A pair of marble cherubs sculpted by Italian Early Renaissance master Benedetto da Maiano has been discovered on the grounds of Visegrád Castle, north of Budapest, Hungary. The cherub heads and wings were found during the excavation of the church of the Franciscan monastery that stood next to the royal palace in the castle complex.

The cherubs were part of a 15th century altar made of white marble. While the heads have suffered some damage, they are largely intact and display the characteristic features of Benedetto da Maiano’s deft hand in the detailing of the hair, feathers and faces. Fragments of drapery from angel statues were also found. The pieces are almost exact copies of sculptural elements on altars by Benedetto da Maiano in Naples, Florence and San Gimignano.

Born in Maiano, Tuscany, in 1442, Benedetto learned wood and marble carving first from his uncle Giuliano, and later from Antonio Rossellino. He soon eclipsed both in skill and fame. He started out working in perspective intarsia (using different colors of wood inlay to create complex architectural scenes, figures, foliage and geometric patterns with 3D depth), creating the insanely gorgeous studiolo of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his reputation spread far and wide.

Biographer Giorgio Vasari recounts that Benedetto da Maiano received commissions from the crowned heads of Europe, including King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary for whom he made a pair of inlaid coffers. King Matthias invited Benedetto to Buda in person to deliver the coffers, but when he presented them before the king and his court full of nobles, he found to his horror that the sea water from the voyage had softened the glue of the inlay and all his work literally fell to pieces before his aghast eyes. He was able to patch it back together to the king’s satisfaction, but he was so humiliated by the fragile wood’s failure, from them on, he switched to marble sculpture.

Benedetto was commissioned to make matching marble relief portraits of the king and his second wife Beatrice of Aragon at the time of their wedding in 1476. The portraits are recognized by art historians today as important transitional pieces marking the artist’s shift from intarsia to statuary. Vasari says he made other sculptures in clay and marble for King Matthias Corvinus before he left Hungary and returned to Florence.

First built in the 13th century, Visegrád Castle became an official royal residence in the 14th century and was further enlarged and refurbished in the 15th century. Matthias almost entirely redid the interior of the palace, and he also refounded the Franciscan monastery (started but never completely by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, around 1400). Mattias finished construction of the monastery and commissioned a grand high altar of white marble in Italian Renaissance style. A document in Florence from 1493 records that Benedetto had received a commission from Matthias for a marble tabernacle for a church sacristy, but the work was interrupted when the king died in 1490. This order suggests Matthias was actively engaging Benedetto da Maiano in work for the church.

Visegrád and the Franciscan monastery suffered heavily in the armed conflicts of the 1540s. In 1540, the Lower Castle was besieged by Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, in a succession conflict that would precipitate a much larger invasion by Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent ostensibly on behalf of the infant who had just inherited the throne of Hungary. Ferdinand’s siege damaged the monastery, and archaeologists found fragments of the altar with pieces of the windows, the window frames and lead rifle bullets, flattened from impact.

The castle was besieged again by the Ottoman Empire in 1544 and suffered heavy damage. Even after Turkish forces were ousted in 1685, the castle was never again used as a royal palace and by the 18th century was completely buried. Today the castle is open to visitors even as it undergoes a new program of excavation and restoration with the ultimate goal of returning the castle and palace complex to its glory days under Matthias Corvinus.

The unearthed artifact is of great significance as it confirms King Matthias’s vision of Hungary as a cultural and artistic hub in 15th-century Europe, where he commissioned works from leading Italian artists. “The chances of finding Renaissance works of art of similar quality and in good condition, but hitherto unknown, are now very slim,” Gergely Buzás concluded. The ongoing excavations hold promise for further significant discoveries, shedding light on Hungary’s rich medieval history.

The baptismal font in the Siena Cathedral, crafted by the most important sculptors of the Renaissance, including Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia and Lorenzo Ghiberti, is back in public view after three years of in-depth diagnostic investigations and innovative conservation. The complex work was carried out by specialists from the Opera and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the conservation workshop of the cathedral which has been maintaining and restoring elements of the cathedral complex since the 12th century.

