Devotion und Ahnenkult in der Mäzenaten-tätigkeit des Grafen Georg Leopold Erdődy (1680-1759)

Abstract

Summary The study deals with the two most important elements of the patronage of György Lipót Erdődy, namely his pious activity and the orders relating the cult of the family ancestors. György Erdődy, being the heir of an ancient Hungarian aristocratic family, has founded the new branch of the family in 1720 and from that time the center of the estates has become Galgóc (Hlohovec, now Slovakia). Count Erdődy has reconstructed the castle as a pseudo-Stammburg of the Erdődy family in the light of the legitimation program of the new branch. In its inner decoration there were the portraits, family trees and art pieces of the ancestors. It was Erdődy's father-in-law, prince Pál Esterházy who could have served as a model for him. The prince has created with a similar attitude a complex program of patronage for the cult of his ancestors. Although count Erdődy could not escape from the influence of the representation of palatine Esterházy, it can be still observed that the first was open for the new ideas of his age too. Erdődy has created a program based on archival research with a modern attitude instead of Esterházy's family history imbued with legends. The key element in his pious activity, just as in the case of his father-in-law Esterházy, was the cult of Virgin Mary. Erdődy has assisted more pilgrimage centers, like the pilgrimage church of Celldömölk, founded as a filiale of Mariazell. Erdődy has also founded a new pilgrimage site in his own castle after having moved the main altar of the cathedral of Pozsony (Bratislava) to Galgóc. This late gothic wooden altar is known today as the Nativity of Galgóc. György Lipót Erdődy's patronage, emerging mainly from the 1740's, demonstrates clearly the afterlife of the 17th