Mikó Árpád – Verő Mária - Jávor Anna szerk.: Mátyás király öröksége, Késő reneszánsz művészet Magyarországon (16–17. század) 2. kötet (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2008/4)
The English Summary of Volumes I—II
sellor, and his wife was her lady-in-waiting. Copies from Queen Mary's Brussels portrait gallery could have reached Queen Anne in 1546/47, and after her death could have come into the possession of Countess Blagay's family. The set of portraits owned by the Croatian aristocrat, some of which were the subjects of pictures in Beck von Leopoldsdorf's Portrait Book, is the earliest known "private portrait collection" in the 16 th century Kingdom of Hungary. One hitherto unknown subject of the portraits in Hieronymus Beck's book may, in the opinion of the present author, be identified as one of the foremost 16th century Hungarian aristocrats Miklós Pálffy (1552—1600). In his youth, Pálffy was one of Rudolf II's immediate circle and was closely acquainted with the other members of the leading court aristocracy. Through his later positions — Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber, Oberstsilberkämmerer, Master of the Chamber of the King of Hungary (magister cubiculariorum regalium regni Hungáriáé) and Captain of Pozsony (Bratislava) Castle — he was one of the official and military elite of the Habsburg court, sufficient grounds for inclusion in Beck's Portrait Book. The portrait of another Hungarian aristocrat, János Krusics, Chief Steward to the King of Hungary, dated 1580, determined by present author as the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (see the catalogue of this exhibition, X-l), reveals the court associations of its subject. The son of a high-ranking Croatian family, he resettled in Upper Hungary in the mid-16 th century, where he had a senior military position. He became a baron in 1570 and Chief Steward to the King of Hungary (Curiae regiae magister Regni Hungáriáé) in 1575, so he was one of the leading members of the Hungarian aristocracy. A sign of his close association with the court is that his wife, Katalin Pálffy, had him buried in Augustinerkirche, one of the favoured burial grounds of the court-connected Viennese aristocracy. It would thus have been natural to have himself painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a portrait painter employed by the imperial court from 1563 onwards. Identification of the painter was based on the similarities with Arcimboldo's signed self-portrait drawing of between 1571 and 1576 (Prague, Národní galerie) and his costume designs of 1585 (Florence, Uffizi). A link to a different kind of court art is the 1595 portrait of Dániel Kubinyi, Captain of Ónod. It bears an affinity to the work of Marcin Kober, who worked in the Cracow court of István Báthory. (X-2.) This, and the 1600 portrait of Kristóf Thurzó, lord lieutenant {fősipán, comes) of Szepes (Spis), are distinctive examples of how the Late Renaissance style of southern Poland influenced Upper Hungarian portrait painting. Portrait occasions and portrait series The sources show that full-size (i.e. not miniature or small) portraits became common on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary from the second third of the 17 th century. They appear regularly in the castle inventories of the Csákys, the IIlésházys, the Batthyánys and the Esterházys. The numbers and other information reveal that most portrait painting was linked to some occasion. This was rare before the end of the 16th century, but became increasingly common in the first half of the 17 th . Portraits were commissioned for events marking stages in life, or for a particular purpose. It was on someone's death that a portrait was most often requested. The Hungarian catafalque painting is a distinctively 17 th century form, and thirty-one of them are known of from the sources, some having only recently emerged or been reassessed. Until recently, it was thought that the catafalque paintings of the Thurzós and the North Hungarian Protestant families in their circle were the earliest of the form, but the custom is now known to have been established very early in West Transdanubia, in the (originally Protestant) Batthyány family. Research into the 1678 inventory of Trencsén (Trencin) Castle and comparison with another source has also brought to light previously-unknown Illésházy catafalque paintings, all of whose subjects were children. Portraits were also produced for the stages of preparation for marriage, selection of suitors, wooing and engagement. Some of these are known only from sources. (See X-16.) No Hungarian marriage portrait is known of, however. There are several mentions of small portraits (see X-S). A late 17 th century Fraknó inventory of the Esterházys mentions a small picture of Orsolya Császár, the mother of Miklós Esterházy 's first wife. This may be the same miniature portrait of Orsolya Császár based on which Palatine Miklós commissioned a full-figure portrait for the family gallery around 1626. Through Orsolya Császár, the Esterházys probably also had an authentic picture of Miklós Oláh, Archbishop of Esztergom, and this may have been the precursor for the Oláh portrait in the Esterházy collection in Fraknó. It can be seen from the surviving paintings and other information that during the 17 th century a custom emerged of making portraits for the purpose of presenting the family past, and galleries of ancestors began to be established at about the same time. This occurred only after the middle of the century, prompted by two very influential series of engravings : the portraits by Elias Wideman (X-23a-c), principally the "third century", with its depictions of the Hungarians (1652), and the series of portraits of Hungarian kings entitled Mausoleum... (1664). One aspect of how the Wideman series influenced attitudes is that Western European attire disappeared from female portraits in mid-century, whereafter aristocratic ladies wore Hungarian noble dress. The phenomenon, which lasted up to the end of the century, was driven by changes in the selfrepresentation of the Hungarian nobility. Mausoleum..., a book of engravings published by Ferenc Nádasdy in 1664, served as a general stimulation for portrait painting: galleries of family ancestors started up one after the other in the decade following its publication. Interest turned to prominent past members of the family, portraits of the living being supplemented by those of earlier generations, frequently based on the composition of engravings in the Mausoleum. Examples are the gallery of the Batthyánys' ancestors, founded in the early 1670s and the Esterházy portrait gallery started by Pál Esterházy also in the 1670s (with several pictures modelled on the Mausoleum engravings). The Illésházys' portrait hall, to judge from the 1678 inventory of Trencsén Castle, probably came into the same category. The family portrait gallery of Ferenc Nádasdy, who published the Mausoleum, is currently being researched. One of its early pieces, a portrait of Orsolya Kanizsay, wife of Tamás Nádasdy of around 1650 based on a 15 th century precursor, has survived in the Esterházys' collection.
