DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI article:S̆ugár, Martin: Hoc opus fecit fiert...: Niekol'ko poznámok k interpretácii tabúl' oltára z Hronského Beňadikta z roku 1510
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52804#0165
Hoc opus fecit fieri...
Some Notes on Interpretation of One of the Panel Paintings
from Hronský Beňadik, 1510
(Summary)
The subject of my study is a panel painting from
a Bénédictine Abbey in Hronský Beňadik, inscribed with
the date 1510, which is when Abbot John III died. He
is depicted in the panel as kneeing and receiving blood
from the open side wound of an over-sized body of the
Suffering Christ into a reliquary. Some art historians are
of the opinion that in the background z. veduta of the
Abbey should be viewed. The masterwork is an impor-
tant example of the last flourishing period in the Ab-
bey’s history at the end of the 15th Century when Hun-
garian king Matthew Hunyady Corvinus donated a relie
of Christ’s Blood to the Abbey (1483).
This act motivated some changes in the architec-
ture of the monastery and church. A new Chapel of
Christ’s Blood was erected in the so called sacristia
superior, decorated by a rounded window with
Corvenius’ coat of arms. The panel painting men-
tioned above is a part of the original altarpiece placed
in the Chapel, of which only some panels hâve sur-
vived. These are four panels depicting the Passions of
Christ and a panel with the Fourteen Saint Helpers,
which since the end of the 19th Century hâve been
exhibited at the Christian Museum in Esztergom
(Gran) in Hungary. A very unusual masterwork of
the end of the 15th Century from Hronský Beňadik is
a moveable Lord’s grave with a wooden sculpture of
the dead Christ with moveable arms.
Even though you can find a picture of the view of
medieval time in the masterworks mentioned above,
the altarpiece, reliquary, and Lord’s grave which are
instruments in the cuit of Christ’s Blood, this picture
is defined strictly in terms of liturgy. Transcending the
limits of the liturgical meaning of time is, in my opin-
ion, one of the mentioned art pièces, námely the panel
painting with a kneeling Abbot John. Its form is clearly
influenced by a consciousness of the caducity of his life
and by his desire to preserve a remembrance of him.
Some aspects make me convinced of this.
Abbot John was responsible for architectural chang-
es, for the delivery of the relie of Christ’s Blood, for
increasing the worship of it by its lay people, and prob-
ably for the project of the altarpiece. It is in this altar-
piece that the Abboťs most important acts are newly
recollected but not in categories of time forwarded to
the past, or even to the future, but to the eternal fu-
ture, declared by the figure of Christ the Redeemer who
should be the guarantor of the Abbot’s eternal life -
hopefully in glory. Finally, the medium of art received
several forms and functions: as an altar wing, or so
called Andachtsbild, or an epitaph (compare to graphie
of Albrecht Dürer B. 20 „Standing Suffering Christ
with Arms held up“, ca. 1500, and an epitaph of Ju-
lian Chelmski, a canon and Abbot in St. Martin’s
Church in Cracow, who died in 1531).
On the other hand, the inner structure of the panel
from the point of view of a formai analysis is surpris-
ingly simple, dull, and strictly systematic, aborting
any freedom of the artist.
The composition is formally split by a horizontal
and two vertical lines into six fields. In each of them
only one pictorial element is situated. They are: the
Abbot with a reliquary in his hands, a wall with an
inscription and the Abbot’s coat of arms, a cliff with
the buildings of the Abbey, and lastly an over-sized
body of Christ in the centre of the painting.
The composition is absolutely subordinated to trans-
parency, simplicity and pragmatic definiteness.
The painting could even evoke a form of a mnemo-
nic table that was commonly used as an aid in the col-
lective prayer in medieval monasteries or cloisters. My
interprétation of the panel stands up to the view that
some iconographie topics could be determined by mne-
monic tools or tables. It is usually assumed that the most
typical example of this is the Mass of St. Gregory as
depicted in the 15th and 16th centuries. In my opinion,
the panel with Abbot John from Hronský Beňadik could
represent another example of the effect of the mnemon-
ic methods of medieval monastic communities on
the forms and partially on the ideas of a work of art.
