Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)
LÁSZLÓ Emőke: Hímzett magyar oltárterítők a 18. század első feléből
the 1880s, Huszka made several hundred illustrations about the ornaments of old Hungarian furniture, painted ceilings, pots and, most important of all, embroideries. This collection created the basis of his later activity to research and define the typicalities, characteristics and laws of "Hungarian style of decoration", which he published in a series of studies from the middle of the nineteen eighties. His drawings and description are invaluable for the successors, since most of these embroideries have since been damaged or lost. The origin of those acquired by museums - including the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts - can rarely be identified. Their identification with a typical embroidery style of any areas, therefore, is only possible with examining the collections describing all the material found in that particular district. The drawing and the colours of the dated - 1742 - altar tablecloth from Csiksomlyó that was illustrated by József Huszka (see pict.6) are almost identical with the five tablecloths presented here. The composition and motifs of altar tablecloths, pulpit covers and mass shirts from the Franciscan convents of Csiksomlyó, Mikháza, Észtéinek and Székelyudvarhely are fairly similar. The rich embroidery material of Franciscan cloisters of Transylvania is stressed by Lajos Kelemen as well 10 . In 1899 as a young man he accompanied Lajos Szádcczky, a professor of the Kolozsvár university to an excursion by the Nyárád river, in order to collect material for the Hungarian historical department of the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. Almost one hundred old Hungarian embroideries were found at one place, at the church of the Mikháza cloister. Several of these were exhibited at the show. Since similar embroideries from other parts of Hungary have not been discovered, coupled with the fact that according to contemporary descriptions and drawings there really were some identical pieces in the Franciscan convents of Transylvania, we might assume that these altar tablecloths were porbably made in Transylvania, in the first half of the eighteenth century. This is supported by the Transylvanian origin of two tablecloths - tablecloth no.l that survived in good condition and the one with the SZENTHÁROMSÁG (Holity Trinity) inscription. The Franciscan one was the most known and "popular" convent in eighteenth century Hungary. In Transylvania, following the 1717 great fame, there was a large boom in the lives of the cloisters - it was then, for example, that the Csiksomlyó cloister and the. church were extended and several new cloisters were founded or restored. In the case of Csiksomlyó, royal donation, reinforcement and support came with 3 December 1742 11 . It is perhaps this date lhat the altar tablecloth wanted to commemorate. The equipment of churches - including the Franciscan order - were usually donated to the church. One of the richest presents was donated to the Csiksomlyó cloister by Madame György Rákóczi, née Zsófia Báthori. She presented her wedding dress, decorated by sixty diamonds and sixty rubies, and "the embroidered portrait of her and her husband" 12 to the denomination. The almost identical pattern of the tablecloths suggests, however, that they were not presented but made particulary for one altar, following a popular pattern. Their makers could have been Franciscan nuns or Clarissas, or nuns of the their order who were helping Franciscan monks. These nuns lived together in a closed community in Csiksomlyó, Esztelnek and Szárhegy, trying to keep out of the world. They were weavers, tailors, embroiderers and teachers, and their task - among others - was to clean
