Problems concerning the meaning of the gesture of the hands of the Virgin in Leonardo's painting are studied here. Former interpretations as expression of protection or blessing are discussed. For the gesture of the Virgin is proposed in this study a meaning which corresponds to her role as Mediatrix omniumgratiarum. For this interpretation prototypes in Quattrocento painting are indicated as well as works influenced by the Leonardesque model.
In the second half of the 19th century – at the beginning of the Hungarian art history writing – all over Europe was a widespread view, that art expressed the national spirit. In the 20th century, mostly after the First World War, according to the intensification of the nationalist mentality in Central Europe the mainstream of the Hungarian research naively looked for an idealization of the past. After the Second World War, after the disillusion in the national ideas researcher became more realistic. Even the international art history made efforts to accentuate rather the common features of the region as their differencies, to think themselves as part of a larger entity, named East Central Europe. Hopefully this approaching will be more productive, as the ambition of appropriating certain artists or monuments.
The erection of the first retable of remarkable dimension in the Leutschau Parish Church can be dated on the basis of the coats of arms of King Matthias Corvinus and of his wife, Beatrix, sculpted on its predella. As Matthias visited the city in 1474, the donation can be attributed to him, while the armory of Beatrice proves that the execution was not earlier than their marriage in 1476. An analogue to the use of royal coats of arms is given by the retable of Our Lady of the Snow in the same church, which is traditionally considered as a commemoration of the Leutschau meeting of the Dukes of the Jagiellonian Dynasty in 1494.