Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 98. (Budapest, 2003)

SALLAY, DÓRA: A Proposal for a Baptism of Christ-Lunette by Guidoccio Cozzarelli

In addition, both fragments demonstrate some physical features that underpin this hypothesis. In the Budapest Angels, the triangular piece of wood with a reconstructed pictorial surface added in the upper left corner may well be a late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century addition ex novo, aimed at creating a rectangular "picture" for the art market, and not a replacement of an original part that had been removed. The halo of the left angel seems compositionally aligned to this oblique edge and it should also be noted that the two curious gilt spots at the top (perhaps related to some sort of border decoration?) follow the diagonal edge. The fragment, in short, may be a piece from the upper left-hand section of a lunette.

14 In the Moscow fragment, as well, damage and repairs seem to be present in the uppermost areas. A curvilinear irregularity is perceptible extending the entire width of the preserved section; it is best discernible in the upper right corner. The curve seems to reach its apex above the Dove of the Holy Spirit and to descend again slightly in the upper left corner, just above the dove's right wing. Clearly, it suggests a lunette as the original form. The precise nature and extent of this damage has yet to be determined by a restorer's examination, but the appearance of the present state strongly suggests that, in this case also, the rectangular format may be the result of later additions at the top.

15 In the theoretical reconstruction proposed here in regard to the approximate relation of the two fragments and the original form (fig. 11 ), Christ stands in the axis of the composition, as the curve and the position of the Dove indicate,

16 and the angels stand on the left (the possibility of their being kneeled is excluded by the sky that extends behind them). It is perhaps not by chance, either, that the bottom of the Budapest piece more or less falls in line with the joint between the planks. In the two corners, close-up landscape-elements probably framed the composition, such as trees, bushes or rocks, 14 Although the present straight edge of the missing corner of the Budapest panel could, theoretically, suggest not a curved lunette-shape but a pediment form, this is unlikely, not only because of the form suggested by the Moscow fragment (see below). Large-scale pediments are extremely rare in Sienese painting of the period (cf. Sano di Pietro's and one of Matteo di Giovanni's altarpieces in the Pienza Cathedral, ca. 1460-62) and in any case it was normal practice to plane down the slight curve of a lunette fragment before adding a corner. For a similar completion of a lunette fragment, see Matteo di Giovanni's 5/. Francis of Assisi in the Saibene Collection in Milan. 15 The addition in the Moscow painting may have once been similar to the one visible in Matteo di Giovanni's lunette fragment in Esztergom (Christian Museum, inv. 55. 175. 66 by 76 cm): there a piece, concave at the bottom, has been added to the curved top of the original panel. The added piece was created from a discarded element of the cut-up, originally much wider and taller (ca. 85 by 255 cm) lunette. 16 It is the position of the Dove of the Holy Spirit that determines the axis of the composition. A comparison with other fifteenth- and sixteenth-century representations of this subject demonstrates that Christ does not necessarily stand in the center; the two protagonists may also stand symmetrically offcenter on both sides of the axis (cf. Domenico Ghirlandaio, fresco, Sant'Andrea a Brozzi, San Donnino; works by Perugino and his workshop: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; fresco in the Chiesa della Nunziatella, Foligno: Duomo, Città della Pieve; Galleria Nazionale deH'Umbria. Perugia; Signorelli' works: Pinacoteca Comunale, Città di Castello; San Medardo, Arcevia; Palazzone, Cortona; etc.). In these cases, however, it is the Dove (or God the Father) that appears above Jesus and St. John in the middle. In the Moscow fragment, therefore, the Dove's position above the Saviour indicates by itself, regardless of the curve, that Christ originally stood at the axis of the composition.