DOI article:
Frinta, Mojmír Svatopluk: Some Thought-provoking Musing: Angevino - Luxemburgian - Corvinian
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51730#0083
passed into the hands of the Hungarian Anjou
branch or aristocracy or high clergy in Hungary
and may háve been already in a safe place when
the Turcs overran the country.
We know more about the history but still not
enough about the origin of a Madonna which was
donated to the pilgrimage church of Mariazell
in Styria by the Hungarian King Louis to
a special chapel in the church being reconstruct-
ed during 1377-1382. (Fig. 3) It is safer to view
this painting as an Italian work because we lack
any comparative material in Hungary in order to
argue for its Hungarian origin. In fact, Angelo
Lipinsky attributed the painting to Sienese And-
rea Vanni who made several visits to Naples,
Emö Marosi thought it as merely a replica of
Andrea’s original.11 The background and the
wide frame are overlaid by a silvergilt sheath-
ing with the Hungarian Royal emblems in trans-
lucid enamel and large fleur-de-lys on the
ground. The presence of four enamel plaques
with the représentation of ostrich (semi-mythi-
cal Turul of the Hungarians) which was a favorite
emblem of King Louis and before that of his fa-
ther King Carobert, confirms it as a gift of Louis.
The likewise four times represented crowned
eagle of the Polish kingdom which formed an
alliance with Hungary in 1370 furnishes the ter-
minus post quem for the donation unless one
would consider this emblem as to honor his mo-
ther Elizabeth who was a Polish princess. Lipin-
sky maintained that the sheathing is a work of
the goldsmith Pietro di Simone da Siena who
was active in Naples but it seems to me that it
could as well have been made in Hungary be-
cause the metal working had a tradition in Hun-
gary, and the translucid enamel could have been
leamed from objects imported from Italy. Sheath-
ing of three small pictures deposited by Louis
the Great in 1374 as part of the Hungarian trea-
sure in the Hungarian Chapel of the Münster in
Aachen was decorated identically.12 Unfortunate-
ly, these pictures are heavily repainted to make
any observation impossible.
Fig. 3 — Madonna, gift of the Hungarian King Louis I the Great
to thepilgrimage church of Mariazell (Styria), c. 1370-80
Let us turn our attention to the Claim that
Andrea Vanni painted the Madonna panel. It is
true that Andrea was one of the painters who sim-
plified the facial features into a linear treatment
but there were as well other Italian painters who
adopted this stylistic device and whose work
cornes closer, I think, to the Mariazell Madon-
na. One of them was Andrea da Bologna who
worked in the Marches, and his signed Nursing
Madonna of Humility of 1372 in Corridonia, S.
Agostino and his signed Madonna polyptych of
1368 in the museum in Fermo render the same
mask-like expression as the votive Madonna.13
I also propose a comparison for the Madonna’s
face with that in a fourteenth Century Madonna
in Barletta, S. Giacomo and for the Christchild
that in a Madonna triptych in the Municipal
Gallery in Split. (Fig. 4) The Madonna from
77
branch or aristocracy or high clergy in Hungary
and may háve been already in a safe place when
the Turcs overran the country.
We know more about the history but still not
enough about the origin of a Madonna which was
donated to the pilgrimage church of Mariazell
in Styria by the Hungarian King Louis to
a special chapel in the church being reconstruct-
ed during 1377-1382. (Fig. 3) It is safer to view
this painting as an Italian work because we lack
any comparative material in Hungary in order to
argue for its Hungarian origin. In fact, Angelo
Lipinsky attributed the painting to Sienese And-
rea Vanni who made several visits to Naples,
Emö Marosi thought it as merely a replica of
Andrea’s original.11 The background and the
wide frame are overlaid by a silvergilt sheath-
ing with the Hungarian Royal emblems in trans-
lucid enamel and large fleur-de-lys on the
ground. The presence of four enamel plaques
with the représentation of ostrich (semi-mythi-
cal Turul of the Hungarians) which was a favorite
emblem of King Louis and before that of his fa-
ther King Carobert, confirms it as a gift of Louis.
The likewise four times represented crowned
eagle of the Polish kingdom which formed an
alliance with Hungary in 1370 furnishes the ter-
minus post quem for the donation unless one
would consider this emblem as to honor his mo-
ther Elizabeth who was a Polish princess. Lipin-
sky maintained that the sheathing is a work of
the goldsmith Pietro di Simone da Siena who
was active in Naples but it seems to me that it
could as well have been made in Hungary be-
cause the metal working had a tradition in Hun-
gary, and the translucid enamel could have been
leamed from objects imported from Italy. Sheath-
ing of three small pictures deposited by Louis
the Great in 1374 as part of the Hungarian trea-
sure in the Hungarian Chapel of the Münster in
Aachen was decorated identically.12 Unfortunate-
ly, these pictures are heavily repainted to make
any observation impossible.
Fig. 3 — Madonna, gift of the Hungarian King Louis I the Great
to thepilgrimage church of Mariazell (Styria), c. 1370-80
Let us turn our attention to the Claim that
Andrea Vanni painted the Madonna panel. It is
true that Andrea was one of the painters who sim-
plified the facial features into a linear treatment
but there were as well other Italian painters who
adopted this stylistic device and whose work
cornes closer, I think, to the Mariazell Madon-
na. One of them was Andrea da Bologna who
worked in the Marches, and his signed Nursing
Madonna of Humility of 1372 in Corridonia, S.
Agostino and his signed Madonna polyptych of
1368 in the museum in Fermo render the same
mask-like expression as the votive Madonna.13
I also propose a comparison for the Madonna’s
face with that in a fourteenth Century Madonna
in Barletta, S. Giacomo and for the Christchild
that in a Madonna triptych in the Municipal
Gallery in Split. (Fig. 4) The Madonna from
77