Takács Imre – Buzási Enikő – Jávor Anna – Mikó Árpád szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve, Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Mojzer Miklós hatvanadik születésnapjára (MNG Budapest, 1991)

SZILÁRDFY Zoltán: „Sub tuum praesidium". Budavár Köpenyes Madonnája

„SUB TUUM PRAESIDIUM" THE VIRGIN OF MERCY OF BUDA CASTLE A painted wooden relief depicting the Virgin in a gesture of spreading her regal gown like a protective tent over clerical and lay dignitaries is preserved in the collection of the Piarist order-house of Budapest. The work of art so far only registered with an inventory number and never published, is dated to the first quarter of the 16th century, exactly between 1510 and '20, on the basis of its style. It was found in the one-time famous Dominican monastery which was in the place of today's Hilton Hotel earlier. In the second third of the 19th century the then existing wing housed a school with Piarist teachers. Then and there was the relief of the Virgin found hidden in the wall, possibly to protect it from the Ottoman menace. This report about the art object intended to attract attention to it merely wishes to emphasize its topicality at a time when the relics of Mary's clothes were so intensely venerated, pointing out its protective character in the years of frequent plagues. Before the emergence of the iconographie type of the Virgin as protector of people, „protection" (praesidium) and „mercifulness" (misericordia) were synonyms from early Christian times in the literature, especially in liturgical texts, indicating the help rendered in grave vicissitudes. The cult of Mary's clothes can be traced back to SyrianPalestinian origin and is related to early pilgrimage to the sacred places of the New Testament, yet the liturgical veneration of the Virgin's attire developed in the Byzantine Church. These holy relics were preserved in a devotional church in the imperial city from the 5th century onward. The anniversary of the consecration of this church called Blachernai was always celebrated on 2 July in the Byzantine liturgy, and this day was adopted by the Roman Church during the Captivity in Avignon when it introduced into its own liturgy the feast of the Visitation on 2 July. Another feast of Mary in the Byzantine liturgy, the Intercession of the God-Mother (Theotokos) on 1 October is also related to the Blachernai church. Heortology registers a vision of the Virgin on this day that occured in the Blachernai church in the year of the great plague of 903. When the plague was over, Emperor Leo the Wise proclaimed this day a holiday. The festal icon of the Intercession of the God-Mother was created in Russian art as a visual correspondent of the Virgin of Mercy pictures which emerged in Italy in the 14th century and became popular in Western and later in Central Europe as well. The cult of the Virgin's attire culminated at the time of the fall of Byzantium when it was the protective palladium over the capital and the empire against the enemy. At the same time the respect for Mary's clothes came to full bloom in Chartres, France, Prato, Italy and the cathedral of Aachen, the most famous European place of pilgrimage to the relics. Around this time a particula from Mary's veil was already revered in Esztergom, Hungary. It can be assumed that in the Dominican monastery of Buda, where the relief was found, the Virgin's attire was also venerated. The mystic dialogue between the founding saint of the order and the Virgin permits this assumption: besides the Carmelites, who spread the cult of the scapulare, the Dominicans were the Mendicant Order that visualized their ideal of the Virgin as the Virgin of Mercy. A rare motif of the iconography of the Virgin of Mercy can be observed in the studied relief: the representation of soulsaving angels, which lends the whole composition an eschatological character, giving assistance in danger of death. Emphasizing this feature was especially important in the years of the devastating plague. A significant remain of the iconography of the plague is a painting from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. In it, the punishing arrow of God's wrath is caught by the gown of the Virgin. Another item of the museum's collection is a coloured woodcut in which the Virgin is protecting with her cloak her children hiding behind her in the disaster. This picture of private devotion might have been the model for the above-mentioned oil-painting of German origin both in terms of conception and composition. Since in the studied relief Mary's gown protects clerical and lay dignitaries, and not Dominican monks, this version is presumably a civilian donation. Perhaps it is not too far-fetched to assume that right next to the royal court it is related to the well-known piousness of King Vladislas II, since in the years preceding his death he and his family were forced to flee from Buda to avoid the black death several times. It may have been this origin of the relief that called for the great care taken of it, being walled in for protection against the fanatism of Islamic iconoclasm.