St. Agnes and St. Dorothy

53 x 29.5 cm

The four panels depicting female saints (56.503, 56.504, 56.505, 56.506) originally belonged to left movable wing of the same winged altarpiece. The painted slats between the pictures and the arrangement of the figures indicate that the images of St Margaret and St. Catherine occupied the upper register of the feast-day side and St. Agnes and St. Dorothy the lower. The separation of the altarpiece wing into four individual panel paintings probably occurred in the 19th century, as this is how the works were listed in the estate inventory of the Ipolyi collection. A significant portion of the upper part of the gold background on the former inner side is overpainted and only two-thirds of the punched frame ornamentation has survived. Perhaps a tracery appliqué decoration appeared above the figures. The figural composition bears conspicuous similarities to that of panel paintings dated to c. 1420 (more recently c. 1430) from the castle of Ober-St-Veit and now in the Dom und Diözesanmuseum in Vienna (Prot. Nr. L. 28-34); the Esztergom pictures, however, may be of a later date.

Provenance

Initially in the collection of Blasius Höfel in Wiener Neustadt, before being acquired by Karl Lemann and then Arnold Ipolyi. ('160. és 161. Két kis oltárszárny deszkán. Egyiken Szt. Margit és Szt. Katalin, a másikon Szt. Ágnes és Szt. Erzsébet. Sima aranyalap. A XV. sz.közepéről.'/ ‘160 and 161. Two small altarpiece wings affixed to panels. One shows St. Margaret and St. Catherine and the other St. Agnes and St, Elizabeth. Smooth gold sheet. From the mid-15th century.’) (Lakatos-Balla-2012)

Restauration

Angéla Moldován, 1970-71; Szilvia Hernády (All four panels were affixed to new panels.)

Bibliography

• Lakatos-Balla Attila: Ipolyi Arnold püspök hagyatéka Nagyváradon. Miscellanea Historica Varadinensia III. Nagyvárad 2012 2012, 62, 276
• Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum Régi Képtárának katalógusa. Budapest, 1975, Corvina, 25, 115.
• Boskovits Miklós-Mojzer Miklós-Mucsi András: Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum képtára (Budapest, 1964. Akadémiai Kiadó), 157-158, 288.
• Magyarország műemléki topográfiája I. Esztergom 1. Esztergom műemlékei (összeállította: Genthon István; Budapest 1948), 128.