Apostle Saint Andrew

Against a gold background, the older male saint is shown standing frontally in three-quarter length. His suggestive gaze and strongly marked features are emphasized by sharp contrasts of light and shade. Between the dark eyes, above the straight nose, is a pronounced forked wrinkle on the forehead. The locks of the hair and beard enhance the plasticity of the head. The halo is decorated with rosettes set within lozenges and accompanied by acanthus leaves. The saint wears a cinnabar-red garment with broad sleeves and a semicircular neckline, and a greenish-grey mantle. The mantle falls over the shoulders in soft folds, leaving the raised right arm free. In his left hand the apostle holds the edge of his mantle and a closed book with a red cover. This hand, and still more the book, are rendered plastically, whereas the right hand and the body as a whole remain planar. It was this apparent contradiction that led scholars to propose differing attributions. (Prokopp Mária, 1993)

Provenance

Purchased by Archbishop János Simor in Rome before 1878.

Restauration

1961 Varga Dezső

Bibliography

• Cséfalvay Pál, szerk.: Keresztény Múzeum, Esztergom. Budapest, 1993. 212, kat.sz. 66. (Prokopp Mária)
• Stubblebine, ].: Duccio and his School. New Jersey, 1979. I. 155.
• Prokopp, M.: Nuovapropostasuli'attribuzione di un dipinto dél Trecento nel Museo Cristiano di Esztergom. AHA XXIV (1978) 67-77;
• Mucsi 1975, 35-36;
• Mucsi 1973, 14;
• Boskovits 1966, 35;
• Boskowts-Mojzer-Mucsi1964, 44-45;