Mikó Árpád szerk.: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" M S Mester vizitáció-képe és egykori selmecbányai főoltára (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1997/1)

TANULMÁNYOK / ESSAYS - MENRÁTH PÉTER-HERNÁDY SZILVIA: M S mester Vizitáció-képének restaurálása

sides of the open, moveable wings. On closing the movable wings - completing the iconographical series on the basis of the known pieces - the top row featured scenes from the Virgin Mary's life, Christ's childhood, as well as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, and the Adoration of the Magi, while the bottom row consisted of scenes form Christ's Passion, along with the scenes of the Mount of Olives, the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The Annunciation is lost or unknown, while the Adoration of the Magi (Lille), earlier ascribed to Master M S, cannot be linked to this altar. The first problem posed in connection with the panels' belonging to the same altarpiece is that of their presently different sizes. This is most probably due to the mutilation of the panels. Saws were used for removing the panels from their frames, which was done either to dismantle the altarpiece or to incorporate the panels in another altarpiece of different size. Several boards were glued together to make up the usually quite large panels of the altarpiece. In addition to the comparative examination of the wood, the sizes of the boards and the method of their joining could provide valuable information for the analysis of the original interconnections of the paintings and the possibility of their common origin. The Visitation, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion were each made up of eight boards of lime-wood. Glued directly to all three panels in a sideways direction at the level of the top and bottom third, there was some fibrous material of animal origin. It is quite probable that the animal fibre was glued to the panels in a belt-like fashion in order to hold the boards together and to reinforce the joints. The eight boards were glued together without using dowels. If the art historians are correct, and the left, movable wing of the altarpiece was the Visitation and the Carrying of the Cross, then - despite the now existing difference in the size of the boards due to their mutilation - the middle boards, unaffected by the mutilation, should help prove the common origin of these paintings. A comparison of the boards making up the two panels has the following result: The largest size of the Visitation: 139.5 x 94.7 cm The width of the boards when viewed from the front: I. II. III. IV V VI. VII. VIII. top 11,2 12,4 11,5 11,6 12,3 14,5 11,3 9,7 bot. 11,1 12,3 11,4 11,7 12,5 14 11,1 10,6 The largest size of the Carrying of the Cross: 147.5 x 92.6 cm; however, the width of the panel at the bottom is only 91.3 cm. The width of the boards when viewed from the front: I. II. III. IV V VI. VII. VIII. bot. 11,1 12,2 11,3 12 12,9 13,5 10,7 7,6 The size of the two boards on the far right and the far left, respectively, should be ignored on account of their mutilated state. The other boards from the middle line to the left (IL, III., IV) are very nearly parallel. In light of the distance of 3.5 metres that separates the top and the bottom end of the boards, the discrepancies of I or 2 millimetres, produced in the process of planing, seem natural. However, in the case of the boards to the right of the middle line, the deviation from the parallel is considerable. Board V is flaring out towards the bottom, while boards VI and VII are flaring out towards the top. Here the difference between the width of the top and the bottom are between 5 and 10 millimetres. On comparing the figures, these are striking similarities. The direction and the extent of flaring are completely identical in the case of the corresponding boards of the two panels. For every board slightly flaring out towards the top on the Visitation panel, the flaring-out continues at the same rate in the case of the corresponding board of the Carrying of the Cross panel (See boards II and III.). The largest deviation is found in the case of the two boards each numbered VI. The discrepancy of 5 millimetres between the top and the bottom of the panel is immediately noticeable. Such a marked deviation could be regarded as evidence for both the same origin of the boards used for the two panels, and for their positioning above one another. The probability of pure coincidence in this case is, indeed, very small. We have not as yet had the opportunity to carry out a similar comparison between the Crucifixion panel and the Nativity scene at Hontszentantal. The connection between the two movable wing panels owned by the Christian Museum is also evident from the similar priming, dowelling, gilding and incising found on the side of the panels that were once decorated with reliefs. The positioning of the dowels used on the Visitation panel suggests that the size and the arrangement of the reliefs were the same as those of the panels. The method of joining the boards of the fixed wings is identical with that used to construct the moveable wings, while the number, the width and the thickness of the boards used are all different. The largest size of the panel Mount of Olives is 159.2 x 80 centimetres. However, the width of the panel is only 79 centimetres at the bottom. The width of the boards on the picture side: I. II. III. IV V bottom 8 24 18,5 21 7,5