Jávor Anna - Lubomír Slavícek szerk.: Késő barokk impressziók, Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724-1796) és Josef Winterhalder (1743-1807) (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai)

Lubomír Slavícek: Ifj. Josef Winterhalder - Maulbertsch legbuzgóbb utánzója vagy önálló alkotó?

and Johann Peter Cerroni (1807) and the first printed accounts (Joseph Jakob Heinrich Czikann, 1808) and lexicon entries (Johann Georg Meusel, 1814) about the art of the region. The summary of the basic information and evaluation gleaned from these primary sources can be found in the Winterhalder article of Constantin von Wurzbach's Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Osterreich, which mentions that "Winterhalder's pictures, both the oil paintings and frescoes, are judged as outstanding by art connoisseurs and several of his works resemble so much his master's, Maulbertsch', that they are attributed to the latter." The thesis of the similarity of Maulbertsch' and Winterhalder's works was most obvious in the frequent mixing up of the two artists' works, especially their drawings. For instance, most drawings selected by Karl GarzarolliThurnlackh from the collection of the Moravian gallery in Brno for a book of Austrian baroque drawings (1928) as representative proof of Franz Anton Maulbertsch' graphic oeuvre were actually by Josef Winterhalder's hand. Nonetheless, it was precisely in the 1920s that new interest was kindled in Winterhalder's oeuvre. The art historians (Adolf Feulner 1929, Klára Garas 1955, 1959, Vlasta Kratinová 1968, Anna Petrová-Pleskotová 1983, Ivo Krsek 1996, Jirí Kroupa 2002) tried to determine Winterhalder's contribution to Central European baroque painting, especially in Moravia and Hungary. The painter's biography triggered off research into the sculptural endeavours of the painter's close relatives - his father Johann Michael Winterhalder and his uncle Josef Winterhalder the Elder (Benno Giebert 1936; and Edmund Wilhelm Braun 1946, Milos Stehlík 1992, 1996a, Martin Pavlicek 2005). The greatest motivation, however, came from the monographic elaboration of his decisive master Franz Anton Maulbertsch' works, e.g. the Szombathely frescoes (János Kapossy 1922) or those in the Premonstratensian monasteries of Prague-Strahov and Louka/Klosterbruck (Pavel Preiss 1966, 2007; Lubomír Slavícek 1989), and first of all the synthetic summaries of his oeuvre bv Franz Martin Haberditzl (1944/1977,2006), Klára Garas (1960, 1974), and most recently Monika Dachs (2003). Alongside the primary Maulbertsch research some studies were written devoted exclusively to Josef Winterhalder (Klára Garas 1959, Monika Dachs 2003, Lubomír Slavícek 2004), his frescoes (Zoroslava Drobná, 1937, Anna Grossová 2001 ) and his drawings (Zoroslava Drobná 1946, Dmitrij Schelest 1985). In this context three MA dissertations of the Art Historical Seminar of Masaryk University in Brno written over the past half a century need mention, concentrating on Winterhalder's work in Moravia (Milena Hanavská 1952), his altarpieces (Anna Grossová 1999) and frescoes (Tomas Vales 2007). Winterhalder's known work is mainly preserved in Moravia, yet it is not excluded that other frescoes, altarpieces by him will be explored outside the borders of this region. Maybe one day research will come across Winterhalder's peculiar "en miniatűr" pictures painted on parchment for private devotion in monastic communities. Similarly, his practically unknown portraits might provide interesting discoveries. There are sketches and drawings latent in public and private collections, without or with erroneous attribution. That his graphic output played an important role in Winterhalder's creative efforts is proven by the frequency of his sheets in the Brno collections of his contemporaries and friends Andreas Schweigl, Johann Peter Cerroni, later in those of museum curators Mauritz Trapp, and Emil Koristka, and the Galician major Karl Kühnl. In the light of accumulating information, Winterhalder's oeuvre "undoubtedly the outcome of autonomous effort" can no longer "fully be derived from Maulbertsch's art" (Ivo Krsek 1981). Among the examples he selected for himself other weighty personalities of the Viennese academic circles (Paul Troger, Johann Wenzel Bergl, Joseph Ignaz Mildorfer, Franz Anton Palko), as well as 18th century Venetian paintings (Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo) were included, together with works from the golden age of Dutch and Flemish art (Rembrandt, P. P. Rubens) spread by prints. The preparation and realization of die 2009/2010 series of Winterhalder exhibitions - the outcome of which all lovers of baroque art can obtain now - were not least motivated by the effort to raise new questions about Winterhalder, and also provide the starting point for the writing of a synthetic monograph which "Maulbertsch' best pupil" who was also an autonomous artist surely deserves.