1. Hungarian Late Gothic Painting and Sculpture (15-16th c.)

This winged altarpiece from the village of Felka (now Velká, Slovakia) in Szepes County in Upper Hungary is the only one in the Christian Museum that has preserved its original, Late Gothic state. It dates from around 1480. In the central part of the altar case, the Virgin appears in full figure, enclosed in a mandorla of rays and stepping on the crescent moon. The woman clothed with the sun described in the Apocalypse was identified with the Mother of God, and the details of their representation were merged. Originally, the Virgin held the Christ Child, as the position of her arm indicates. In the four niches around the Virgin there are female saints: Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Barbara to the left, and Saint Dorothy and Saint Margaret of Antiochia to the right. The inner sides of the wings show joyful events from the Virgin’s life. The story begins at the lower left with the Annunciation, and continues with the Visitation above. The next scene, the Nativity is depicted at the upper right and is followed by the Adoration of the Magi below. The original scenes of the Passion on the exterior of the altarpiece are lost. In the predella below the altar case, two hovering angels hold the cloth of Veronica with the image of Christ. The painter and sculptor of the altarpiece was the so-called “Master of the High Altarpiece of Szmrecsány”, by whom ten further altarpieces are known, all commissioned for the churches of small villages near Felka.