Virgin and Child Enthroned with Mary Magdalen, Saint Catherine of Alexandria and two Angels

The painting, with its pointed-arch termination, is almost entirely filled by the imposing figure of the enthroned Madonna, wrapped in a blue mantle. She is seated frontally on a wooden-inlaid dais placed on a red carpet decorated with gold; behind her is a throne hanging interwoven with gold. Beneath her blue mantle she wears a red dress. She turns her head to the left and gazes, almost in full profile, at the Child seated on her left arm, who is dressed in a long golden-yellow garment. With his right hand Jesus embraces his mother, while with his left he clings to Mary’s dress.

On either side of the dais stands a female saint, painted on a smaller scale and wearing a green mantle; both turn towards the Madonna. Saint Catherine of Alexandria is shown with the wheel and a palm branch, and Saint Mary Magdalene with the ointment jar. Of the angels standing behind them and holding the throne hanging, only their heads and arms are visible. The blurred coat of arms on the front of the dais no longer makes it possible to identify the donor.

Taddeo Gaddi devoted greater attention to the indication of space. The master of the Esztergom painting places the architecture of the throne only on a modest dais. The depth of the picture is suggested by the figures turning towards one another and by the wheel held by Catherine, depicted in foreshortening. The lyricism of the painting and its warm colours reveal the influence of the Sienese Trecento; yet the restrained bearing of the figures, the closed forms, and the compact structure unmistakably point to Taddeo Gaddi’s artistic milieu and to the 1330s, when the style of the Sienese Trecento was already known in Florence. Mária Prokopp, 1993

Provenance

Ipolyi Arnold vásárolta a Ramboux gyűjteményből, melynek 1867 -es katalógusában Giotto vagy iskolájaként említik (290. sz.)

Bibliography

• Cséfalvay Pál, szerk.: Keresztény Múzeum, Esztergom. Budapest, 1993. 215-216, kat.sz. 72 "Tadeo Gaddi műhelye" (Prokopp Mária)
• Boskovits Miklós-Mojzer Miklós-Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtára (Budapest, 1964. Akadémiai Kiadó)
• Ladis, Andrew: Taddeo Gaddi. Colunbia-London, 1982, 224.
• Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum Régi Képtárának katalógusa. Budapest, 1975, 34.
• Boskovits Miklós: Korai olasz táblaképek, Budapest, 1966, 8
• Boskovits Miklós-Mojzer Miklós-Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtára. Budapest, 1964. Akadémiai Kiadó, 32.
• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei (összeállította: Genthon István) Budapest, 1948.
• Gerevich Tibor: Esztergomi Műkincsek, in: Prímás Album, Budapest 1928, "Taddeo Gaddi vagy műhelye"
• Berti Toesca, Elena: Arte italiana a Strigonia. Dedalo, XII. 1932, 933–960. "Agnolo Daddi köre"