Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 104. (Budapest, 2006)

ZOLTÁN KOVÁCS: "The Witty Pieter Quast": The Works of an Amsterdam Master in Hungary Then and Now

PIETER QUAST. CAVALRY SKIRMISH. BUDAPEST PRIVATE COLLECTION An eloquent example of the multiplicity of Quast's genres is the large-size panel painting depicting a battle on horseback, likewise preserved in a Hungarian private collection (fig. 7).

i4 The painting illustrates well Quast's ability to perfectly copy the artistic style of each of his contemporaries. In the case of the above battle scene, he succeeded to such an extent that the work was considered a composition of Palamedes Palamedesz for quite some time.

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' In the course of restoration completed recently, however, Quast's characteristic signature appeared on the painting.

36 The animated composition, Cavalry Skirmish, is divided into two main parts: the figure sitting on the rearing white horse, who is the main figure of the group visible on the left-hand side of the picture, and who, together with his company, attacks a soldier tearing off on a brown horse, while on the right-hand side, a bit further back, a violent battle is underway. In front of the protagonists and a bit to the right, we can see tw

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o fleeing cavalrymen, and between the two populous groups a vista opens up onto the landscape. The emphatic motif of the painting is the wounded soldier appearing in the central foreground with his back to the viewer, who, before his horse laid on the ground, attempts to get to his feet. The horse's skull lying