Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 92-93.(Budapest, 2000)

SZILÁGYI, JÁNOS GYÖRGY: "Les Adieux". A Column-krater of the Syracuse Painter

from May 1840 to December 1843. No detailed account or publication was ever made of the excavations, but, apart from the archaic tumuli and their contents, wellrecorded in the archeological literature,

51 we have the testimony of George Dennis, travelling Etruria at the time of the excavations, to the fact that besides pottery of a more ancient character "vases of the most beautiful Greek style" were also found, "some resembling those of Sicily and Athens."

52 The excavated objects, obviously intended by their owner for immediate sale, were scattered far and wide; at least one group came shortly into the hands of Francesco Depoletti, one of the best-known dealers of antiquities in Rome at that time. The krater of the Syracuse Painter, along with an Etrusco-Corinthian oinochoe that later came into the possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and an Attic black-figure amphora,

53 was purchased by Gábor Fejérváry and Ferenc Pulszky on August 11,1844.

54 Fejérváry 's accounts book, written in German, contains a record of the purchase,

55 Pulszky's manuscript catalogue, also in German, the details of the krater's provenance.

56 The vase, together with the entire collection, must have accompanied Pulszky in his years of emigration in England from 1848 to 1860, and then during the time he spent in Italy, although it is surprisingly omitted from the catalogue of the 1853 London exhibition. It is first mentioned again in the afore-cited guide (in Hungarian) to the exhibition of the collection held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences shortly after his return to Hungary in 1866, this time with a detailed description. It is not listed in the catalogue of the 1868 Paris auction sale because Pulszky had already donated his remaining vases to the Hungarian National Museum before the rest of the collection was sold. The so-called "international" material of the National Museum was transferred to the Museum of Applied Arts after its opening in 1873; in 1905-1906, at the time of its first mention since 1868, the krater was in the private museum of György Rath,

57 first director of the Museum of Applied Arts, having found its way into his collection by means of connections with Pulszky not yet explored in detail.

58 The Museum of Fine Arts acquired the vase in 1950, after the Rath Museum was broken up. 50 According to information kindly given me by Giuliana Nardi, the documents relating to the excavations are in the National Archives in Rome: Archivio del Camerlengato, Parte II, titolo IV, busta 236, fasc. 2345 and busta 299, fasc. 3555. 51 Abeken, G., Bulllnst 1840, 133-134; Colonna, G., StEtr 31 (1963) 155 and n. 29 (bibliography); Cristofani, M. - Nardi, G. -Rizzo, M.A.,Caere I, IIParco Archeologico, Roma 1988, 35, fig. 53; Rendeli, M, Città aperte, Roma 1993, 295, no. 6 and fig. 114; 457. ^

2 Dennis, G., Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria /, London 1878

2

, 278 and n. 9 (with further bibliography). 53 The oinochoe: Szilágyi, J. G., CEF /, Firenze, 122, 102; on the amphora Id., Scienze dell' Antichità 5 (1991)496. n. 24. 54 On the Fejérváry-Pulszky Collection and its Italic-Etruscan material see Szilágyi, Scienze dell'

Antichità., loc. cit. 483-572, and Id., in Ferenc Pulszky Memorial Exhibition, Budapest 1997, 134— 146.181-194. 55 OSzK Kézirattár (National Széchényi Library, Dept. of Manuscripts) 35/1988, among the entries for the day in question. 56 OSzK Kézirattár Fol. Germ. 1273, 47/A-B, No. 4 ("Fundort Cerveteri", "die schönste Vase im Handel in Rom"). 57 Rath, Gy. (ed.), Az Iparművészetek Könyve II, Budapest 1905, pl. 62, after p. 526; Magyar Iparművészet 1906, 59, fig. 63; Radisics, J., Guide du Musée G. Rath, Budapest 1906, 26, no. 69. 5S Horváth, H., in Ferenc Pulszky Memorial Exhibition, op. cit. (n.54) 73.