UNKNOWN MASTER, altarpiece painter
(15th century)

Altarpiece of the Virgin Mary

c. 1480
Tempera on wood, centre panel: 162 x 171 cm, scenes of the wings: 78,5 x 55 cm (each)
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

The altarpiece originates from Liptószentandrás.

From the mid-fifteenth century the background of the Virgin Enthroned was more and more often closed with an ornamental curtain, generally held by angels. This was particularly suitable as a background on the central panel of a large triptych. In Hungarian medieval painting it was first used on the Mateóc high altar created after 1453. Behind the standing saints on the wings the background was usually a wall; this device, like the curtain on the centre panel, was particularly common in paintings from the Szepes region. In the centre panels of the Jánosfalva and Arnótfalva altarpieces - dating from the same period as that from Liptószentandrás - the Virgin Enthroned is depicted with a female saint on either side, but in the Liptószentandrás altar the large seated figure of the Virgin fills the whole composition. In executing this figure the painter was confronted by new problems and perhaps that is why at first glance the picture appears somewhat laboured. Yet the Master succeeded in his attempt, providing a foil for the large face of the Virgin by introducing the sweeping curves of her cloak with pale green lining and by a symmetric arrangement of the angels holding it in the foreground. A marked gift for the painterly can be seen in the representation of the precious stones and the Madonna's wavy fair hair; also in the shaded face of the Infant and the Virgin, and the emphasis on the broken folds of the cloak.


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