Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 100. (Budapest, 2004)

URBACH, ZSUZSA: Ein flämischer ikonographischer Bildtypus im italienischen Quattrocento. Bemerkungen zur Studie von Éva Eszláry

sheets originally composed a small booklet, I consider it significant to point out that the reconstruction of the model-book, which divided a booklet into its sheets, accomplished precisely the loss of its original function, its nature of the model-book. It consisted not of autonomous sheets, but was an originally interwoven, organically coherent unit. This needs to be especially emphasised, because it is not uncommon in the literature for the sheets of drawing-books to be taken out of their original context and to be reproduced as individual, autonomous drawings. First and foremost, I would have liked to vindicate the codicological perspectives of the period of reconstruction of the model-book. My incentive in this comes primarily from studies published over the past two decades by Albert J. Elen, in which the author is the first to examine Italian late-medieval and renaissance drawing-books through the codicological method.

8 The art historian acknowledges that a codicological analysis in the case of drawing-books may be applied only with significant constraints, since these volumes intended for daily workshop use demonstrate less conformity than the representative codices; nevertheless, he considers it vital that we regard the model-books and sketch-books not exclusively as artistic products, but simultaneously as books, even if they diverge in their character from other manuscripts. He writes with good reason, then, that every art historical study must contain, alongside the traditional methods of approach of stylistic and iconographie considerations, a codicological analysis too, which is based strictly on the facts, and provides information on the characteristic of the materials and structure of the booklets. In this writing, I make an attempt at the codicological examination and reconstruction of the Budapest Model-book.

9 This does not mean, however, that I would deem to sharply divide traditional art history and codicology from each other. My conclusions connect with Loránd Zentais earlier study on several points. While, however, on the basis of his stylistic and iconographie reflections, Loránd Zentai outlines the potential workshop environment of the Budapest Model-book, I have attempted to find an answer to the questions he has raised prior, primarily on the basis of the characteristic of the materials and structure of the booklet, as well as of the techniques of the drawings themselves. For the reconstruction of the model-book, irreplaceable assistance was granted to Gyula Gajdó in the documentation of material examinations preceding the restoration. Nevertheless, the restoration obliterated countless invaluable traces referring to the former condition of the Budapest Model-book, of which by now only 8 A. J. Elen, "A Codicological Analysis and Reconstruction of Jacopo Bellini's Drawing Books," in C. Eisler, The Genius of Jacopo Bellini: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, New York 1989, 454-79, 480-507; Elen, op. cit. (n. 2). 9 This writing is the reworked version of the codicological chapter of my dissertation defended in 2004 at the Institute of Art History, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest (The NorthItalian Animal Model-book Tradition in the 15- 16th Century: The Model-book of the Budapest Museum of Fine Art). In addition to my professor and supervisor, Anna Eörsi, I am grateful to Loránd Zentai, István Pankaszi and Miriam Szőcs for their selfless assistance to my work, as well as to Albert J. Elen for his codicological advice.