Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)

VARGA, LÍVIA: The Reconsideration of the Portrait Reliefs of King Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490), and Queen Beatrix of Aragon (1476-1508)

THE RECONSIDERATION OF THE PORTRAIT RELIEFS OF KING MATTHIAS CORVINUS (1458-1490), AND QUEEN BEATRIX OF ARAGON (1476-1508) The two well known reliefs (figs. 25-26), representing King Matthias of Hungary ( 1458-1490) and his Queen, Beatrix of Aragon (1476-1508) have long been one of the enigmas of Hungarian art history

1 and have attracted the interest of many Hungarian and foreign scholars since the last quarter of the 19

th century.

2 This interest is due not only to the relatively high artistic quality of the reliefs, and their familiarity to foreign scholars, but also to the scarcity of sculpted representations of the king, and above all to his importance as a historical figure. Jolán Balogh, the grand dame of renaissance studies in Hungary, dealt sporadically with the reliefs from the late 1920s, and for half a century thereafter repeated the same condescending opinion she held about them.

3 She argued that their style is characterized by a rather stiff etiquette, decorative elegance, and by schématisme in the modeling of hair, jewelry and clothes. She felt furthermore, that they are without any wit or freshness. The correspondence, between emperor Maximilian and the bishop of Csanád and Veszprém in the year 1571-72, in the possession of the Viennese archives, makes it clear that the emperor's request to have reliefs ex alabastro facias Matthiae regis et reginae effigies pulcherrimas sent to Vienna was fulfilled.

4 They became part of the * I am grateful to my former collègues with whom I had many inspiring discussions concerning the subject of this paper: Dr. Árpád Mikó, curator of the Hungarian National Gallery, Dr. János Eisler, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, Dr. Pál Lövei, research fellow of the Institute for the Protection of Historical Monuments, Budapest, Hungary, and above all to Dr. Michael Gervers, Professor of History, University of Toronto, Canada. 1 Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts (inv. nos. 6711 for Matthias, and 6712 for Beatrix), on loan and displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery. 2 Balogh, J., A művészet Mátyás király udvarában (Art in the Court of King Matthias) 1-2, Budapest 1966, 1. pp. 289-291; Gerevich, L., Le maître des reliefs en marbe du roi Mathias et sa femme Beatrice, BullMusHongrBA 27 (1965) pp. 15-32; Balogh, J., Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der Bildenden Künste in Budapest, Budapest 1975, nos. 125 and 126; Idem, Die Bildnisse des Königs Matthias, in Matthias Corvinus und die Renaissance in Ungarn 1458-1490, Exh. cat. Vienna 1982, pp. 67, and 203-204, nos. 84-85. 3 Balogh, J., Adatok Milánó és Magyarország kulturális kapcsolatainak történetéhez (Datas Concerning the Cultural History between Milan and Hungary), Budapest 1928; Idem, Mátyás király arcképei (The Portraits of King Matthias) in Mátyás Emlékkönyv, 1-2. Budapest 1940, 1, pp. 435-549; Idem, op. cit. (A művészet, n. 2) 1, pp. 288-291 ; Idem, Die Anfänge der Renaissance in Ungarn. Matthias Corvinus und die Kunst, Graz 1975, p. 194. 4 Thallóczy, L., Mátyás király és Beatrix domborműves arcképcinek törtenetéhez (To the History of the Reliefs Representing King Matthias and Beatrix), Archaeologiai Értesítő 14 (1894), pp. 140-143.