
Fragment of a knight’s tomb slab with detail of the upper body and fragments of inscriptions from the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis
Old Hungarian Collection
Alkotó | |
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Készítés ideje | 1770s |
Tárgytípus | painting |
Anyag, technika | canvas, oil |
Méret | image: 90 × 68.3 cm |
Leltári szám | 80.2M |
Gyűjtemény | Old Hungarian Collection |
Kiállítva | Museum of Fine Arts, Second Floor, Variations on the Baroque – Art in Hungary 1600-1800 |
Johann Michael Millitz graduated from the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts as a student of court painter Martin van Meytens. He primarily painted representative halflength portraits for the aristocracy of the Habsburg Monarchy. This allegorical portrait with an ironic tone is unique in his oeuvre. The faces of the aristocratic couple, depicted here as Adam and Eve, are in a peculiar contrast with the biblical environment and the bodies turned towards each other, suggesting that they were based on earlier, traditional portraits. Millitz must have modelled the composition on a pre-existing painting, as no other landscape depictions are known by him. The figures of Adam and Eve already possessing the knowledge of Good and Evil reflect the spirit of the Enlightenment, indicating that the portrait was commissioned by a person familiar with the French ideas of the period.
Garas, Klára, Magyarországi festészet a XVIII. században, Magyarországi barokk festészet 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1955.
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