Resumen de Benedetto da Maiano in Ungheria: i ritratti di Mattia Corvino e di Beatrice d'Aragona a Budapest
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.
