Takács Imre – Buzási Enikő – Jávor Anna – Mikó Árpád szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve, Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Mojzer Miklós hatvanadik születésnapjára (MNG Budapest, 1991)

LOVAG Zsuzsa: Néhány technikai megfigyelés a magyar koronán

after a rectangular bent at the back (figures 2-5). According to Éva Kovács, a small chain must have been hooked into both crest ornaments, as can be seen in several representations including the crown of Empress Helena in the Byzantine staurotheka at the Treasury of Esztergom Cathedral. The pearls perched on top of the two outer crest ornaments are fixed by pins made out of pearl wire. The fixing of the pearl on the right-hand side is peculiar in that the pin above the pearl was cut in vertically on four sides and the edges were turned back in four directions (figure 6). Another two pearls are mounted in a similar way on the band of the crown, the third pearl from the crest ornament on either side (figures 7-8). This singular fixing technique may perhaps give the answer to the original location of the other two pendants fixed secondarily in a new place. On top of another two crest ornaments there are similarly closed gem-holding pins (figures 9-10). They are not symmetrical, which merely indicates that the pins screwed into the vertically bored holes were later transferred to another place. One thing is certain: two gems and three pearls were placed - or replaced - in the band of the crown simultaneously in an identical way. 3. There was a single instance of intervention" during the examinations wich did not affect the original state of the crown: we unscrewed the mount of the large triangular saphire fixed with two screws and nuts in the middle of the back of the crown. Beneath the gem mounted probably in the 17th century, one can see the traces of the pearl wire frame, most of it scratched off, of the mount for the original oval gem. It was also revealed that the two small bean-shaped holes visible in the inside of the band mark the points where the ends of the band were soldered. On the outer side of the band, beneath the gem a piece of the soldering strip survived which, when melted, did not fully fill up the holes drilled for it (figure 11). 4. The segmented ornamentation of the band and the crest ornaments are slightly shifted or asymmetric, as was noted by Magda Bárány-Oberschall, who did not look for its cause (note 5). Recent years' amateur publications about the crown have assigned an extremely great importance to the question, trying to use this argument to prove, incorrectly both in technical and art historical terms, that the two parts of the crown were made at the same time (note 6). In figure 12 the vertical axes drawn on the frontal part of the corona graeca prove that the asymmetry was simply caused by the symmetry of the cloisonne enamel plate depicting the Pantocrator. The central triangular saphire of the band was adjusted to the axis of the enamelled picture of Christ, and not to the rounded plate carrying it. The embellishment of the band is perfectly symmetric onto the frontal saphire. The frames of the crest ornaments, on the other hand, are adjusted to the plate of the central crest ornament. Therefore, the asymmetry of the plate carrying the Pantocrator is to blame for the asymmetry in the decoration of the corona graeca Indeed, the masters chose the visually least disturbing solution. 5. Part 5 and note 7 of the article puts forth the author's hypothesis concerning the placing of the enamel picture portraying Michael Dukas. The contradiction between the obviously secondary addition of the emperor's image on the one hand and the technical and stylistic conformity of the enamel of the rulers' group and the rest of the corona graeca, as well as of the cloisonne technique and the enamel colours on the other, is attempted to be resolved by the offered hypothesis. It assumes that the band of the corona graeca and the plates representing the Pantocrator and the saints were ready when the actuality of the crown was to be created, through the images of the three secular persons designed to be placed where they are today. Cutting around the picture of Dukas which was slightly bigger than the mount was impossible because of the enamelled legend, so placed in front of the mount it might have been framed with a string of pearls just like the two edges of the band. Being fully aware that this hypothesis is impossible to prove, the author offers this possibility simply as an idea.