoki was probably attracted to the Prussian capital by the upsurge of residential constructions, the growing intensity of the art scene, and a demand for trained masters.

9 This was the first occasion in which he came within the vicinity of court life and its milieu, and that was where he received his first important commission from the crown prince Frederick William, who personally paid the painter a visit, as Hagedorn recalls, and ordered the portraits of the officers of his regiment. For some time this information could not be verified with actual works, until a connection was made with a part of the officers' gallery of the 6

th infantry regiment in Schloss Königs Wusterhausen near Berlin (cat. nos 13, 14). Eighty-eight officers belonged to the regiment,

10 so the complete gallery must have contained as many pictures. In 1820, however, only 79 were documented. Out of the 55 portraits of the officers' gallery known today, 40 were painted by Mányoki (one is in a German private collection), and another one is only known from the literature. The series, which the chronology of the pictures shows was clearly begun in 1706, took one or one and a half years to complete, probably lasting until the late summer of 1707 when Mányoki left for Hungary. The pictures dated to the end of this period reveal incomplete elements and traces of intervention by another hand. The colour treatment and somewhat dry character of the early pieces in the series suggest the impact of the English portrait style, in particular the works of Gottfried Kneller, which influenced portraiture in Berlin along various channels. The later works display a closer relationship with the works of Mányoki's contemporaries in Berlin, primarily Michael Schröck, also of Hungarian origin, and Samuel Theodor Gericke. The pictorial influence of Gericke, the professor of the Berlin Academy, can be traced - quite clearly - in nearly one-third of the portraits. There are considerable differences in colour scheme, elaboration of detail, and formal composition, possibly because of the phasing of the work, since the models were only available when they were stationed in their garrison. Although the series had provided him with continuous work and he presumably was acknowledged for it, Mányoki could not hope for employment in the Prussian court. The courts of major German duchies were intent on hiring painters of French origin or training. This led to the employment of Antoine Pesne as court