The font is made of white marble, gilded bronze and enamelled copper and was created between 1417 and 1431. It has a hexagonal basin with six gilded bronze reliefs depicting scenes from the life of John the Baptist on each of the sides, with gilded bronze statues of the virtues between them. Two of them, Faith and Hope, were made by Donatello. He also created one of the reliefs, The Banquet of Herod. Lorenzo Ghiberti, creator of the breathtaking bronze reliefs in the door of the Baptistery of Florence, made the The Baptism of Jesus panel, and the dynamic Arrest of John the Baptist.

The bronzes were gilded with an amalgam of gold and mercury, a process known as fire gilding. It is highly susceptible to tarnishing and abrasion. The OPD conservation team removed the bronze panels and sculptures from the basin to restore them in the laboratory. The marble elements were restored in situ and a new support structure for the stone elements was designed to give access to the back of the bronzes in the future without having to dismantle them.

Out of the white marble basin rises a monumental tabernacle, also made of white marble, crowned by a slender lantern topped with a sculpture of John the Baptist. It was designed in the style of a classical temple with a segmented dome. It is adorned with marble sculptures of five Prophets in niches, one of them by Jacopo della Quercia. The sixth side features a gilded bronze door depicting the Madonna and Child by Giovanni di Turino. Above them were six bronze Spirits. Only four survive today, two by Donatello, two by Giovanni di Turino. The marbles were originally decorated with polychrome blue and gold painted details, much of which has eroded. What is left was revived by the restoration.

Because by its nature the font exposes these priceless artworks to constant moisture that is the opposite of ideal conservation conditions, the OPD will be keeping a close eye on the font, with constant environmental monitoring, a new humidity control system and a thorough inspections every six months. That will allow conservators to detect any signs of deterioration immediately and take countermeasures before damage sets in.

After two years of excavation, more than 900 artifacts have been recovered from two Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) shipwrecks discovered in China’s southern island province of Hainan. Excavating the deep-sea shipwrecks has required pioneering technologies including 3D laser scanners and high-definition cameras to map the sites and stitch together full panoramic views of the wreck sites using photogrammetry techniques and state-of-the-art submersible mud pumping and blowing devices to do the actual digging.

The two shipwrecks were discovered 4,900 feet deep on the northwest continental slope of the South China Sea in October of 2022. Dating to the Zhengde period (1506-1521), Ship No. 1 was carrying an enormous cargo of more than 100,000 porcelain, pottery, bronze, iron bamboo and wood artifacts intended for export. Archaeologists believe its departure point may have been Guangdong or Fujian provinces and its destination was the Malaysian center of trade Malacca. Ship No. 2 was going in the other direction, carrying timber from Malacca back to Guangdong or Fujian. It dates to the Hongzhi period, 1488-1505.

Since their discovery, a total of 890 pieces of porcelain, pottery and copper coins have been recovered from Ship No. 1, including blue-and-white porcelain, green-glazed porcelain, white-glazed porcelain, blue-and-white-glazed porcelain, enamel porcelain and brown-glazed pottery. A total of 38 objects, including wood logs, porcelain, pottery, shells and deer antlers, have been recovered from Ship No. 2. Two archaeologists firsts were discovered on the wrecks: enamelware on Ship No. 1 and ebony wood on Ship No. 2, the first of their kind ever found in shipwreck archaeology.

The shipwrecks and their rich, varied cargos shed light on the bustling activity on the Maritime Silk Road during the middle Ming Dynasty period.

The archaeologists said the two ancient ships were travelling in different directions, and the wrecks were found less than 20km (12 miles) apart. They said it was the first time vessels returning and arriving had been found near each other, indicating they were travelling on an important trade route.

“It helps us study the maritime Silk Road’s reciprocal flow,” Tang Wei, the director of the Chinese National Centre for Archaeology, said.

The artifacts recovered from the shipwrecks are currently being recorded and conserved. The Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports plans to publish complete photographic catalogues of all the finds and to put a selection of the findings on display in special exhibitions and museums.