Benedetto da Maiano in Hungary: the portraits of Matthias Corvinus and Beatrice of Aragon in Budapest

The marble profiles of Matthias Corvinus and Beatrice of Aragon in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (permanently exhibited in the Hungarian capital's National Gallery) are important examples of Renaissance portraits. Their quality has been underestimated by scholars since the beginning of the last century, yet today they are recognized as masterpieces by the Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Maiano. A re-reading of documents and sources on the early activity of Benedetto da Maiano has confirmed that the two portraits are referred to in a well-known account in Giorgio Vasari's Lives describing the sculptor's work for the Hungarian king. The style of the profiles reveals the crucial transition in Benedetto's career from perspective intarsia to marble sculpting, which both Vasari and the documents date to around the mid-1470s when the artist was active in Naples. The attribution to Benedetto leads to the hypothesis that the portraits were in some way associated with Filippo Strozzi's artistic patronage and that they may have been sculpted in 1476 for Matthias and Beatrice's wedding. The discovery sheds new light on artistic relations between Buda and Naples, and helps us to better comprehend certain patronage connections with Ferrara, in particular with the Roverella family and Antonio Rossellino's workshop.

Index

Paolo Parmiggiani Benedetto da Maiano in Hungary: the portraits of Matthias Corvinus and Beatrice of Aragon in Budapest
read abstract » pp. 2-38
Roberto Bartalini On the Room of Alexander and Roxanne at the Farnesina and on the activity of Sodoma in Rome (with reference to Girolamo Genga and his relations with the Chigi family)
read abstract » pp. 39-73
Donatella Pegazzano The 'Cardinali guerreggianti': unpublished paintings by Giovan Battista Vanni for Monsignor Lorenzo Corsi
read abstract » pp. 74-94
Valentina Manganaro Dionisio Mazzuoli, from stonemason to architect, and the Gothic style restoration of the southern facade of Siena cathedral (with an addition to the catalogue of Nicola Pisano)
read abstract » pag. 95-116
Monica Butzek More on Dionisio Mazzuoli: the testament and inventory of his inheritance
read abstract » pp. 117-127
Anna Maria Riccomini Contributions to Severan period portraiture from the Gonzaga collection
read abstract » pp. 128-137
Barbara Agosti On Vasari's biography of Taddeo Zuccaro
read abstract » pp. 136-157
Daniele Sanguineti Considerations on the Genoese activity of Francesco Fanelli
read abstract » pp. 158-180
Stefano l'Occaso Giuseppe Maria Crespi and other Bolognese painters at Salò
read abstract » pp. 181-188