Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)
Miklós GÁLOS: An Antonio Tempesta Rediscovered in the Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
in the upper part of the frame on the recto. The description moves systematically from the inner to the outer part of the frame, making it clear that the gilt bronze border enclosed the image field, and this element was then enclosed by the frame with mother-of- pearl inlays. The cast, silver-gilt arabesques and ring, on the other hand, were placed outside of the frame. While the Di Castro picture, in its present state, lacks the copper or bronze edging around the image field, the damaged Budapest picture, on the other hand, does have edging that fits the above description. (Fig. 12) The partly gilt copper strip lining the opening of the frame insert is affixed with nails. This detail, today only seen in the Budapest work, makes it certain that the 17th- and 18,h-century descriptions of the work in the Medici collections refer to the painting previously in the Di Castro collection. In the interior and centre of one of the longitudinal sides of the Budapest frame are two nicely shaped auger holes.32 The holes penetrate the entire thickness of the frame and were drilled later, from the outside. Most likely, these are traces of the former decorative hangers described in the Uffizi inventory but no longer present on the frames of either the Di Castro or the Budapest painting. (Fig. 13) 12. Gilt copper edging of the inner frame of the Budapest painting 13. Holes in the interior of the Budapest frame The extremely strong analogies suggest this recently discovered Budapest painting is certainly the work of Antonio Tempesta. Moreover, the analogous picture from the Di Castro collection indicates the frames, too, were from the same workshop. Although the Tempesta paintings on lapis lazuli in the Louvre and from the Di Castro collection were made for the Medici family, the Budapest picture does not appear in the well-documented collection of the Medicis. At the same time, the materials used—the lapis lazuli (considered a precious stone), the mother-of-pearl and the ebony— point to aristocratic patronage. Tempesta’s commissioners were primarily Florentines living in Rome, members of the Natione Fiorentina, but may have also included, for example, Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustini- ani of Genoa.33 During Tempesta’s later years in Rome, important patrons were the Barberinis, also from Florence: Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and his nephews, cardinals Francesco and Antonio, as well as their brother Taddeo Barberini, prince of Palestrina and prefect of Rome.34 Maffeo Barberini’s election as pope in 1623 was followed by a period of more active patronage by the family. A conspicuous number of commissions were given to Antonio Tempesta. According to the surviving account books, in 1624 alone various members of the family paid for five of his works. The pope 19
