Komárom – Esztergom Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 1. (Tata, 1968)
Az esztergomi oroszlános freskók eredetéről
ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE LION-FRESCOES IN ESZTERGOM The origin of the type and style of the two disk-shaped lion — fragments (I. 1.) adorning the wall of the aoyal palace's chapel in Esztergom built in the Arpad's age has been sought by earlier research too, in the East. Connection with the manufactures of the great imperial textil-workshops in Costantinople have been pointed out by Tibor Gerevich. Not only the famous so-called elephant-textile (I. 2.) but the lionTextiles (II. 2.) too, made is the time of Romanos and Christofos Basileos II. and Costantine VIII (976—1025) as well as the griffon-silk textile of sens (II. 3.) belong to that circle. These Byzantine textiles had also an effect on the Italian, French and Spanish decorative painting of the Xlth —XHIth centuries, so on the mosaic of Capella Palatina is Palermo, (VI. 1.) the frescoe of S. Maria infra portas in Foligno (IV. 2.) the frescoe of the Saint Clement's chapel in the Chartre Cathedral (Fig. 12.) moreover on decorating the gates of the Susdalian cathedral in Russia. (IV.l.). The prototypes of the Byzantine textiles are to be found in Persian art, where goldsmith — and textile — art were is close internation (c. f. a Sassianian — Persian silver plate. (I. 3. II. 1.). It is remarkable, that the rosettamotif on the thikhs of the frescoe — lions in Esztergom, originally also had a symbolical meaning: in Persia it referred to the Sun-Lion. The ecclesiastical and royal lion-verstments (e. g. the dalmatic in Halberstadt and the robe of Nicephorus Botaniates or that of Desislava, the Bulgarian princess on the frescoe in Bojana (II. 4.) can also be derived from the Persian sovreifn's costume. So in all probability the lion — frescoes in Esztergom were copied from Byzantine textiles showing a Persian effect. As Béla III. himself had also been educated in Constantinople, it is possible, that Byzantine textiles brought by him to Hungary had, too, an effect on the composition of these frescoes. 155
