The Calvary Altar-Piece of Thomas de Coloswar in the Esztergom Christian Museum [antikvár]

The Esztergom Christian Museum houses five medieval triptychs from Garamszentbenedek (now Hronsky Benadik, Czechoslova-kia), all of them being more or less in fragments. The three most important pieces, of exceptional beauty, date from the fifteenth century, while two are from the sixteenth century. All originate Írom the same place, portray the same subject and were made for the same purpose; in the structure of the composition there are alsó affinities. The centre panel representing the Crucifixion and the once hinged wings painted on both sides illustrate the stations of the cross, as described in the New Testament. The earliest and most complete of the Garamszentbenedek altar-pieces, the Calvary series painted by Thomas de Coloswar in 1427, is rightly regarded as the most remarkable of all the many Passión paintings to be seen in Esztergom. Originally it consisted of a series of nine panels. The centre panel, showing the Crucifixion, was flanked by two wings on each of which were two smaller scenes from the Passión. The other four panels painted on the reverse of the folding wings covered the whole surface of the centre panel (242 x 177 cm) when the altar was closed. Somé time before the altar-piece was acquired by the Museum in 1875, the painted wings 011 either side had been removed from their originál frames and sawn into separate pictures; the scenes on the reverse sides had alsó been divided. One of the outside panels now missing may have been damaged during this process or it may have been lost earlier. The altar-piece now in the Christian Museum was reconstructed from the remaining eight panels. These give somé idea of the personality of a highly gifted artist ofwhose work only a fragment of one single authentic masterpiece is known today. Panel painting is believed to have been adopted in Hungary at the beginning of the Angevin period in the fourteenth century, although the earliest surviving panels date only from the end of that century. Constant wars, frequent conflagrations and later devastations by the Turks took their toll of Hungárián treasures, including fifteenth century panel painting then at its height. With few exceptions, medieval altars scarcely survived except in areas of Upper Hungary and Transylvania, which were better defended against the Turks. After the end of the Turkish rule (1686) the medieval art treasures of Hungary were decimated first by the devel-