Aranyserleg a fraknói Esterházy-kincstárból

Abstract

Recent publications on the goldsmiths of the early modern age employed in aristocratic courts provide the grounds for the reconsideration of some basic questions concerning an outstanding art work in the Esterházy col lection, first of all the circumstances of its commissioning and creation. It can be concluded that the “official” de finition of the gold cup with enamel decoration from the first decade of the 17th century prevalent for some twenty years now need revising. The more exact dating and the fact that the cup is adorned with the enamelled pictures of the coat of arms of Lower Austria allow for a far more palpable assumption about the client who gave the commission and the original owner. It is now presumed that the goldsmith's work was commissioned by archduke Matthias of Habsburg (1557–1619), Holy Roman Emperor from 1612, in 1608, the year of the beginning of his rule – after the resignation of his brother Rudolf II – over the hereditary Austrian provinces. As his personal present, the cup might have been given to its first designated owner Count Paul Sixtus Trautson (1550–1621), who was appointed lieutenant-governor (Statthalter) of Lower Austria at the same time. The subsequent fate of the art treasure is still an unsettled issue: how long it was in Trautson's possession, when and how it changed hands, how it arrived in the Fraknó treasury of the Esterházy family where it can be traced back to the 1690s. The paper attempts answers to these questions. The “final” answer, however, is expected to appear in a study of the Festschrift to be published on an equally festive occasion in honour of Miklós Mojzer in November 2021.