Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Botticelli on the Danube? In the ancient capital of Hungary, Esztergom, frescos in the style of Botticelli cause controversy: did the master really travel a thousand kilometers from warm Florence to the distant Danube town? In the times of the Renaissance (and even before), artists throughout the Western world travelled to Italy to admire the legacy of ancient Rome, the treasures of the Vatican and the wealth of city states like Venice and Florence. It was the ‘iter italicum’, a (very precious) tradition that lives on until today in the ‘classical’ school trip to Italy. However, there also was an opposite route: for a good commission, Italians went to the thousand kilometers distant and cold Hungary. As they spread their knowledge and skills, especially at the time of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary from 1458 to 1490, Wladislaus II, who succeeded him until 1516, and next under Louis II, until the latter was slain in 1526 by the Turkish invaders. Wladislaus II stated that "the [Florentine] trade merchants were travelling to Hungary since the earliest times, and that he and his predecessors always treated them fairly." The 15th century Esztergom, the first capital of Hungary, was a cultural and academic center wanting to mirror itself to Florence and Bologna. Many Renaissance artists visited the city and left artworks. Was Botticelli one of them? The influence of Florence in Hungary was so great that Hungary even used a currency based on the 'golden florin’, whose name refers to Florence (today, the Hungarian currency is still called the 'forint '). Florence and Venice struggled for respect in Hungary, and so it happened that in 1469 the city of Florence even send a lion as a gift. Italian artists such as Masolino da Panicale (1383 1447) gave up orders in their own country in favor of invitations to Hungary. In 1480 Francesco Rosselli (1445 - ± 1513) went drawing there, so that on his return in 1482 he was wealthy enough to start his own studio; he would become famous as the creator of the first world map with Americas discovered by Christopher Columbus and with his style related to Sandro Botticelli. Rosselli's ties to Hungary were so intense that one of his relatives was nicknamed ‘Girolamo del Buda’. Bernardo Vespucci of Florence (14551527), brother of Amerigo (whose name led to the word ‘America’), spent many years in Buda. A 19th century basilica was built so to say on top of the 15th century castle of Esztergom. Esztergom, Florence of Central Europe European centers of knowledge at that time were Nagyvárad (today Oradea in Romania) and later Esztergom. There, Georg Peuerbach, a professor at the University of Vienna, would make tables of solar and lunar eclipses. They were known as the ‘Tabulae Varadienses’ because he referred the longitudes to the meridian of Várad. The book was a standard guide for European astronomers for over two hundred years. A student of Peuerbach was the famous Regiomontanus (from Konigs-berg = Rex Montanus). The disagreement led to a heated debate in which the art historians described each other not very artistically. Esztergom was the first Hungarian capital - it was known at the time of ‘Belgian’ crusader Godfrey de Bouillon, who was received there by King Kálmán, in 1096. Regiomontanus, mentioned above, taught there from 1465, at the Academia Istropolitana, and especially for him an observatory was built, with various instruments. He worked on tables of orbits and declinations of planets. On June 20, 1467 Esztergom put itself on the academic world map by following the example of Bologna and erecting a university with four faculties, blessed by papal permission. Prominent scholars of Europe gave up chairs in Vienna, Paris and Krakow for Esztergom (for comparison, a common date for the founding of the Belgian University of Leuven is 1425). The cultural and academic revival came through the efforts of an ‘enlightened spirit’, Janos Vitez, nicknamed ‘Lux Pannoniae’ (± 1405 to 1472). He was archbishop of Esztergom and 'Chancellor' of King Matthias. He would decorate his palace in A mysterious Italian box grand style, but later, in 1543, it fell in the Today, it is hard to imagine the Italian ‘high society’ travelled hands of the Turks. After 1686, when the to the faraway cold Hungary. An accidental discovery in the Habsburgs reconquered the city, style of Indiana Jones seems to represent exactly this. Recently, Esztergom did not regain its glory. In 1822, an ancient painted box was discovered in Budapest, used by an a basilica built on the hill of Vitez’ old Hungarian lady for all those years as a medicine box. It has crumbled episcopal palace. The imposing images which undeniably reminds the Italian Renaissance. The church supplanted the former castle, so scenes resemble an joyous entrance of grand marriage but a that it came as a huge surprise when in young child figures on it too, in the middle of a procession. The box says itself it holds a secret: “Quod ut custoditorum 1934-38 murals were found in the ruins. me nemo sciat”, or: “Nobody will know what is guarded by me”. In the spring of 2011, the Renaissance box was shown to the public for the first time in the art gallery Melange (http://www.bergaleria.hu/) in Budapest. And it was no coincidence the opening was made by Mária Prokopp, the protagonist of the Hungarian Botticelli. The frescoes appeared to be four allegories: Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice, though there might have been eight others which were lost. The four female figures, with their flowing hair and waving garments clearly refer to the Florentine tradition. Over the years, Proof Hungarian scientist Mária Prokopp One of the most famous works by Botticelli, the ‘Birth of made the hypothesis acceptable that Venus’ compared to a detail a contemporary of Filippo Lippi or from the Hungarian fresco (in one of his students painted the black and white). frescoes. Since 2000, her compatriot Zsuzsanna Wierdl also worked on the art-works and applied new photo-technical techniques she had used in Rome. In 2007 she reported that the frescoes were of the hand of the great Sandro Botticelli. Many news agencies around the world took over the dramatic story of a Hungarian castle where the swift hand of the ‘Birth of Venus’ would have gone to from the warm, thousand kilometers distant Florence. But in 2011 the story may have appeared too good to be true. Botticelli in Hungary Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, also known as ‘Alessandro Filipepi’, ‘Sandro Mariano’, or ‘Sandro Botticelli’, was born in Florence around 1445. He began his artistic training with his brother, a goldsmith. This is important because the drawings in Esztergom were performed with a small silver pin. It was a method that pointed to a kind of exclusivity for the frescoes by Botticelli, and he owed it to his knowledge of forging gold. Botticelli continued his education at one of the foremost contemporary painters in Florence, Fra Filippo Lippi (1406 - 1469), although sometimes the name of Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) is mentioned. The master spoke in the most admirable terms of his promising pupil, but when Filippo went to Spoleto to work in the Cathedral, from 1467 until his death (!), Botticelli was not among his accompanying disciples. Nobody knows why, but maybe he went to Hungary in those years? The Botticelli family and the above mentioned Vespuccis were neighbors in Florence. Later they would give him the order for the fresco ‘St. Augustine in his cell.’ It is possible that the Vespuccis provided their promising young neighbors with an invitation to the castle of Esztergom. The already mentioned János Vitez was appointed archbishop in 1465, so that 1466 would not seem impossible for dating the frescoes. In 1470 Botticelli suddenly reappeared in Florence. Surprisingly, he disposed of ample financial resources to set up a workshop and Filippino, the son of his former master Filippo Lippi, now belonged to his disciples. Moreover, in May 1470 a very important work was assigned to him by Tommaso Soderini, who looked after the interests of the Medici: Botticelli was allowed to paint two of the seven allegories for the ‘Court’, a room of the Mercanzia Palace. Soderini even put a then famous Florentine painter aside, Piero Pollaiuolo (1443-1496), who brought the case before court. Eventually, Pollaiuolo would carry out six works, Botticelli one. It is a familiar story, but no one ever wondered how a young man could have gained so much prestige to be compared to an established value as Pollaiuolo. Or had its name gathered international realm though his work in Esztergom, Wierdl wondered? Eventually, Botticelli would win the battle: today, the panels of Pollaiuolo and Botticelli hang in the Florentine Gallery of Uffizi, and Botticelli's definitely are the most remarkable. An audacious hypothesis Botticelli died in 1510 and took the secret of the Esztergom frescoes with him. Unlike what was the case with commands of other Italian artworks, no written documents were ever found. At a conference in Florence in 2007 a fierce debate emerged between the Hungarian art historians and the American specialist Louis A. Waldman, of the University of Texas at Austin. He was convinced the frescoes were not the hand of an artist of the magnitude of Botticelli. The disagreement led to a heated debate in which the art historians described each other not very artistically. The controversy even made it to some Hungarian newspapers. In a recent essay Waldman repeats his arguments. According to him, the female figures are in a clumsy posture, have disgraceful proportions and meaningless expressions, and are roughly drawn with a modest technique. He points out the figures of Prudence and Fortitude are both in about the same posture. Temperance's ear would be too small, she would have big hands and it would appear that she has no bones or muscles. Her hair is blowing to the right, but her clothing turns to left. A decorative fabric apparently defies gravity. Instead of pouring water from one container into another, Temperance holds the two jars so far apart that it would be impossible a fluid flows from one into another. According to Waldman, the frescoes are provincial imitation of a then avant-garde style. Its painter understood his patron wanted something ‘modern’, what meant, in those days, flowing hair and fabrics. Waldman values the frescoes artistically as mere modest examples of Italian Renaissance painting in Hungary. Prokopp and Wierdl replied by saying that Botticelli was only 21 when he, at least according to them, painted the work. Moreover, he would have placed his initials, ‘MB’, ‘Mariano Botticelli’, on the painting. Waldman again found this unlikely, for several reasons, and, briefly stated, he interpreted the initials as an example of widespread 'Renaissance vandalism’. Furthermore, in another even more recent text, Waldman provides a more credible alternative. The unknown maker of the frescoes would indeed be a Florentine painter, named Alberto or Uberto. These two names, which, understandably, readily lead to confusion, both point to a certain Lucantonio degli Uberti. He worked in Esztergom around 1490 and is stated in a contract under the name 'Maestro Alberto’. Stylistically too, there are, along Waldman, evidences, as he confirmed in an e-mail: "Your eyes will tell you he was no Botticelli -- but Lucantonio degli Uberti who was one of the most egregiously untalented artists from Florentine Renaissance.” About this allegory it is sure: Botticelli painted it, for the Mercanzia Palace in Florence. The question is if the reader finds so too. Anyway, even though there is no certainty the original frescoes are Botticelli's, they contradict in a single glance of the eye at a common prejudice. Indeed, former Eastern Bloc countries such as Hungary are not necessarily associated with a predilection for Italian refinement. Of course, Hungarian artists such as Ferencz Liszt (1811-1886) are well known, but often he is more associated with Austria, since he lived in the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. And Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) even emigrated to the US. And so the frescoes show in any case and in a surprising manner - whether they were made by Botticelli or by Uberti - that Esztergom, so very early in history, in the 15th century, wanted to become a cultural and academic center that could compete with Florence and Bologna. Further reading Wierdl Zsuzsanna, Prokopp Mária en Vukov Konstantin, ‘Botticelli - Az erények nyomában’, Studiolo Editions, Budapest, 2009. Louis A. Waldman, ‘Commissioning Art in Florence for Matthias Corvinus: The Painter and Agent Alexander Formoser and His Sons, Jacopo and Raffaello del Tedesco’, in Italy and Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance, ed. Péter Farbaky and Louis A. Waldman (Florence: Villa I Tatti/Leo S. Olschki), 2011, pp. 426-501. Louis A. Waldman, ‘Lucantonio degli Uberti, ‘Albertus Pictor Florentinus’, and the Master of the Esztergom Virtues (Octahedron Tattianum II)’, in Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, ed. Machtelt Isräels and Louis A. Waldman, 3 vols. (Florence: Villa I Tatti, 2011), vol. I, Harvard University Press.