Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
JÚLIA TÁTRAI: The Return of Barent Fabritius's Sacrifice of Manoah to Hungary
THE RETURN OF BARENT FABRITIUS' S SACRIFICE OF MANOAH TO HUNGARY Hommage à Gábor Térey In October 1911 , the director of the Old Masters 1 Gallery, Gábor Térey wrote a letter to the Hungarian Minister of Culture in hopes of expanding die collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, which had opened several years earlier. The following month the Lepke Auction House in Berlin was scheduled to auction off one of the most important Hungarian private collections of the time, and Térey had set his sights on eight paintings. In his letter, he describes how the heirs of the Royal Councillor Gustav Gerhardt had offered to sell his entire collection to the Hungarian state following his death, but the offer was rejected "due to financial difficulties". 1 The most prestigious part of the collection consisted of the works of sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish painters, of which the museum managed to purchase four: The Annunciation, presently attributed to Gerard Seghers (listed in the catalogue as a work from the workshop of Rubens), Claes Hals' View of Haarlem (listed as a work of Balthasar van der Veen), The Prodigal Son Feasting with Harlots painted circa 1535-50 by an unknown Flemish painter (listed as a work of the Master of Female Half-Figures) and The Adoration of the Magi by Adriaen van Stalbemt (listed as a work of Frans Francken III). However, the museum was unable to obtain Barent Fabritius's painting The Sacrifice of Manoah, which Térey had described in his letter as one of the most beautiful works by a distinguished pupil of Rembrandt (fig. 44)." Presumably Térey pencilled in the final selling price of 4700 marks in the catalogue copy found in the Museum of Fine Arts' library. 1 The letter, written on 18 October 1911, is preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, archival no. 1911/1738. 2 Sammlung des f königl. Ungar. Hofrats Gustav von Gerhardt Budapest. Zweiter Teil: Gemälde Alter Meister des 15-18. Jahrhunderts, zwei Gemälde von Michael v. Munkácsy, 10 November 1911, Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin 1911, no. 92 [reproduction]: "Bearded man in red clothing and a young woman kneeling before a sacrificial altar. Next to the altar is the sacrificed Iamb, a bowl of blood and the sacrificial knife. Wood, 57 x 71 cm."
