Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Szilveszter TERDIK: “Athonite” Miniature Carvings at the Museum of Applied Arts
tiny scenes and saints, with Slavic inscriptions, in a gilt silver filigree frame. On the central axis of the top row of the horn panel on the left can be seen a bust of Jesus Christ, with half-length depictions of the prophets on both sides, holding scrolls in their hands. From left to right, they are identified by their Slavic names as Habakkuk, Jeremiah, David and Elijah, then, after Jesus Christ, Jonah, Solomon, Ezekiel and Isaiah (?). Beneath them there are three rows depicting feast day scenes, as follows (from left to right): row 1 - the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and the Baptism of Christ; row 2 - the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection; row 3 - the Ascension of Jesus, the Pentecost, the Transfiguration, and the Dormition of the Mother of God. On the right-hand panel, nine feast day scenes are shown in three rows, as follows (from the top down and from left to right): the Resurrection, the Synaxis of the Archangels, the Decollation of the Forerunner, the Annunciation, the Washing of the Feet (Maundy), the Crucifixion; in the bottom row, the saints are standing in five groups, separable by their attire into prophets, prelates and apostles. The left-hand panel follows the order of the Story of Salvation, while the logic by which the second panel was conceived awaits decipherment. The two carvings were not originally designed to go together, as their iconographies are not coordinated, some feasts (the Resurrection, the Crucifixion) appear on both panels, and the sizes of the central scenes and the styles in which the panels were carved are not the same. Such small panels were often placed independently in a metal frame, and used as an encolpion or as a portable icon. The Budapest diptych was probably not in fact made in the Balkans, but somewhere further north, in Russian territory, because the carvings are very similar, in both style and iconography, to items dated to the sixteenth century that can be found in Russian collections, even though the latter were carved not in horn but in wood.69 As well as rectangular pieces, there are also cross-shaped carvings in the Russian collections, all decorated with similar, tiny, intricate scenes.70 A pectoral cross in Solovetsky Monastery was made, according to the catalogue description of the carving, from bone (although the material is more likely to be horn, like the panels in the Budapest diptych), in Novgorod at the end of the sixteenth century.71 There are affinities between the pectoral cross and the diptych, not only the material but also the style of the carvings; although without carrying out a closer examination it is difficult to make a stronger assertion. The heart- shaped, silver filigree motifs decorating the metal mounting of the Budapest diptych also have analogues in sixteenth-century fine metalwork artefacts from Novgorod.72 The recently discovered Russian parallels also justify revising the date of the Budapest diptych to the sixteenth century, which may be substantiated by the style of the filigree frame. This last example of ours clearly illustrates that the creation of miniature carvings was not limited to Eastern Orthodox masters on Mount Athos, or even in the Balkans, but also flourished in lands further north, although by comparison with the relatively large number of artefacts from areas to the south of Hungary, items from the north are hardly present at all in Hungarian collections. 71
