Prophet Isaiah

The painting originally had a semicircular termination and was later enlarged into a rectangular format. It must once have belonged to the gable section of a polyptych, and, judging from the posture of the figure, it was probably placed on the right-hand side, together with other prophets. The Latin text on the scroll held in his hand, following the prophet’s name written in red letters, quotes the sixth verse of the fiftieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah: “[IS]AYAS CORPUS MEUM DEDI PERCUTIENT[IBUS]” — “Isaiah: I gave my body to those who struck me.” In the complete Old Testament passage, Christian theologians saw a prophecy of Christ’s Passion: “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.”

We cannot know which saintly figure Isaiah’s half-length image accompanied on the altarpiece, but there can be little doubt that the central panel represented the Madonna enthroned with the Christ Child. Following Duccio, the great renewer of Sienese painting, the master gave force to the sombre prophecy not only through the pronounced arches of the eyebrows and nose, but also through the beard and the undulating, spreading locks of hair. (Tátrai Vilmos, 2015)

Provenance

Arnold Ipolyi’s Purchase from the Ramboux estate in Cologne, 1867

Restauration

1984 Laurentzy Mária

Bibliography

• Wolfgang Huber (szerk.): Meisterwerke aus dem Keresztény Múzeum; kiáll.kat; Sankt Pölten 2015. 145 (Tátrai Vilmos)
• Cséfalvay Pál, szerk.: Keresztény Múzeum, Esztergom. Budapest, 1993. Corvina, 211-212, kat. sz. 65. (Prokopp Mária)
• Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum Régi Képtárának katalógusa. Budapest, 1975, Corvina, 34.
• Boskovits Miklós-Mojzer Miklós-Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtára (Budapest, 1964. Akadémiai Kiadó) 36-38.
• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei (összeállította: Genthon István; Budapest 1948)