Budapest Régiségei 15. (1950)

Gerevich László: Gótikus házak Budán 121-238

• size, they are more ornate, often decorated with rich carvings. At this place, we could in several cases detect under the layers of paint the traces of the original frescoes : exuberant tendrils with red flowers. On a fresco, we found a dancing couple and a clown. This caricature ridicules the ideals of chivalry and the contemporary fashion and is important from the sociological point of view too. Sometimes geometrical frescoes decorated the façades and the rooms of less importance. The dining room was generally covered with a wood ceiling, of which several traces were discovered. In a house dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century, the great hall was connected with , the other rooms by means of groined arches, not doors. Besides the great dining hall, the upper story consisted of smaller heatable bedrooms and chambers, which were often vaulted. The upper story is generally projecting by a few feet, carried on consoles holding arches. This construction which was partly taken over from the timber house became characteristic for the end of the period. Balconies over the large gate also point to an earlienr tradition. Most of the houses were two-storied. Of course the second story was completely destroyed, but single finds show, that they were similar in construction to the first floor. There were also houses with three stories, but this third story has completely disappeared, only the wall itself proves its former existence. Besides this chief type, which can be recognised even in case the house was completely rebuilt, there were some houses facing the street with gables. Their axis was vertical to the street. These houses comprised two tracts. One consisted of two or three rooms one behind the other, the other tract was composed by a doorway running the whole depth of the house. The latter shows that this medieval type, which was widespread in the West too, had been transformed under the influence of the ground plan generally used here, i. e. by means of the characteristic doorway. Having examined the ground plan of the Buda houses, we shall describe some finds, which inform us about the buildings. We find many examples of stone dressing from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. We can recognise several types of doors and windows, the earliest — mullions and fragments of sedilia — dating from the thirteenth century, while the latest belong to the Renaissance style. The capital of a mullion belonging to a thirteenth century house proves, that the same master who built the Mary Parish Church partook in the building of the house. Consequently in the thirteenth century laic building ateliers partook in the building of churches as well as of dwelling houses in Buda. Renaissance doors and windows, columns and capitals, relief fragments, sgraffiti decorations prove that the Renaissance style appeared not only on the buildings of aristocrats and church dignitaries, but on the burghers'- • houses as well. Vault fragments dating from the end of the thirteenth century inform us about the construction of the houses. Sometimes the upper story had an open arcade with richly decorated pointed arches, facing the courtyard. In this case we may think of a cortile. The same is true for those colonnaded open courtyards, of which we have an eminent example as well as several ruins. In this case the farmyard, if there was any, was placed behind this cortile. Towards the end of the fifteenth century and even more at the beginning of the sixteenth century the courtyard with colonnades changed in its proportions and details. The passages are supported sometimes by consoles, not by.columns or pilasters. This construction with corbels and arches represents an old tradition. The revival of this fashion can be explained by the influence of the Renaissance style which had a preference for the circular arch. This Gothic style, based on Oriental preliminaries and modified by Renaissance influence, has not yet been dealt with adequately, although it is to be found not only in Buda, and in this country, but 234