(English by Martin Sugdr; proof-reader Emma Elias)
159
Some Notes on Interpretation of One of the Panel Paintings
from Hronský Beňadik, 1510
(Summary)
The subject of my study is a panel painting from
a Bénédictine Abbey in Hronský Beňadik, inscribed with
the date 1510, which is when Abbot John III died. He
is depicted in the panel as kneeing and receiving blood
from the open side wound of an over-sized body of the
Suffering Christ into a reliquary. Some art historians are
of the opinion that in the background z. veduta of the
Abbey should be viewed. The masterwork is an impor-
tant example of the last flourishing period in the Ab-
bey’s history at the end of the 15th Century when Hun-
garian king Matthew Hunyady Corvinus donated a relie
of Christ’s Blood to the Abbey (1483).
This act motivated some changes in the architec-
ture of the monastery and church. A new Chapel of
Christ’s Blood was erected in the so called sacristia
superior, decorated by a rounded window with
Corvenius’ coat of arms. The panel painting men-
tioned above is a part of the original altarpiece placed
in the Chapel, of which only some panels hâve sur-
vived. These are four panels depicting the Passions of
Christ and a panel with the Fourteen Saint Helpers,
which since the end of the 19th Century hâve been
exhibited at the Christian Museum in Esztergom
(Gran) in Hungary. A very unusual masterwork of
the end of the 15th Century from Hronský Beňadik is
a moveable Lord’s grave with a wooden sculpture of
the dead Christ with moveable arms.
Even though you can find a picture of the view of
medieval time in the masterworks mentioned above,
the altarpiece, reliquary, and Lord’s grave which are
instruments in the cuit of Christ’s Blood, this picture
is defined strictly in terms of liturgy. Transcending the
limits of the liturgical meaning of time is, in my opin-
ion, one of the mentioned art pièces, námely the panel
painting with a kneeling Abbot John. Its form is clearly
influenced by a consciousness of the caducity of his life
and by his desire to preserve a remembrance of him.
Some aspects make me convinced of this.
Abbot John was responsible for architectural chang-
es, for the delivery of the relie of Christ’s Blood, for
increasing the worship of it by its lay people, and prob-
ably for the project of the altarpiece. It is in this altar-
piece that the Abboťs most important acts are newly
recollected but not in categories of time forwarded to
the past, or even to the future, but to the eternal fu-
ture, declared by the figure of Christ the Redeemer who
should be the guarantor of the Abbot’s eternal life -
hopefully in glory. Finally, the medium of art received
several forms and functions: as an altar wing, or so
called Andachtsbild, or an epitaph (compare to graphie
of Albrecht Dürer B. 20 „Standing Suffering Christ
with Arms held up“, ca. 1500, and an epitaph of Ju-
lian Chelmski, a canon and Abbot in St. Martin’s
Church in Cracow, who died in 1531).
On the other hand, the inner structure of the panel
from the point of view of a formai analysis is surpris-
ingly simple, dull, and strictly systematic, aborting
any freedom of the artist.
The composition is formally split by a horizontal
and two vertical lines into six fields. In each of them
only one pictorial element is situated. They are: the
Abbot with a reliquary in his hands, a wall with an
inscription and the Abbot’s coat of arms, a cliff with
the buildings of the Abbey, and lastly an over-sized
body of Christ in the centre of the painting.
The composition is absolutely subordinated to trans-
parency, simplicity and pragmatic definiteness.
The painting could even evoke a form of a mnemo-
nic table that was commonly used as an aid in the col-
lective prayer in medieval monasteries or cloisters. My
interprétation of the panel stands up to the view that
some iconographie topics could be determined by mne-
monic tools or tables. It is usually assumed that the most
typical example of this is the Mass of St. Gregory as
depicted in the 15th and 16th centuries. In my opinion,
the panel with Abbot John from Hronský Beňadik could
represent another example of the effect of the mnemon-
ic methods of medieval monastic communities on
the forms and partially on the ideas of a work of art.
(English by Martin Sugdr; proof-reader Emma Elias)
159