The Adoration of the Magi; on the reverse: the Visitation

Detail from the former movable wing of a winged altarpiece showing scenes from the Infancy of Jesus and the Life of Mary. It originally belonged to the same altarpiece as its companion (55.444), the Adoration of the Magi, with a detail from the Visitation on its verso. The reliefs, which adorned the inner sides of the altarpiece wings, may have been made by a follower of the Master of the Znaim Altarpiece (Gombrich). Both sides are strongly abraded; retouching and overpainting can be seen on large swaths of the surface.

Provenance

Ipolyi Collection. ‘168 and 176. A pair of images from an altarpiece wing, paintings, with a relief work on the front of each, which are forgeries painted in gaudy colours in a poor imitation of the 16th c. manner; one of the relief works shows the death of Mary, while the other depicts the visit of the three magi. On their reverses are paintings: the circumcision and on the other Mary’s visit. The pictures are unretouched, authentic 15th c. paintings.’ (Lakatos-Balla 291)

Restauration

In the workshop of the ‘Jobst brothers’, Vienna (Gombrich)

Exhibitions

• Műcsarnok 1930. 92, 97 sz.

Bibliography

• Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum Régi Képtárának katalógusa. Budapest, 1975, Corvina, 24.
• Boskovits Miklós-Mojzer Miklós-Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtára (Budapest, 1964. Akadémiai Kiadó), 157.
• Mojzer Miklós: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtárának útmutatója, Budapest, 1958,, 14.
• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei (összeállította: Genthon István; Budapest 1948), 119-120, 148.
• Ernst Gombrich: A bécsi oltár és az Esztergomi Múzeum fareliefjeinek történeti helyzete (The art-historical position of the Vienna altar and the wooden reliefs of the Esztergom Museum with summaries in German, French and English). In: Magyar Müvészet 11 (1935), 223-228.
• Új Magyar Sion 2 (1871), 374.