UNKNOWN MASTER, altarpiece painter
(15th century)

House Altar

1440-50
Tempera on lime-wood, 40,5 x 60,2 cm
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

The small-scale representation of the Virgin and Child on a "house altar" for private devotion from Trencsén, dating from around 1440 or 1450, resembles the late-14th-century icons by its reliquary, restored in the Baroque age. The type of the Virgin Mary representation itself tells of a redefinition of the icons. This is underlined by the embossed decoration of Mary's crown imitating gem inlays, as well as by the intimate contact between the Virgin and the Infant Jesus, holding the claps of her mantle. A certain discrepancy between the style of the figures of the central piece and of the wings can also be detected. Although they are very closely related, as far as the technique of execution is concerned, the paintings on the wings are still closer to the Soft style, while the sharply defined folds of the Virgin Mary's robe, the twisted head-dress and the eyes cast down suggest the influence of the more modern Netherlandish school. The fineness of Mary's elongated fingers also prove that the master painting this particular work belonged to the best artists of mid-15th-century Hungary.


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