A Multimedial Cult of the Virgin Mary Created and Sponsored by the Hungarian Aristocrat Pál Esterházy (1635-1713)

Duke Pál Esterházy was one of the most outstanding Hungarians of the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries. As a politician he rose to the highest position of the Habsburg-ruled country: after successes as a military leader against the Ottomans from the 1660s he became Palatine of Hungary in 1681, also member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1687 he received the title “Imperial Prince.” He was not only an important politician and faithful patriot but also a versatile artist and a great patron. Deeply interested in architecture he had several castles and churches built and remodeled and in his main seat in Kismarton (Eisenstadt in today’s Austria) amassed a huge and important art collection. As an artist in his own right he wrote Latin and Hungarian poetry, composed music and even painted. Neither his patronage, nor his artistic output can be separated from his deep religiosity and a special cult of the Virgin Mary. As of the 1690s he retired from active politics and devoted much time to research and writing. Several important publications document his Marian-cult and some of these have direct iconological significance. Following the Atlas Marianus of Wilhelm Gumppenberg, he collected stories and images of Maria-miracles from all over the world, summarized these in Hungarian and published them with woodcuts either taken from the German/Latin publications or ordering new cuts, too. In this paper we are going to survey the many forms of Esterházy’s Marian cult with a special emphasis on the representations of the Virgin. An excursus will be devoted to Esterházy’s knowledge of ethnology as demonstrated by the examples taken from non-European shrines and pilgrimage places.

Vojvoda Pal Eszterhazy bio je jedan od najistaknutijih Mađara s kraja 16. i početka 17. stoljeća. Kao političar uspeo se do najvišeg položaja u zemlji pod habsburškom vlašću: nakon uspjeha kao vojskovođa u ratu protiv Osmanlija 1660. postao je palatin Mađarske 1681. i član Reda zlatnoga runa, a 1687. je stekao titulu “carskog princa”. Nije bio samo značajan političar i patriot, već i svestran umjetnik i veliki pokrovitelj i mecena. Pisao je poeziju na latinskom i mađarskom, skladao glazbu i slikao, a njegova pokroviteljska djelatnost i umjetničko stvaralaštvo ne mogu se odvojiti od njegove duboke religioznosti i posebice štovanja kulta Djevice Marije. Nekoliko važnih izdanja dokumentira njegovo štovanje Marije, a neka od njih imaju izravno ikonološko značenje. Slijedeći Atlas Marianus Wilhelma Gumppenberga, skupljao je priče i prikaze Marijnih čudesa sa svih strana svijeta, sažeo ih na mađarskom jeziku te ih je objavio ukrašene drvorezima, koje je preuzeo iz njemačkih ili la- tinskih publikacija ili pak novim grafikama. U ovoj raspravi dajemo pregled različitih oblika Eszterhazyjeva štovanja Marijina kulta s naglaskom na prikazima Djevice. Poseban dio rasprave posvećen je Eszterhazyjevu interesu i poznavanju etnologije, što je pokazano na primjerima preuzetima iz neeuropskih svetišta i hodočasničkih mjesta.