Ismétlődések, hiányok és buktatók. A kisszebeni Keresztelő Szent János tiszteletére szentelt főoltár külső képsorának értelmezése

Abstract

Abstract Art historians are still at fault for the interpretation of the pictures on the outer sides of the wings of the high altar of Saint John the Baptist from Kisszeben (Sabinov). Restoring work in the past decades has explored the original surface of several pictures, leading to an important insight: the reconstruction of the altarpiece in the baroque age left their contents unchanged. It can therefore be concluded that the baroque layer on the unrestored pic tures cannot hide wholly different scenes. What hinders interpretation is rather the deviation from the customary schemes. The narrative compiled from Biblical scenes is “jerky”: the episodes in some places do not follow in chronological order and while several “customary” scenes are missing seemingly without reason, certain scenes appear, however, to be repeated. Even more perplexing are the “hitches”, representations that are hard to interpret on the basis of traditional schemes, which, however, hide the key to the profound message of the high...