Missale Romanum

The missal is a typical example of style imitation in the Buda workshop. Although its decoration is dominated mainly by the style of the Cassianus group and Francesco da Castello, the great number and variation of patterns is surprising. The different styles of the royal library mingle on its pages like in a kaleidoscope creating a peculiar overall impression. The very title-page is nurtured by several sources, the main inspiration being the Missal kept today in Brussels: an exquisite manuscript of Attavante dated to 1488. (Should the dating force of the Cassianus group be not enough, the latter manuscript dates the Vatican Missal with certainty to between 1488 and 1490.) Its influence can be observed both in the border decoration and the miniature. However, the landscape behind the praying David evokes the Matthias Gradual while some of the rows of bush and the strangely shaped rock that widens upwards resemble once again the solutions of Francesco da Castello and the Cassianus group. The same can be told of the sitting figure of the medallion on the right.
The manuscript was probably a joint work of a team at the workshop with the visible dominance of one of the masters. The group of illuminators among whom there were Central European artists, probably included also the master(s) of the Filipecz pontifical. (Edina Zsupán)

Source: The Corvina Library and the Buda Worskhop: [National Széchényi Library, November 6, 2018 –February 9, 2019] A Guide to the Exhibition; introduction and summary tables: Edina Zsupán; object descriptions: Edina Zsupán, Ferenc Földesi; English translation: Ágnes Latorre, Budapest: NSZL, 2018, p. 112