Török Gyöngyi: Gothic Panel Paintings and Wood Carvings in Hungary, Permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2005/3)
Ground-floor - Rooms 1-5
The focus of room 4 is the St Nicholas high altar of Jánosrét from the 1480s. an important vestige of altar production from mining towns during the reign of King Matthias. The St Nicholas altar, similarly to high altars in general, was erected in honour of the patron saint of the church. The statue in the shrine represents the titular saint, and the shutters showscenes from his life and legend. The altarpiece is an intriguing transition between early painted altarpieces and later ones in which the whole central section is filled with carvings, the paintings being confined to the wings. The painted stationary figures in the shrine are independent of the narrative scenes on the wings and tire more related to the carved figure of the saint. The Master of Jánosrét proved his worth as a transmitter of the then novel Netherlandish artistic tendencies in the age of Matthias Corvinus in the last third of the 15th century. The most precious winged altarpiece surviving from the period is the high altar of the parish church of St Elizabeth in Kassa. Written sources reveal that it was already in place in 1474- . Its two pairs of hinged winged are covered by 48 painted scenes, and the shrine contains three larger-than-life statues. The statues of two doctors of the church, St Jerome and St Oregon', displayed in our exhibition probably belonged to the lower compartments of the shrine. The realistically rendered figures of the aged scholar-saints are unique not only in our collection but also among the surviving remains of wood sculpture of the era. Closely related stylistically to the Passion scenes of the St Elizabeth high altar is the Man of Sorrows (Vir dolorum). intended for absorbed devotion, also from Kassa.
