Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)
JÚLIA TÁTRAI AND LÁSZLO LENGYEL: Archduke Albert († 1621) on the Catafalque: A Picture of Old-New Acquisition
his son Philip, however, he only produced engravings. If we are looking for a connection between the works of Karel van Mallery and the catafalque picture depicting Archduke Albert, the only thing that can be established is that Mallery also produced portrait engravings of Jesuits and engravings of tombs. 4 ' In regard to personal relations, Mallery's brother-in-law, Cornelis Galle, also participated in the publication of the monumental Pompa • fun e bris by Francquart, and what is perhaps even more important: in the year of Archduke Mbert's death, i.e. in 1621, Mallery held the position of dean in the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke. But would an engraver have been commissioned to paint such a stately picture even if he was the guild's dean in Antwerp? This question also arises since —as mentioned above —the most distinguished artists of the period worked at the court of Albert and Isabella. Moreover, if we compare Mallery's engravings with the painting depicting Albert on a catafalque, it is difficult to find any stylistic similarities. Mallery's small-scale sheets illustrating prayer books and made on other religious themes carried on the traditions of sixteenth-century Mannerist engraving (for example the Death of Mary, engraving, Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, fig. 1().) 48 and attest to an entirely different artistic approach than that of the catafalque picture, which without any doubt was conceived in the spirit of Flemish Baroque painting. Moreover, Mallery signed his engravings with the name C. de Mallery or Carol de Mallery and not C. Mallery. The question also arises: could the painting not have been executed after one of his —presently unknown — engravings? But if this was the case, why would the painter indicate the name of the inventor only and not his own? Hopefully the deciphering of the abbreviations in the inscription in the future will provide answers to all these questions and make it possible to identify the picture of Mbert on the catafalque more accurately. Júlia Tátrai and László Lengyel are art historians at the Cultural Heritage and Documentation Department of the Museum of Fine Arts.
