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

ANNA EÖRSI: "...there is One Among You Whom You Do Not Recognise": Some Golden Threads to Miklós Boskovits with Reference to Duccio's Saint John the Baptist

literature much less attention has been paid to the fact that the Sienese master not only incorporated chrysography into the linear structure of his style, but also invested it with a specific meaning.

8 And this is also an important aspect of the masterly handling of colour and light. It means that in Duccio's art, the different qualities of light, the symbolical and that related to reality, began to separate.

9 As with grisaille,

10 also in the case of the golden striations, the process of stylistic refinement also produced an iconographical benefit. Duccio is the first who, with regard to chrysography, differentiates between overgarments and undergarments, and with the golden lines consistently refers to the appearance of divine glory and to the divinified state itself. Only the red robe, and not the cloak of the Virgin, is decorated with golden striations on the front side of the Maestà and namely in the Annunciation and in the scenes of the crowning section recalling the end of the Virgin's life.

11 (In the infancy-scenes she wears the same clothing, but without the golden lines.) On this Mariological side of the altarpiece the adult Christ appears only once, in the scene of the Dormition of the Virgin: the resurrected, glorified Redeemer holds his mother's soul enveloped in a robe and a cloak shining with gold. In the Passion-scenes on the reverse side Duccio does not employ chrysography. From among the extant panels of the predella, it is only the Transfiguration in which Christ wears his red robe and blue cloak of divinity radiating with light. With a sole exception

12 he is dressed in a similar way in all the post-Resurrection scenes. On this Christological side of the altarpiece the Virgin's figure is distinguished wdth chrysography only on a single occasion, in the scene of the Pentecost. This time not only her robe, but also her cloak is decorated with golden lines. II. THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE BUDAPEST PAINTING Up till now, with the exception of Pigler and Stubblebine,

13 no one has precisely defined the subject matter of the work. It is not at all surprising, since in the literature dealing with Saint John the Baptist sufficient attention has not been paid to this moment in the life of Saint John and Christ. We see the event of bearing witness during the preaching, but which one? In the Synoptic Gospels less mention is made of it,

14 while John amply and diversely relates that: "A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him."

1-John, right after the declaration of Incarnation, and over the following three days, repeatedly bears testimony of Christ; he describes the Baptism itself in this form, and later on, when Christ with his disciples goes to the land of Judea to baptize, he repeats his testimony.

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