Mikó Árpád szerk.: Reneissance year 2008 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2008/1)

ÁRPÁD MIKÓ: The Legacy of King Matthias. Late Renaissance Art in Hungary (16th-17th Century)

Woman of"the Apocalypse, altar panel from Szentbenedek (Mânâstirea), 151» 1-1 520 Budapest, Magyar Nemzeti Galéria from what was the high altar of the parish church in Csíksomlyó (Sumuleu Cine), with the Virgin Mary and saints, and another two panels from Transylvania (the Woman of the Apocalypse and the Transfiguration of Christ) represent Transylvanian altar art; and some panel paintings - including the (newly restored) St Catherine series (1520) - the altars of Upper (north) Hungary. Aspects of Renaissance, classicist architecture appear in the epitaph of Johann Hutter in Eperjes (Presov). Large chorus books were the next most prominent feature of late medieval ecclesiastical art, especially m major church centres. One is displayed here, the rarelyexhibited "Kassa Graduale" (1518), whose miniatures are a spectacular blend of Late Gothic and Northern Renaissance. The codex is incomplete, and many illuminations and pages are missing. Large chorus books were hardly used in the second half of the 16th century. The Council of Trent did not permit local liturgical practices. The large volumes were sometimes split up and used for bookbinding or making archive cover pages, so that late medieval codices can sometimes only be reconstructed from scattered fragments. One such is the "Buda Antifonale" (1500—1510), of which two fragments are shown here, and the monumental Graduale by Máté Tolnai, Abbot of Pannonhalma (1515—1525), of which only one fragment survives. Both of them are major examples of Jagiello-era illumination from Buda. A few illuminated manuscripts were also produced the 16th and 17th centuries. Some used simple devices, lavishly applied, such as the Kriza Codex, made in Hungary in 1532; others were more elaborate, such as Chancellor János Listhius' breviary, of which the title page was illuminated in 1573. It is less well known that large chorus books were also made in the 17th century: such was the Graduale of Bellye (Bilje) and the Antifonale of Vágsellye (Sala). The former was used by Protestants and the latter by Paulines; the only order of monks to have been founded in Hungary, they preserved much from the medieval tradition into the 17th century. The decoration drew on diverse sources from both medieval traditions and the woodcut illustrations of contemporary printed books. Gradual ot Kassa (Kosice) Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Cod. Lat. 452.