Folia archeologica 23.
Ferenc Fülep – György Duma: Examinations of the Wall Paintings in the Cella Trichora of Pécs
204 F. FÜLEP - GY. DUMA in the higher cellulose content of the individual samples. Presumably the stem element is higher in these pieces. But on the basis of this difference it would not be the least justified if part of the fragments, that have no figures painted on them, were identified with the material of the lower plaster layer in the cella trichora. In our view only they constitute a subdivision within the group of fragments of figures. Among pieces of a single colour samples 15 and 16 may be regarded as identical with the fragments of figurative paintings, i.e. with the upper plaster layer of the cella trichora. It may be regarded as proved by our tests that the painted layers of plaster on the walls of the cella trichora in Pécs, though by outside appearance are identical, have basic differences. It may be regarded as almost sure that the painted fragments with figures found during the excavations at the cella trichora are identical with the upper one of the painted layers. Plaster fragments of single colour should be regarded identical with one another with (inly slight differences that occur in the higher cellulose content of some samples. These show extremely close similarities to the pieces of painted fragments with figures and the upper layer on the walls. Samples Nos 15 and 16 can be regarded as identical with the fragments of the figurative painting i.e. with the upper layer of plaster in the cella trichora on the basis of their organic ingredients. (The examination of the organic materials was performed by Imre Lengyel and the identification of the grains made by Gábor Skofflek.) * In the literature at our disposal we have found very little data with which the tests of the wall paintings in the cella trichora of Pécs could be compared. Approximately similar data are given in the article reporting on the restoration of the wall paintings in the Parecclesion chapel of the Chora monastery known as the Kariye Djami in Istanbul. 1 6 This chapel was built in the nth century and rebuilt in the 14th and its walls were painted then. From the photograph of the plaster it can be established that it contains a lot of plant materials. 1 7 The plant ingredients are of the awn of wheat and barley ears, straw and stem parts. 1 8 As far as inorganic materials are concerned they are: CaO 48.50 per cent, C0 2 37,67 per cent, Si0 2 (and others) 2,5 3. 1 9 If these figures are collated with the corresponding data of the cella trichora of Pécs (Tabls. I-II) it becomes clear that the percentage proportion of CaO is rather close to the same value of the upper layer of plaster of the cella trichora and the Si0 2 figure is extremely close to the same values of samples 7-11, 14-16, 18-21 that have been also classified into the upper layer category. S. Stawicki notes in his article about the technique of Byzantine-Russian fresco painting that the masters of the Balkans had used straw, grass and even bristle as organic filler. He mentions the Parecclesion chapel of the Kariye Djami in Istanbul and quotes as an example the plaster of the eleventh-century Santa Sophia cathedral in Ochrida, where under the wall paintings cut harl can be found, 1 6 Gettens , R. J.-Stout, G. L., A Monument of Byzantine Wall Painting-the Method of Construction. Conservation 3 ( 1958):3. pp. ioyff and further lit. 1 7 Ibid. p. no., Fig. 2. 1 8 Ibid. p. no. 1 9 Ibid. p. 109.
