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)

played according to this antique custom, above a doorway, even above the doorway of the large throne room in the Buda palace,

20 and connected them to the busts of the Sforzas in the Certosa di Pavia, placed as they are above the door of the Sagrestia Vecchia.

21 While it is undeniable that the two works are typologically related to the Sforza reliefs, the latter are by no means the only examples. In Italy, from about the 1450s many similar types of representation were painted or carved in stone. Piero della Francesca's portraits of Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino in the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence), the Sforza busts on the facade of the Medici bank (Milan), Mino da Fiesole's funerary monument of Bernardo Giugni (Florence, Badia) containing the white marble profile bust of the deceased in front of a dark green background of a tondo, or Mending's Portinari portraits in the Altmann Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) which with their painted marble frames, are closely related in format and date to the portraits of the Hungarian royal couple.

22 These are only a few of the many examples known. On the other hand, the reliefs cannot be connected stylistically to the above-mentioned works. Unlike the Sforza busts, our reliefs show no sign of having been part of an architectural ensemble; there is nothing on their frames to indicate that they were ever walled in. However, the lower parts of their backs (fig. 28) have been carved out in a manner similar to that known from wooden sculptures.

23 This unusual way of shaping the 28. Back of the Matthias relief 20 Balogh, op. cil. (Die Bildnisse n. 2) pp. 6-7. 21 Balogh, op. cil. (Adatok n. 3) pp. 23-24; On the Certosa di Pavia, see Borlini, G., The Facade of the Certosa di Pavia, Art Bulletin 16 (1963) pp. 326-336; Albertini-Ottolenghi, A. M. - Bossaglia, R. -Pasenti, F. R., La Certosa di Pavia, Milano 1968, pp. 285-286; Bernstein, J. G., The Architectural Sculpture of the Cloisters of the Certosa di Pavia, Ph. D. Dissertation, New York University, 1972; Morschek Jr., Ch. R., Relief Sculpture for the Facade of the Certosa di Pavia, 1473-1499, New York - London 1978; Roth, A., The Lombard Sculptor Benedetto Briosco: Works of the 1490's, Burlington Magazine 32 (1980)pp. 7-22. 22 Chastel, A., Le grand atelier d'Italie, 1460-1500, Paris 1965; Zuraw, S. E., Public Commemorative Monument: Mino da Fiesole's Tomb in the Florentine Badia, Art Bulletin 80 (1998:3) pp. 452-477; Bernstein, J. G„ The Portal of the Medici Bank in Milan, in Verrocchio and Late Quattrocento Italian Sculpture, ed. Bule, S.- Darr, A. Ph.-Gioffredi, F.S., Florence 1992, pp. 346-349. 23 I am grateful to Dr. János Eisler, chief curator of the Department of Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, for providing me with the photographs.