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
This, of course, does not exclude the fact that countless motifs are found in contemporary miniatures, too. The earlier drawings most probably originated in a workshop that had a direct relationship to the early Florentine engravers. The master of the later drawings could have been either an engraver or cassone-painter, but what is certain is that he worked in a workshop where even at the beginning of the sixteenth century, there was a predilection to use the Late Gothic motifs. Taking into consideration the flexible borders between the various Florentine workshops and the frequent encroachments of the artists, the technique and style of the drawings do not give away anything more than that with respect to the site of production of the Budapest Model-book. 51 The masters' hands On the basis of the disparate styles of the drawings in the Budapest Model-book, Loránd Zentai found it to be the work of two hands. As opposed to the more traditional, late-medieval drawings of the first master, the second master represents a more energetic, freer drawing style. 52 While the style of the latter drawings is uniform, and thus may be considered as the work of a single master, within the first group of depictions, whereas common features of the drawings include the closed, precise outline and the faint wash, countless small deviations are manifest? 3 Within 1 This also characterises the possible workshop environment of the Budapest Model-book as outlined by Loránd Zentai (see n. 52), the sources also mention illuminator Francesco di Antonio del Chierico as a goldsmith, thus connecting him with the Florentine fine manner engravers, see M. Levi d'Ancona, Miniatura e miniatori a Firenze dal XIV al XVI secolo, Florence 1962, 108-16. Sandro Botticelli worked together not only with engraver Baccio Baldini, but also with illuminator and cassone-painter Apollonio di Giovanni, who regularly employed animal-motifs, see E. H. Gombrich, "Apollonio di Giovanni," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 13 (1955), 31. 2 According to Loránd Zentai, the first group of the drawings is closely related to the circle of the famous illuminator, Francesco di Antonio del Chierico (1433-1484), and the draughtsman of the later drawings related to the illuminator, Monte del Fora (1448-1532/33), the painter Piero di Cosimo (1461- c. 1521), the cassone-painters, Jacopo del Sellaio (c. 1441-1493) and Bartolomeo di Giovanni (c. 1475-1500/1505). Loránd Zentai demonstrates the Florentine origin of the Budapest Model-book convincingly, but 1 cannot accept his direct attributions. 3 The first group of the earlier drawings modelled the barely visible, thinly running, faint lines into sensitively drafted animal motifs on the pair of ff. 5v-6r. This drawing style, which could be compared to fine manner engravings, appears also on numerous leaves in the model-book (ff. 2r; 4v, 5v, 6r, 6v, 12r, 12v). These were modelled more sculpturally and with denser lines; while the model-book likewise has animal depictions that belong to the first group on the basis of principal peculiarities of their styles, nevertheless, the master who has drawn the more shaded, modelled stag stepping across the head of the page facing the two sensitively drawn lions on the ff. 3v-4r, has especially accentuated with parallel lines the contrast between animal and background (see additionally ff. 2r, 3v, 4v, 6v, 1 lr, 1 lv). Finally, some of the animal motifs, such as the hare perched on f. 1 lr, or the dog mauling his prey on the same leaf, are less detailed and rather sketched. Similarly, the leopard roosting on f. 5r, which though is distinct in its drawing style from the surrounding later drawings from the energetic pen of the second master, certainly do not spring from the same hand as that which traced the finely washed animal figures on ff. 5v-6r.
