Portrait of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary Benedetto da Maiano (attributed to) Giovanni Dalmata (previous attribution)

The marble reliefs of Matthias Corvinus (Mátyás Hunyadi, 1443–1490, reigned as Matthias I, king of Hungary, 1458–1490) and his second wife, Beatrice of Aragon (1457–1508) are out-standing pieces of Italian quattrocento portrait sculpture. Matthias was the first European ruler to establish Italian Renaissance art north of the Alps. These antique-style relief portraits were carved from Carrara marble fitted with dark green serpentinite inlays. They were probably originally housed in the Royal Palace of Buda, although their first mention is in a letter of 20 August 1571, written by King Maximilian I, who was also, as Maximilian II, Holy Roman emperor. At the time, the reliefs were held in Northern Hungary by Gergely Bornemissza, provost of Szepes and bishop of Csanád, and in the letter, Maximilian asked for them to be delivered to him. The portraits thus entered the imperial collection in Vienna on 14 March 1572, and were later acquired by the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Hungarian history and art history only rediscovered the reliefs in the mid-nineteenth century. It used to be believed that they were made by the sculptor Giovanni Dalmata (ca. 1440– after 1509), who worked in King Matthias’s court from the early 1480s. Recent research, however, indicates that the portraits were carved in Flor-ence around 1476 by Benedetto da Maiano, to commemorate the marriage between Matthias and Beatrice. The style of the reliefs and the use of different coloured materials recall other works by Maiano, who also, through the mediation of the Florentine banker and diplomat Filippo Strozzi (1428–1491), regularly fulfilled commissions for Beatrice’s father, King Ferdinand I of Naples (1423–1494, reigned 1458–1494).