Saint Elizabeth Distributing Alms

This masterly altarpiece from a parish church near Budapest, was only recently identified as a painting of Kremser Schmidt. In the art topography of the county, published in 1958, it was presented as a work by an unknown master from the second half of the 18th century. It escaped attention that it is quoted in the list compiled in 1787 by Koloman Fellner, a pupil of Kremser Schmidt, about the works of his master. On the other hand Rupert Feuchtm�ller, the author of a recent, extraordinarly thorough and rich monography on Kremser Schmidt, while citing the village’s name from the list - Wereseth�z, Veresegyh�z in Ungarn - mentions the St. Elizabeth altarpiece amongst the painter’s lost works. However, its authenticity and the identity of its master is beyond doubt, and we can now also indicate with certainty the person who commissioned it.

The parish church of this village in the V�c, diocese was rebuilt in 1777-78 by Krist�f Migazzi Bishop of V�c who also arranged for the furnishing of the church. Bishop Migazzi, Archbishop of Vienna, for a long time was in contact with Kremser Schmidt, who was rather preferred in church circles. Migazzi commissioned Kremser Schmidt with the high and side altarpieces of V�c Cathedral in 1770-71 and 1774 (covering with the high altarpiece a fresco of Maulbertsch, painted only a few years before), and he also employed him with his Viennese artistic enterprises. The Veresegyh�z commission was probably given to Kremser Schmidt around 1778, the year of the consecration of the church. The theme of the painting was a legend of the church’s patron saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It shows the popular moment when the royal princess, in spite of her family’s disapproval, distributes alms to the poor.