Mikó Árpád szerk.: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" M S Mester vizitáció-képe és egykori selmecbányai főoltára (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1997/1)

TANULMÁNYOK / ESSAYS - MIKÓ ÁRPÁD: Misztériumjáték. A táblák sorsa: források és feltevések

two very old paintings hung on the walls of the sanctuary (note no. 58.). The statue depicting the Crucifixion, which was placed on the Altar of the Holy Cross, was also claimed to be a very old one (note no. 59.). There were certainly some large Mediaeval paintings and sculptures in the church at the beginning of the eighteenth century, regardless of the fact that we are unable to identify any of them with Master M S's panels. The building was burnt down in 1679, during the uprising led by Imre Thököly. Before the Jesuits, it was used by the Lutheranians, who were not as ferocious iconoclasts as the Calvinists; and before the Reformation, it belonged to the Dominicans. The building was damaged by fire in 1532 and was restored in 1533. Nor can the panels be identified on the basis of the inventory taken in 1781 at the Koháry-Coburg castle of Hontszentantal. Therefore, they must have been taken to Hontszentantal somewhere between 1781 and 1876. For quite a while, the paintings' fortuna critica was rather one-sided: German art historians claimed them for themselves from the moment of their emergence, trying to demonstrate, using arguments based on stylistic analysis, that the Master must have been of German origin. By contrast, mainly historical arguments (i.e. the point that the paintings originated from Selmecbánya) were brought up by Hungarian art historians, who eventually managed to get across the view that the high altar, which originally accommodated the panels, stood in this town. The panels themselves reveal much about their secondary and consequent applications. The restorers Péter Menráth and Szilvia Hernády found several layers of overpaint on the panel Visitation (on this point see their study); the panels held in Esztergom are presently subjected to a similar examination. If the materials used for both sets of the overpaints are found to be identical, it will be possible to give a - relative chronological - dating of the rather extended phase of their common history. Neither the Visitation nor the Nativity had the kind of complete overpaint that was removed from the Esztergom museum's Passion scenes in 1915. We have a photograph of the Nativity from the period preceding its restoration (probably before 1910), proving that the painting, although not overpainted, was in fact repaired. The paint coat indicating red fabric (St. Joseph's cape, the trousers of the shepherd on the right) was completely fragmented; this colour could have been damaged to the same degree also on Visitation or the Passion scenes. Also visible are the two joints which came loose when the reliefs on the reverse side were removed. The pictures on the reverse side of the moveable wings (Esztergom: Carrying of the Cross and Crucifixion) reveal the empty place of the two removed figures in relief; with no gilding underneath, their outlines are scratched on the ground. Other large patches (of completely irregular shapes, outlined with scratching), also ungilded, have been found above the head of the figures: researchers do not know what to make of them and, therefore, try to ignore them. These patches are not placed over any missing joints. Also, there are two belts on each of the moveable wings; these were added in the course of some consequent application of the panels; there are indications to suggest that similar belts were added to Visitation, also. The method of mutilation is rather drastic, yet it reveals some regularity: the pictures on the moveable wings were enlarged, in contrast with the fixed wings (the two lateral pieces of the Passion scenes), which were made narrower and taller. Whether they were hung up separately somewhere, or formed part of a Baroque altarpiece, it is impossible to tell now. Hopefully, we shall be able to answer the majority of these questions, when the restoration of the Esztergom panels will have been completed.