Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)
Image and Style
garment, resembling and worn like a Dalmatic, was inserted between the tunic and the cloak (fig. 35). Along with the new formal elements, there is a new type of composition. The outstretched arms of the monarch on previous Hungarian royal seals have given way to arms held close to the body in the resting position: the right hand gripping the shaft of the sceptre is resting on the leg, the left arm is crooked, and the outline of the orb, in the left hand in front of the ehest, is not detached from the outline of the figure. This move to more compact figure representation has a domestic precedent in Béla Ill’s gold seal, where the arm holding the sceptre is held close to the body, but the orb remains held out in the old gesture. This trend was not shared by contemporary imperial seals (Otto IV and Frederic II); neither can these be the origin of the finely-proportioned, richly detailed throne edifice type on King Emeric’s gold seal, which substantially departs from his predecessors’ royal seals and even from the animal-figure faldistorium on his own royal seal. The new features of the gold seal prompted Emma Bartoniek to suggest they may have been a Hungarian innovation which was followed half a century later by monarchs such as Edward 111 of England and Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg.331 Although she was correct in her appraisal of the artistry in the Hungarian royal gold seal, we cannot be so sure about putative place in the development of the type. The ornate, high backed throne of the image does have precursors, but they are products not of the Kingdom of France - as in the case of the undoubtedly French-inspired great seal - but of the Empire. The most likely explanation lies in the timing of the two seals. There must have been an immediate need for the great seal after the coronation, and the chancellery inherited from Béla III would have decided its form and chosen a goldsmith available from his lather’s court circle. The gold seal, however, may have been ordered only several years later, in much changed circumstances (the known piece is from 1202). Precursors of the architectonic throne representation with its barred back and ball finials may be identified in German seals up to the first half of the twelfth century, the reign of Conrad III (1138- 1 152).332 Increasingly simplified versions of the perspective throne representation appear on the seals of Frederick Barbarossa’s royal (1 152-1 155)333 and imperial (1155-1190)334 seals (fig. 33), his son Henry Vi’s royal (1169-1 191 )335 and imperial (1191 331 Bartoniek 1924, pp. 17, 22, 1II/1, fig. 4. 332 por Conrad Ill’s seal, see Zeit der Staufer I, p. 20, III, Abb. 1. 333 Zeit der Staufer I, p. 20, III, Abb. 3. 334 Zeit der Staufer I, p. 22, III, Abb. 4. 3,5 Zeit der Staufer I, p. 23, III, Abb. 6. 1 197)336 seals and the royal seal of Philip the Swabian (1 198-1208 ).33 The double seal of King Waldemar 11 of Denmark (1202-1241) is another example influenced by the imperial seal throne type after 1200, and its place in the development of heraldry also makes it a close parallel of Emeric’s gold seal. The throne on Emeric’s gold seal, however, relates to these imperial seals only in terms of general typological features, and is very different in the fashioning of the details, the style of the figure, and the refinement of execution. Emeric’s gold seal stands before us as a prodigy of goldsmith’s work in Árpád era Hungary. On one side, it has a well-proportioned, emblematic but overall serene representation of the king, and on the other, a shield with lions and barry of eight, which was to become a permanent fixture in the heraldic representation of the Kingdom of Hungary. It took a long time for the elegant composition of the high backed throne to be repeated in Hungarian royal seals. The next example was Queen Isabella’s seal in the second half of the thirteenth century,338 and the type became customary in the fourteenth century through the seals of Otto, Wenceslas, Louis the Great, Mary and Sigismund.339 Nonetheless, the style of Emeric’s gold seal found several echoes in Hungarian art around 1200. We know of a similar, richly-detailed throne representation on the round seal of Bishop Desiderius of Csanád (1202-1229), which also has the rare feature of being divided into four lobes. Desiderius was royal chancellor and thus very close to Enteric, bearing out the influence of royal models on the taste of court clerics (fig. 34).340 There are further stylistic parallels involving the maicstas figure, such as the round seal of Abbot Uros of Pannonhalma (1207- 1242). The stylisation of the abbot’s vestments is the principal point of comparison with the royal gold seal and the seal of Chancellor Desiderius (fig. 38).341 The first Árpád dynasty monarch who was obliged to make changes to the royal seal and its symbols of power at strikingly frequent intervals was Andrew II. We know of six different seals from the thirty years of his reign, not counting his duke’s seal, of which only a fragment survives (Gat. 22). This is the first known duke’s seal from the Kingdom of Hungary, and was followed by the equestrian seals of Béla IV’s sons Stephen and Béla, and Andrew IPs grandson Andrew III (Car. 35, 39, 46). The history of style of the first third of the thirteenth century has left no better impression than the seals produced for Andrew II 33(> jt jcr Staufer I, p. 24, III, Abb. 7. 337 Zeit tier Staufer I, p. 25, III, Abb. 9. 338 Megpecsételt történelem, 31. 339 Mo. műv. 1987, II, tigs. 316/1, 361/3, 361/5. 340 Takács 1992, p. 25, fig. XXVI/11. 341 Takács 1992, p. 26, fig. XXVI/12; Mons sacer I, pp. 506-507. 65
