Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 12. (Budapest, 1992)
LÁSZLÓ Emőke: Magyar hímzett és selyemkárpitok a 16-17. századból
-3-2 (enclosing the coat of arms) - 3 2-3. The stems are turned upside down avobe the arms, while the ones on the two sides of the arms tum their floral parts inwards. They are placed in normal position below the arms. The top and bottom borders of the middle consist of 3-3 large flower stems, die sides are enriched with 4 more stems, miming along the border. There are much smaller stems between the large ones, widi crossed stems or bending to the same direction. The Báthori arms in the middle is enclosed by motifs similar to a crestrose. The stnicture of the decoration is therefore clear, yet on a closer scrutiny, the composition of die cover seems muddled. The pattern rows are uneven, die motifs are placed slightly up, or too close to each other. This might be explained by the fact that a larger embroidery was used for the bedcover. On the other hand, however, the seams are covered by the embroidery, aldiough the velvet is actually assembled of four parts. The explanation is apparent when examining the back of the embroidery. The decoration was made in two different ways: some stems were embroidered directiy on the velvet (in this case die silk tiireads covering the metal ones can be detected on the back), while others were first embroidered on linen, dien applied to die base (in diis case only the outline seams appear on the back). The use of the two different techniques seems to have no order. The patterns embroidered on separate fabric must have been applied first, then the rest of die place was filled with motifs embroidered directly on the velvet. Scattered flowers - and a surface filled with die repetition of one motif - appears first in the beginning of the 17th century, on Italian fabrics, tiiough tiiey can also be detected on some Turkish clotiis and linen embroideries. There is in fact a variant which was often used with crested bedcovers and draperies of the west, but their composition is entirely different from that of Báthori's bedcover, since they usually have a broad border, stressed motifs in the comers, and the coat of arms is enclosed by flowers. Scattered flowers were used rather rarely in Hungarian embroidery. The alternation of small and large motifs, on die other hand, is a definitely oriental feature of die decoration. The decoration of the border is "one of the most popular compositions of Turkish embroideries ... where identical motifs are repeated, creating a stripe." 23 The border consists of eight parts widi identically shaped but diffcrcntiy coloured, alternating flower stems. The outer border shows lines of differently coloured pomegranates (1:3) (Picture 4). On die surface, there are Turkish-like motifs of flower stems slightiy bent to die same direction or with crossed stems, while the border is decorated with a Turkish variant of the bent flower. The blossoms represent the stylised forms of the rose "piked rosettes" - both on the Hungarian and Turkish flower stems. On the Hungarian embroidery they resemble rose blossoms, pictured from die front, while the pikes represent the sepals. The Turkish variant pictures die flower from the side and not in full blossom - the petals are enriched with tiny points. The piked rosette was not only a popular motif in die 17th century embroidery (Picture 5) but were also found on documents, tin dishes - in fact, it was present in all branches of contemporary Hungarian decorative arts. Beside the piked rosette, the flower stems bear slightly serrated leaves and a special stylised variant of a closed pomegranate spring, resembling to a leaf. The latter, very Turkish motif was used mainly on later, slightly folkloric pieces of secular embroideries. The Báthori
