Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)
Enikő Buzási: ÁDÁM MÁNYOKI (1673-1757) Conclusions from a Monograph
Mrs Besenval, born Katarzyna Bielinska, and princess Konstancja Czartoryska, among others, were originally in this series (cat. nos. 33, 35). Augustus the Strong's constantly expanding "gallery of beauties," which included works by more and more painters, mostly contained half-length portraits without showing the hands, in the fashion of the first decade of the century. The archival data and the sums of his invoices suggest that most Mányoki paintings were of this type. The beauties gallery was first housed in the Türkisches Palais. When Augustus the Strong donated the palace to his daughter-in-law, Maria Josepha of the Habsburg house in 1719, the gallery was later sent to Pillnitz. Probably before the series was put on display again, the halflength pictures were extended to knee-length, to match with the more recent pieces in format and size. Traces of such transformation can be found, for example, in Mányoki's portrait of Konstantin Sobieski's wife, Maria Josepha Wessolowska, removed from the Dresden collection at the beginning of the century (cat. no. 34). The enlargement and massive re-painting of the picture around 1725 was in compliance with the tastes dictated by the principal court painter, Louis de Silvestre, and probably also executed by his populous workshop. At the time the alterations were presumably made, Mányoki was already in Hungary. The other group of works the painter made for Augustus II includes works painted in Berlin and Dessau, mostly of members of the Prussian ruling family and the ducal family of Anhalt-Dessau. As the inventory book reveals, these portraits were first put up in the suite of rooms the Grimes Gewölbe - on the first floor of the Residenzschloss. Here the more significant works, primarily the portraits of various dukes and monarchs, were arranged in the traditional Kunstkammer order, according to Augustus II's concept of a museum. The paintings did not stay there long: when the inventory of 1728 was made, they were in Pillnitz, possibly due to the reconstruction of the Grünes Gewölbe begun the previous year. Though the construction was completed in 1729, Mányoki's pictures did not return to their former place. As the inventory of 1741 suggests, the male portraits were placed in a part of the Stallgebäude where Augustus the Strong, in the last years of his life, proposed to install a new portrait gallery. As a pendant to the "gallery of beauties" in Pillnitz, it contained portraits of rulers, dukes, high-ranking officers and administrators. The inventory of 1741 confirms that all Mányoki's male portraits were displayed there, such as those of Frederick William, king of Prussia, and Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (cat. nos. 18, 19), as well as busts of Leopold, duke of Anhalt-Dessau and Ferenc Rákóczi II. The portraits entered into the Dresden inventories were probably from his earliest years in Dresden. Although Augustus II made Mányoki court painter in 1717, he did • /oftii min :j\(.iiijt)iilcua ^/{iciilcrui . ufhofirnc (1 [/c(jilnn . ?fut %t U (\t.-l- j(>sa. ~10.;i.tt "<?,•/ î .<-'. '///„,; ,„• OU After Ádám Mányoki, by Martin Bernigeroth: Johanna Magdalena Richter, born Welsch, 1726 Leipzig, Stadtgeschichtliches Museum (cat. no. 54) not receive substantial commissions later. French Louis de Silvestre came to Dresden in 1716 and became the principal court painter, introducing a new tendency into court portraiture. 20 It was partly his activity that modified the emphasised elements in the representative court portrait: composition became more animated and spectacular with the role of various props and pictorial accessories increasing. Mányoki's reserved, monochrome dark backgrounds soon became old-fashioned for court taste. His portraits - six in all - of around 1720, only known from inventory entries, were three-quarter or fulllength portraits, possibly for the reason mentioned above. Thus they adhered in size too to a more representative model. The pictures probably perished, but a recently identified, unique full-length portrait of his showing Sophie Magdalena, duchess of Brancienburg-Kulmbach, queen of Denmark, in carnival dress in front of a peculiar park setting with a splashing fountain may help us to envision them (cat. no. 48). In addition to the gallery of officers, this is the only picture that can be attributed to Mányoki based on Hagedorn's biographic account, which includes it among the portraits listed.
