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

painter in Berlin in 1710, and Joseph Vivien in Munich (though he was not locally present), Pierre Goudreux in Mannheim, and Louis de Silvestre in Dresden in 1715 (settled in 1716). It was probably this prospect that made Mányoki accept the invitation of Mrs Rákóczi, who was in Berlin in spring 1707, to go to Hungary in August 1707 as the prince's court painter. Thus, it was not "the call of his Hungarian heart," as Lázár put it, or as has often been claimed in other works since, that brought Mányoki back to Hungary, but rather a job opportunity, thanks to Rákóczi's role as a patron of the arts and his approach to royal display. Rákóczi had discovered that, amidst the international and political circumstances surrounding the Hungarian war of independence, the most appropriate tool for displaying his power as prince and ruler was the portrait in a variety of mediums: medals, painting, and engraving.

11 This is supported by the fact that Rákóczi's only known art commissions from the war period are Mányoki's portraits of him and the representative medals bearing his likeness by the medal engraver Daniel Warou, the other artist in Rákóczi's court (cat. no. 26).

12 In these medals the leader of the Hungarian war of independence is shown to the international public in the same representative form and at the same level and artistic quality as all the contemporary monarchs of Europe. Only a few works by Mányoki are known from this period. There cannot have been far more than known at present, and as he was personally employed by Rákóczi, they were probably all portraits of him, maybe in several copies. After all, this was the practice of court portraiture - notably, that a portrait was often ordered together with its copy. Some works by Mányoki further support the supposition that copies were made, such as the first portrait of Rákóczi (cat. no. 20) painted after his arrival in Hungary in 1707, and preserved by the Radvánszky family in the 18

th century. A copy of this work, corresponding to it in colour and detail, was painted by Joseph Ferdinand Wasshuber in Wiener Neustadt in 1730. Wasshuber could not have seen the painting in the Radvánszky family, and thus must have relied on another version, probably in Vienna in the possession of Julianna Rákóczi, the prince's sister and wife of Count Aspremont. The small stock of Mányoki works of this period was recently enlarged with a portrait of Rákóczi's wife painted while he was still in Berlin in spring 1707.

13 The above-mentioned portrait of the prince (or its first version) painted in 1707 was the companion piece to it, painted later, as the composition and other characteristics suggest (cat. no. 21). Painting was only part of Mányoki's employment in the court. The high annual salary - 900 Rhenish florins (which was close to the annual remuneration of the prince's court physician and adviser Ambrus Lang) alone expresses the prince's appreciation of the court painter. More important - and more typical of the conAttributed to Ádám Mányoki: Baroness Blaspiel, born von Hoff, 1711 Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Schloß Charlottenburg (cat. no. 15) cept of court painter and the structure of a princely household - were the occasional tasks performed by Mányoki for the prince. Hagedorn makes a point of stressing that the painter was kept in the court as a nobleman. This detail of the biography was overlooked earlier and may presumably mean that Mányoki belonged to the prince's intimate circle of noblemen and intellectuals whom Rákóczi entrusted with confidential diplomatic assignments as well, if necessary. That Mányoki did act in this capacity is proved by his correspondence under a pseudonym with Pál Ráday, the leader of the prince's diplomacy, in the autumn of 1709. Mányoki at this time was on his way to the Hague, the venue of the peace talks. The letters reveal that Mányoki ran errands for the prince in the company of one of Rákóczi's diplomats, arranging for the printing of pamphlets and propaganda material, maybe also disseminating them.

14 He also carried out practical tasks of an economic nature required by the prince. Mányoki presumably spent almost a year in the Low Country, from February 1710 to the year's end, for study purposes, in addition to the above tasks. Then he returned to Berlin, where he awaited Rákóczi's orders and performed his assignments. He spent a whole year