The Visitation, from Selmecbánya

This painting – perhaps the best-known panel work in medieval Hungarian art – shows the meeting between Saint Elizabeth, who is pregnant with the child who will become Saint John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary. Every element of nature that surrounds them – following the words of the Magnificat (Canticle of Mary) – is in praise of the Lord. This idyll, however, is mere illusion: the barren rocks, the twisted trees, and the delicate flowers – iris, strawberry and peony – in the foreground, are subtle allusions to the Passion. Elizabeth curtsies slightly before the Virgin, and as an expression of her devotion, she gently raises Mary’s left hand to kiss it. The panel painting originates from the high altar of the church of Saint Catherine in Selmecbánya (today Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia). The altarpiece’s other image, the Adoration of the Magi, is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille, while the Nativity is in the parish church of Hontszentantal (today Svätý Anton, Slovakia). The Passion scenes – including the Resurrection, which bears the date 1506 and the initials MS – are held in the Christian Museum in Esztergom. The inscription has been identified with one of the painters of the high altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Cracow, sculpted by Veit Stoss, in which case the monogram MS probably stands for Marten Swarcz.