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

Sassetta: St. Thomas Aquinas Praying before the Altar of the Virgin (Résumé)

JEGYZETEK 1 Christiansen, K: Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500. New York 1988, 71-72. 2 Catalog der nachgelassenen Kunst-Sammlungen des Herrn Johann Anton Ramboux... Versteigerung zu Cöln am 23. Mai 1867 durch J. M. Heberle (H. Lempertz) Nr. 103.; Pigler, A.Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister. Budapest 1967, 621-622. 3 Berenson, B.: The Central Italian Painters of the Reaissance. New York - London 2 1911, 245. 4 De Nicola, G.: Sassetta betwen 1423 and 1433. The Burlington Magazine 23 (1913) 207-215. 5 Zeri, F.: Towards a Recontstruction of Sassetta's Arte della Lana Triptich. The Burlington Magazine XCVIII. nr. 635. (1956 Febr.) 37-41. 6 Zeri, F.: Ricerche sul Sassetta. La Pala dell'Arte della Lana. Quaderni di Embléma 2 (1973) 28-34. 7 Pope-Henessy, J.: Sassetta London 1939, 6-16. 8 Carli, E.: Sasetta e il Maestro dell'Osservanza. Siena 1957. 9 Christiansen, K: i.m. 64-79. 10 Angiolo Maria Carapelli OP: Notizie delle chiese e cose riguardevoli di Siena 1718. Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, M.S. B. VII. 10. c. 30v.; Giovangirolamo Carli: Notizie di belle arti. Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, M.S. C.VII.20. cc. 31-S2. 11 Scapecchi, P.: La Pala dell'arte della Lana del Sassetta. Siena 1979, 24. 12 Siena, Archivio di Stato, Statuti deH'Arte della Lana III. c. 22v. 23. cap. 37. (Közli De Nicola, G.: i.m. 214. n. 19.) 13 Siena, Archivio di stato, M.S. cit. VI. 50. 14 Visita apostolica di Möns. Bossio, 1575. Archivio arcivescovile di Siena, n. 21. cc. 80v-81r. (Közli Pope-Henessy, J: i. m. 38.) 15 Carapelli, A. M. OP: i. m. C. 30v. 16 Fecini, T.: Croneche senesi. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores vol. XV, 6. Ed. Muratori, E A. Bologna 1939, 859. 17 Smet, J. C: The Carmelites. A History of the brothers of our Lady of Mount Carmel. 1975, 41. 18 Carli, G: i. m. ce. 81-S2. 19 Acta Sanctorum. Ed. Bollandists. Paris 1863-1931, Martii, I, 669. nr. 35. 20 Acta Sanctorum, i. m. 674, nr. 53. 21 1 Királyok 17-19 SASSETTA: ST. THOMAS AQUINAS PRAYING BEFORE THE ALTAR OF THE VIRGIN (BUDAPEST, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS) The opening work of an exhibition entitled „Renaissance Painting in Sinea" staged in New York's Metropolitan Museum in 1988 was Sassetta's row of praedella pictures painted for his altarpiece of 1423-24. More exactly, it was a tier of six pictures, including the one from Budapest, out of the seven presumed by researchers to have constituted the praedella. After a brief survey of the sources and research results concerning the altarpiece commissioned by the Cloth Guild of Siena, and an analysis of the altar's iconographie programme as well as of the form and content of the two paintings (the one in Budapest and the one in the Vatican Gallery) representing St. Thomas Praying, the paper concludes: 1. The Vatican picture did not belong to this altarpiece but was presumably made for the praedella of the later St. Thomas altar made in the 1430s. 2. The sequence of the pictures in the praedella of the Cloth Guild's altarpiece must have been the following: a) Death of the Heretic at the Stake (Melbourne, National Gallery) b) Miracle upon Taking the Eucharist Unworthily (Bernard Castle, Bowes Museum) c) The Last Supper (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale) d) St. Thomas Aquinas Praying before the Altar of the Virgin (Budapest) e) The Temptation of St. Anthony the Hermit (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale). 3. The altarpiece was made in honour of the council of Siena held in 1423-24. On 22 June 1424, Corpus Christi day, it was standing on a side altar of Siena's Carmelite church as the expression of the prestige of the Cloth Guild. 4. The iconographie programme of the altarpiece was designed by the Carmelite friars, since their church was the setting for the Corpus Christi celebrations until 1448. 5. In view of the above arguments, the author assumes the structure of the altarpiece to have been as illustrated in the reconstruction drawing. The altarpiece must have been removed in 1460 to the chapel built by the Cloth Guild in the same year next to St. Pellegrino's church, closer to the dome, when the venue of the Corpus Christi celebrations had been transferred to the dome. The picture in Budapest gives a summary of St. Thomas Aquinas's personality and life-work, while the piece in the Vatican is quite different in character.