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

Ádám Mányoki: Pál Ráday, 1724/25 Budapest, Ráday Collection of the Calvinist Diocese of the Danube Region (cat. no. 72) younger sister Maria Anna (cat. nos. 64, 65). That these portraits were made for Augustus the Strong, as Lázár hypothesized, cannot be proved by collection inventories in Dresden, as they were never included in the Saxon ruler's gallery. No source survives to reveal why and how Mányoki was given the opportunity to depict Charles VTs daughters, but all signs indicate that the commission arrived from the emperor's family and not from Augustus II. Mányoki returned to Dresden in January 1724 via a sojourn in Prague, as we learn from his letter to Pál Ráday.

22 The knee-length portrait of count Franz Anton Spork, one of the major patrons of early 18

th-century Czech culture, which is only known from count Spork's correspondence

23 and an engraving of the picture, can be dated to this time, perhaps made in Vienna. Mányoki arrived in Hungary for the second time in September 1724. A profusion of source material is available about this period, which primarily clarifies his network of contacts and clientele at home, and also contains information about currently unknown works. Few survive of the pictures he painted at home, and since his portraits conformed to the artistic expectations of his clients, who adhered rigidly to tradition, the few that survive are fairly unsophisticated.

24 This is exemplified by the portraits of treasury adviser János Podmaniczky and his wife, as well as those of Mányoki's main patron in Hungary, Pál Ráday and his wife (cat. nos. 69, 70, 72, 73). The four portraits are high-quality versions of the type found in Hungarian galleries of ancestors, with Pál Ráday's portrait being outstanding in