Castle Museum

Through the Angevin family, Naples and Hungary had very close relations
in the 14th century. Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490) was thus
reviving an old connection when he married Beatrice, daughter of King
Ferdinand of Naples, in 1476. The Aragon dynasty’ s patronage of the
arts was most notable in book collecting and music, and this found a
lively echo in the court of Buda, especially the Corvina Library and the
musical life. It was also through the link with Naples that Matthias’ library acquired Renaissance architectural treatises in the 1480s. Beatrice’ s
brother Giovanni d’ Aragona may have been instrumental in this. Matthias
appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom, the highest ecclesiastical
dignity in Hungary (1484–1485). The other intermediary in the study
of architecture was the Florentine humanist Francesco Bandini, who
lived in Naples and came to the Hungarian court in 1476 in Beatrice’ s
retinue. He brought Filarete’ s treatise from Italy for Matthias in 1488.

This paper seeks to give a comprehensive summary of the state of contemporary Hungarian and international Renaissance research into the activities of Giovanni Dalmata / Ivan Duknovic in the Hungarian Kingdom, as "Hofkünstler" of Matthias Corvinus

Professore di Storia dell' Arte Moderna all'Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Direttore scientifico della rivista "Artisti dei Laghi" e di APPACuVI, Coordinatore scientifico del Museo Giovanni Paolo II -Collezione Porzyński di Varsavia, membro dell'Istituto Universitario La Corte en Europa, Conservatore dei Musei Civici di Castiglione Olona, membro di comitati scientifici e redazioni riviste di settore. Specialista di storia dell'arte moderna nei secoli XVI-XVIII, autore di oltre duecentottanta pubblicazioni, relative all'iconologia politica, alla consorteria Arese, all'arte dello stucco, alle relazioni artistiche fra Milano Genova e Roma, alle ditte pittoriche del Manierismo, alla rappresentazione della natura, al classicismo di secondo Seicento, alla nascita del rococò; ma soprattutto agli artisti dei laghi lombardi.

After his first wife’s death Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458–90) did not marry for long but kept a mistress, Austrian Barbara Edelpöck to whom his natural son, John Corvinus was born in 1473. A precondition for his marriage with the Neapolitan Beatrice of Aragon (1476) was her removal from the court. Beatrice accused Barbara of witchcraft and of causing her sterility. Lacking a legal heir, Matthias designated John as his successor in the early 1480s. This was supported by the Corvinus legend about the origin of the Corvinus family in antiquity created by Pietro Ransano and later by Antonio Bonfini. An important role was played by the Corvina library promoted by John. After Matthias’s death, both Beatrice and John participated in the power struggle, but neither succeeded. John Corvinus’s art patronage only unfolded after Matthias’s death, while Beatrice’s is comparable to Matthias’s, mainly on manuscript collection.

The son of a rich German burgher family of Kassa (Kaschau, Košice, today Slovakia), György Szatmári got into state administration after his studies in Kraków. The king, Vladislav II of Jagellonian dinasty (1490-1516) recompensed him for his services in the royal chancellary by ecclesiastical prebends. Beside his episcopal duties, he took over thje chancellary leadership in 1498 and became the actual mastermind of hungarian politics in the early 16th century. He had proteges study in Italy and supported financially several humanists who sang the renown of the generous patron in their literary works.

Through the Angevin family, Naples and Hungary had very close relations in the 14 th century. Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490) was thus reviving an old connection when he married Beatrice, daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples, in 1476. The Aragon dynasty' s patronage of the arts was most notable in book collecting and music, and this found a lively echo in the court of Buda, especially the Corvina Library and the musical life. It was also through the link with Naples that Matthias' library acquired Renaissance architectural treatises in the 1480s. Beatrice' s brother Giovanni d' Aragona may have been instrumental in this. Matthias appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom, the highest ecclesiastical dignity in Hungary (1484-1485). The other intermediary in the study of architecture was the Florentine humanist Francesco Bandini, who lived in Naples and came to the Hungarian court in 1476 in Beatrice' s retinue. He brought Filarete' s treatise from Italy for Matthias in 1488.

The paper was held originally as a lecture at a conference in Tours, Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, at June, 2005.
The paper showed the Role of Hungarian High Priests in the Dissemination of the Early Renaissance Forms in Late Medieval Hungarian Kingdom. Among them here is a brief summary of the activities of Miklós Báthori, bishop of Vác; Péter Váradi, archbishop of Kalocsa; Albert Vetési, bishop of Veszprém; János/Johann Filipecz, bishop of Várad/Oradea; Ippolito d"Este, archbishop of Esztergom; Tamás Bakócz, archbishop of Esztergom; György Szatmári, bishop of Pécs and archbishop of Esztergom, Lukács Szegedi, bishop of Zágráb/Zagreb.

