Botticelli

to Titian
Tw o C e n t u r i e s o f I t a l i a n M a s t e r p i e c e s

edited by

D ó r a S a l l a y , Vi l m o s Tá t r a i , A x e l Vé c s e y

szépművészeti múzeum

b u d a p e s t
Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest

October 28, 2009 – February 14, 2010

h o n o r a r y p a t r o n s of t h e e x h i b i t i o n :

István Hiller, Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Hungary

Sandro Bondi, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities of the Republic of Italy

Exhibition concept:

László Baán, Vilmos Tátrai

C u r a t o r of t h e e x h i b i t i o n :

Vilmos Tátrai

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
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without permission in writing from the publishers.

Copyright © 2009 by the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest

EXHIBITI O N CATA L O GUE

Exhibition concept: László Baán,Vilmos Tátrai Edited by Dóra Sallay, Vilmos Tátrai, Axel Vécsey
C u r a t o r of t h e e x h i b i t i o n : Vilmos Tátrai Editorial assistance: Edina Ádám, Julianna Ágoston,
Associate curators: Dóra Sallay, Axel Vécsey Zsuzsanna Dobos
C h i e f e x h i b i t i o n c oo r d i n a t o r : Sára Schilling Co p y e d i t o r : Judit Borus
e x h i b i t i o n c oo r d i n a t o r s : Zsófia Kovács, Eszter Vályi
A s s i s t a n t e x h i b i t i o n c oo r d i n a t o r s : Veronika Bába, Essays: Jill Dunkerton, János Jernyei-Kiss, Mauro Lucco,
Csilla Regős, Dóra Sallay, Eszter Szász István F. Mészáros, Nicoletta Pons, György E. Szőnyi
L e g a l c oo r d i n a t o r s a n d r e g i s t r a r s : Henriett Galambos, C a t a lo g u e e n t r i e s : Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari,
Zsófia Kovács, Diána Szécsi, Eszter Vályi Nicoletta Baldini, Giacomo Berra, Andrei Bliznukov,
Travel organization: Krisztián Fonyódi, Szilvia Komlódi David Alan Brown, Jean Cadogan, Caroline Campbell,
Media and marketing: Zoltán Lévay, Dávid Szabó Elena Capretti, Cecilia Cavalca, Marco Ciampolini,
Exhibition identity graphic design: Keraszia Sisák Philippe Costamagna, Janet Cox-Rearick, Wencke Deiters,
Technical assistance: Gábor Balázs, Zsolt Berta, Francesca Del Torre Scheuch, Alberta De Nicolò Salmazo,
Gábor András Eisler, Ottó Hargitai, György Kender, Elisabetta Fadda, Everett Fahy, Chris Fischer,
Gyula Lakatos, Imre Németh, László N. Vásárhelyi Martina Fleischer, Francesco Frangi, David Franklin,
Co n d i t i o n a s s e s s m e n t s a n d i n s t a ll a t i o n s u p e r v i s i o n : Augusto Gentili, Angela Ghirardi, Sergey Harutoonian,
Ildikó Csala, András Fáy, Enikő Jilg, Imre Nemcsics Andreas Henning, Peter Humfrey, Frederick Ilchman,
László Lengyel, Wolfgang Loseries, Elena Lucchesi Ragni,
E x h i b i t i o n d e s i g n a n d i n s t a ll a t i o n : Narmer Architectural Mauro Lucco, Mario Marubbi, Matteo Mazzalupi,
Studio, Zsolt Vasáros DLA, Ágnes Véner Antonio Mazzotta, Jürg Meyer zur Capellen, Mauro Minardi,
i n s t a ll a t i o n d e s i g n A s s i s t a n t s : Judit Gelencsér, Mária Iván, Mauro Natale, Fausta Navarro, Jonathan Nelson,
Márton Tóth, Ákos Vasáros Scott Nethersole, Serena Padovani, Franca Pellegrini,
Lighting: Lisys Zrt. Dániel Pócs, Nicoletta Pons, Cristina Quattrini, Nadia Righi,
Shipping: Hungart Logistic Kft. Vittoria Romani, Philip Rylands, Nicolas Sainte Fare Garnot,
Dóra Sallay, Jennifer Sliwka, Giulio Sommariva,
Exhibition texts: Vilmos Tátrai Maddalena Spagnolo, Andrea Staderini, Vilmos Tátrai,
T r a n s l a t i o n of e x h i b i t i o n t e x t s : David Robert Evans, Federica Toniolo, Paola Tosetti Grandi, Giovanni Valagussa,
Dóra Sallay Axel Vécsey, Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, Edoardo Villata,
Audioguide text: Zsófia László Louis Waldman, Gerhard Wolf, Patrizia Zambrano

O ff i c i a l i n s u r a n c e b r o k e r of t h e e x h i b i t i o n : Kuhn & Bülow Translation: Nicholas Bodóczky, David Robert Evans,

Versicherungsmakler GmbH Eric A. Nicholson, Judit Pokoly, György E. Szőnyi, Axel Vécsey
L a n g u a g e r e v i s i o n a n d p r oof r e a d i n g : Richard Robinson,
S p e c i a l t h a n k s g o t o t h e R e p u b l i c of H u n g a r y Michael Webb, with the kind help of Frederick Ilchman
fo r g o v e r n m e n t i n d e m n i f i c a t i o n of lo a n e d w o r k s of a r t

E d i t o r i a l c oo r d i n a t i o n : Dóra Sallay, Sára Schilling

C a t a lo g u e d e s i g n a n d p r e - p r e s s : Móni Kaszta – Arkas Design
Printing: EPC Nyomda
Editor-in-charge: László Baán
Szépművészeti Múzeum, 2009

ISBN 9 7 8 - 9 6 3 - 7 0 6 3 - 6 9 - 5
 15 Dom eni co Ghirl a n d a io ( ?) a n d wo rksho p   | Florence, 1449 – Florence, 1494
Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos
ca. 1480–1485

Tempera on panel; diam. 75.5 cm

Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, inv. 1208
Inscription in the book: APOCALIPS[is] / · YHS · XV; inscription on the scroll: ·IN PRINCIPIO·ERAT·VERB[vm]

Since its purchase in Florence in 1894, this
painting has raised several questions that
remain unsettled. Tondos, a genre favoured
chiefly in fifteenth-century Florence, usually
have multi-figure compositions. The present
work is therefore more or less unparalleled
in Florentine quattrocento panel painting,
and analogies must be searched for in other
genres, such as the terracotta reliefs produced
by the Della Robbia workshop. Closest to
the Budapest painting is a Saint Augustine
tondo of around the same time and size (An-
drea della Robbia, ca. 1490, Museo Thys-
sen-Bornemisza, Madrid). At the same time,
some of Ghirlandaio’s frescoes may also be
considered as pictorial prototypes (vault of
the Chapel of Santa Fina, Collegiata, San
Gimignano).
There is no doubt about the subject of
the Budapest tondo, yet it is rather peculiar
from the iconographic point of view. Ab-
sorbed in thought, the young Saint John is
about to write the Book of Revelations in a
leather-bound codex held in his left hand.
The apostle sits on the island of Patmos sur-
rounded by the sea but, contrary to icono-
graphic tradition, the vision itself is not
shown. The eagle at his side and the bande-
role unrolling from his left hand, inscribed
with the first words of his gospel, confirm
that the theme is not the vision but a repre-
sentation of Saint John as biblical author.
At the same time the hypothesis that the
tondo belonged to a series of the four evan-
gelists (Olson 2000) can be ruled out: in
that case John would be represented as the
may explain another iconographic peculiar-
ity, the young age of John, since the distinc-
tive, individualized face of the saint may
have been a portrait of the client.
The attribution of the picture has re-
mained unresolved. Barring certain isolated
and usually refuted opinions (such as Longhi’s
attribution to Lorenzo Costa, see Longhi
[1934–1955] 1975, 73, 228) scholars rightly
agree that it was probably painted in Flor-
ence in the last decades of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and that it is to some degree linked to
Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop or, rath-
er, style. Though there are great differences
in judging the extent of this relationship,
the piece has almost never been considered
as the master’s autograph work. The name
of Domenico’s brother David Ghirlandaio
has often been raised (Francovich 1930–1931,
140; Mravik 1983; Everett Fahy’s written com-
munication to the Szépművészeti Múzeum,
1985), but to judge from the now better-
known œuvre of the latter, one must con-
clude that he did not reach the level of the
best details of the Budapest tondo, and nei-
ther did Sebastiano Mainardi (proposed by
Frizzoni), nor the Master of the St. Louis
Madonna – later identified precisely as David
Ghirlandaio – (Fahy 1967, 137, n. 34), nor
the long-favoured Francesco Granacci (Ven-
turi 1901–1940, IX/1 [1925], 481; Berenson
1963, I, 98; Pigler 1967). In his monograph
Holst (1974) acknowledged that certain sty-
listic features resemble Granacci’s – little-
known – early works, but he rejected this
attribution and returned to Venturi’s pro-
Colin Eisler (see Tolnay 1966, 10) proposed
the authorship of the young Michelangelo
working in Ghirlandaio’s workshop. Under-
lying this speculative and obviously unten-
able attribution proposal is the noteworthy
idea that one should search for a name in
Ghirlandaio’s circle as worthy as the master
himself. So far, however, not a single other
work has been successfully associated with
the Budapest tondo.
The quality of the picture seems une-
ven. The subtle modelling of the face, the
realistic rendering of the wrinkles around
the eyes and mouth remind one of Domen-
ico Ghirlandaio’s work in the first half of
the 1480s, when, in no small measure under
the influence of Netherlandish painting, he
painted faces similar to that of Saint John in
his multi-figural panels (including some hid-
den portraits). The drapery cast over the
figure’s left shoulder and covering his legs
quite plausibly suggests the mass of the
body underneath. In many details it repeats
the formulae of the drapery studies of the
Ghirlandaio workshop, yet it departs from
their style in its graphic execution, which
suggests Northern influences and, even more,
that of Verrocchio’s workshop. Some details,
however, reveal the lack of painting routine,
primarily the left hand’s inorganic attach-
ment to the body. In view of the above, it is
possible to postulate that the picture was
painted in Domenico Ghirlandaio’s work-
shop, with the master’s participation, in the
early 1480s.
Dániel Pócs

author of his gospel and not of the Revela- posal: Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop
tions. The picture is far more likely to have (Venturi 1900b). Fahy also abandoned his Bibliography

been made as an independent work for pri- earlier hypothesis and attributed the picture Pigler 1967, 283–84 (with previous bibliography); Holst
vate devotion, and the saint was perhaps the to an unidentified Florentine painter at the 1974, 183–84; Mravik 1983, nos. 1–2; Summary Catalogue
commissioner’s personal patron or epony- end of the fifteenth century (in Florence 1992a). 1991, 47 (with previous bibliography); E. Fahy, in Flor�
mous saint. It is this private function that Representing the other extreme, in a lecture ence 1992a, 51; Olson 2000, 256.

148 catalogue
The Science of Painting 149