Predella with eight apostles
c. 1470
Pine, tempera
44 x 171 cm; varying thickness: between 4 and 7 cm
Inv. 54.19
The apostles from left to right: St. Thomas, James the Greater, James the Less, Paul, Andrew. Simon, Judas Thaddeus, Bartholomew. The number of apostles suggests the predella was truncated at each end. The two apostles at the ends, however, face inwards, nicely framing the composition, and the figures are positioned so closely to one another that we would expect at least a portion of the missing apostles to be visible at the outer edges of the work. Perhaps the missing figures of St. Peter, John, Matthew and Judas Iscariot were portrayed on other parts of the retable.
The original gold background shows substantial patches of overpainting. At the figures’ eye-level, where the two panels are joined, a strip of fill, renewed several times can be seen.
Its frame is new.
Provenance:
Ipolyi Collection. ‘111. Eight apostles, Andrew in the middle’ (1919 list of rescued objects. Lakatos-Balla 2012, 324). ‘108. Predella image, or detail from it: eight apostles depicted from the waist up. Early 16th c. In a new frame.’ Lakatos-Balla 2012. 292.
Restoration:
Szilvia Hernády, 1972-1973; Dezső Varga (who used paraloid to stabilize the flaking fill along the joint between the two boards).
Bibliography
Bihar vármegye 1898, 108. – Genthon-1948, 28. – Radocsay-1955, 324 (magyarországi származása bizonytalan). – Boskovits-Mojzer-Mucsi-1964, 124 - 125, 161. – Mucsi-1975, 12.
The original gold background shows substantial patches of overpainting. At the figures’ eye-level, where the two panels are joined, a strip of fill, renewed several times can be seen.
Its frame is new.
Provenance:
Ipolyi Collection. ‘111. Eight apostles, Andrew in the middle’ (1919 list of rescued objects. Lakatos-Balla 2012, 324). ‘108. Predella image, or detail from it: eight apostles depicted from the waist up. Early 16th c. In a new frame.’ Lakatos-Balla 2012. 292.
Restoration:
Szilvia Hernády, 1972-1973; Dezső Varga (who used paraloid to stabilize the flaking fill along the joint between the two boards).
Bibliography
Bihar vármegye 1898, 108. – Genthon-1948, 28. – Radocsay-1955, 324 (magyarországi származása bizonytalan). – Boskovits-Mojzer-Mucsi-1964, 124 - 125, 161. – Mucsi-1975, 12.