Péter Farbaky
THE RENOVATIO OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN 18TH CENTURY BAROQUE
ART IN HUNGARY

In Hungary, the special art geographical situation and the Ottoman occupation which lasted for a century and a half interrupted the continuity of stylistic development, and the spiritual-material reconstruction had to reach back to medieval precedents of several centuries earlier. By 1700 the united European forces led by the Habsburgs recaptured the entire medieval area of Hungary, and the main task was now the political-ideologial-institutional reconstruction of the country.
The renovatio of the ideal of medieval Hungarian statehood also implied the cult of the founder of the State King St Stephen (1000-1038) and the saints of the Árpád Dynasty. The Habsburgs reconstructed the destroyed royal residence in Buda but the ruler did not move in: Maria Theresa (1740-1780) tried to compensate the Hungarians by having the hand relic of St Stephen brought back from Ragusa (Dubrovnik, 1771) and a chapel built for it in the palace (Chapel of the Holy Right, 1778). In 1769, the monarch founded the Order of the Knights of St Stephen.
The high priests also joined the ruler's efforts. In the religious centre of Hungary, Esztergom, the primate Ferenc Barkóczy had a new episcopal residence planned by French Isidore Canevale (Ganneval, 1762) on the mount of the medieval royal palace. The plan that survives in mock-up only took the early Renaissance centralized Bakócz chapel (1507-1508) as its basis. By multiplying the chapel, the architect designed a nine-part cathedral on a Greek-cross plan, the corners and rectangular spaces crowned by domes reiterating the Renaissance composition.
In Veszprém, the chapel of Gisela next to the episcopal palace was consecrated in 1772. Bishop Ignác Koller, the builder of the chapel, wanted to transfer the ashes of Bavarian princess Gisela, wife of St Stephen, there from Passau. The two-level palace chapel of the 13th century was rebuilt by incorporating Romanesque architectonic elements and repainting the frescoes by imitating the original wall paintings.
In Pécs, bishop György Klimó (1751-1777) wished to reorganize the medieval university for which purpose he founded a library. He had the cathedral reconstructed and furnished newly in Baroque style. The Italian sculptor of South Tirol working in Vienna, Antonio Giuseppe Sartori designed an altar for the Corpus Christi sepulchral chapel of the
bishops using at the centre the early Renaissance tabernacle of György Szatmári. The Baroque additions (1786): column and pilaster capitals were created on the model of the Renaissance original. As for the medieval chapter house, the Early Christian sepulchral chapel
which was incorporated together with the Romanesque chapel above it in both the Renaissance and the Baroque buildings was discovered in the Baroque age.
Unlike the revival of historical styles in the 19th century, the same process in Baroque art has been far less explored. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hans Tietze studied the Gothic reviving tendencies of Austrian Baroque. In Hungary, together with the parallel tendencies of Gothic Survival and Revival in Central Europe, some rare 18th century
phenomena of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival can be demonstrated.

Through the Angevin family, Naples and Hungary had very close relations in the 14 th century. Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490) was thus reviving an old connection when he married Beatrice, daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples, in 1476. The Aragon dynasty' s patronage of the arts was most notable in book collecting and music, and this found a lively echo in the court of Buda, especially the Corvina Library and the musical life. It was also through the link with Naples that Matthias' library acquired Renaissance architectural treatises in the 1480s. Beatrice' s brother Giovanni d' Aragona may have been instrumental in this. Matthias appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom, the highest ecclesiastical dignity in Hungary (1484-1485). The other intermediary in the study of architecture was the Florentine humanist Francesco Bandini, who lived in Naples and came to the Hungarian court in 1476 in Beatrice' s retinue. He brought Filarete' s treatise from Italy for Matthias in 1488.

A korszak kutatásában Beatrix személye eddig árnyékot vetett bátyja, Aragóniai
János, azaz Giovanni d’Aragona jelentőségére, aki szintén szoros kapcsolatba került Mátyással és a Magyar Királysággal. Tanulmányom az eddig
kevés figyelemre méltatott kapcsolatra szeretne több fényt deríteni, Giovanninak I. Mátyás műpártolásának kibontakozásában, fejlődésében betöltött
szerepét vizsgálom.

Art History Institute at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest The art history studies consist of three parts: 3-year BA studies, 2-year MA-studies, 3-year PhD-studies. In the BA courses there are some special courses on the art of the Renaissance. The period is divided into two periods: Early and Late Renaissance: the turning point between them in Hungary is 1526, the battle of Mohács: the end of the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom.