in the armour of a Hungarian Knight
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St George
1373
Bronze, height: 196 cm
National Gallery, Prague
Sculptors Márton and György (Martin and George) Kolozsvári were the sons of Miklós, a painter in Kolozsvár. They belonged to the excellent bronze casting workshop in Nagyvárad and their activities elevated Hungarian bronze sculpture to the European level in the third quarter of the 14th century. Their first achievements were the statues of the Hungarian Saint Kings executed c. 1360-70 for the Cathedral of Nagyvárad. These statues were destroyed during the Turkish occupation.
Their masterpiece, the equestrian statue of Saint George executed in 1373, can be considered as a forerunner of the Italian Renaissance equestrian statues of the 15th century. It was sent to Prague as a gift of Hungarian Angevin King Lajos the Great to Emperor Charles IV.
In 1390 they executed the over life-size equestrian statue of Saint László, commissioned by the Bishop of Nagyvárad. It is assumed that the reliquiary of Saint László's head in the Cathedral of Győr is a copy of the head on this equestrian statue and it was made by the older brother, Márton.
Source: Fine Arts in Hungary
