St. Margaret with a donor; on the reverse: St. George. Left movable wing of a winged altarpiece
1480-85
Wood, tempera
141 x 53 cm
Inv. 55.81.1
On the lower edge of the panel is a minuscule inscription: (a)bt • her • Assem • cu • Sa(n)t Salfatur
The image of St. Margaret treading on a dragon appeared on the former left, inner side of an altarpiece wing. In the background, in the lower part, is a red brocade curtain and, in the upper part, a gilded pattern. In the lower left corner of the painting, a donor in a monk’s white garb kneels at the saint’s feet; he is identified by an inscription in Gothic minuscule that extends in front of him. The image on the verso shows the armoured figure of St. George, also trampling a dragon. The background was originally adorned with iridescent stars against a red ground; most of the starts, however, are now missing, as the work experienced significant paint loss. In its 1964 catalogue, the Christian Museum inexplicably linked the inscription to the Benedictine abbey of Lekér in Bars County, and the monk’s habit was mistakenly identified as Cistercian.
The style of the depictions suggests, as do certain details of St George’s armour, that the panel was made in the 1480s, most likely in Bavaria. The inscription also supports this supposition, as it clearly refers to the Premonstratensian monastery of Griesbach Sankt Salvator in Bavaria, whose abbot from 1480 to 1484 was Erasmus (= Assem) Pöchinger.
Provenance:
Ipolyi Collection 82. ‘82. with the figure of a priest kneeling in front of St. Margaret; fragments of a German inscription, on a gold background. On the reverse, St Michael, as a knight, on a red background dotted with gold starts. Altarpiece wing from the late 15th century.’ (Lakatos-Balla 281)
Bibliography
Ipolyi Arnold képgyűjteménye. Új Magyar Sion II. 1871, 373. – Genthon-1948, 42. – Radocsay-1955, 330 – Boskovits-Mojzer-Mucsi-1964, 140, 229. – Mucsi-1975, 19, 77. – Lakatos-Balla-2012 61, 281.
The image of St. Margaret treading on a dragon appeared on the former left, inner side of an altarpiece wing. In the background, in the lower part, is a red brocade curtain and, in the upper part, a gilded pattern. In the lower left corner of the painting, a donor in a monk’s white garb kneels at the saint’s feet; he is identified by an inscription in Gothic minuscule that extends in front of him. The image on the verso shows the armoured figure of St. George, also trampling a dragon. The background was originally adorned with iridescent stars against a red ground; most of the starts, however, are now missing, as the work experienced significant paint loss. In its 1964 catalogue, the Christian Museum inexplicably linked the inscription to the Benedictine abbey of Lekér in Bars County, and the monk’s habit was mistakenly identified as Cistercian.
The style of the depictions suggests, as do certain details of St George’s armour, that the panel was made in the 1480s, most likely in Bavaria. The inscription also supports this supposition, as it clearly refers to the Premonstratensian monastery of Griesbach Sankt Salvator in Bavaria, whose abbot from 1480 to 1484 was Erasmus (= Assem) Pöchinger.
Provenance:
Ipolyi Collection 82. ‘82. with the figure of a priest kneeling in front of St. Margaret; fragments of a German inscription, on a gold background. On the reverse, St Michael, as a knight, on a red background dotted with gold starts. Altarpiece wing from the late 15th century.’ (Lakatos-Balla 281)
Bibliography
Ipolyi Arnold képgyűjteménye. Új Magyar Sion II. 1871, 373. – Genthon-1948, 42. – Radocsay-1955, 330 – Boskovits-Mojzer-Mucsi-1964, 140, 229. – Mucsi-1975, 19, 77. – Lakatos-Balla-2012 61, 281.
