Horler Miklós: Budapest 1. budai királyi palota 1. Középkori idomtégla töredékek (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1995) (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1998)
András Végh: Medieval Terracotta finds from the royal Palace of Buda
The original coat-of-arms of King John Zápolya, as we have seen, showed the two heraldic animals in the quaterly inescutcheon (Fig. 45.). The shield, too. was parted with the Dalmatian device in its dexter base. The depiction in the two surviving fields is easy to deduce as it is more than likely that the coat-of-arms of Hungary: the ninetimes per fesse field and the Apostolic Cross on the mounds belonged to the shield. As to what there might have been in the fourth quarter we must be content ourselves with mere hypothesis: on his Great Seal King John had small shields with the coat-of-arms of Hungary, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Silesia, Galicia, and Cumenia. 90 Any one of these could have occupied the fourth field of the shield, above which stood the crest (now lost). The festoon was probably also part of the decoration of the coat-of-arms. As an analogy 1 should like to refer to the coat-of-arms in the Castle of Szamosújvár where two angels hold a wreath encircling the coat-of-arms of King John. 91 According to both archaeological and historical data the Southern Round Bastion and its Gate Tower were built by King John Zápolya. 92 The earlier outwork and its gate must have been either severely damaged, or was considered weak and out-dated, because King John's architect had it demolished, and the Round Bastion built instead, with a new Gate Tower near to the site of the old one. The coat-of-arms of the king was made of terracotta, a choice perhaps explicable through the fact that the architect arrived from northern Italy, where terracotta decoration of buildings was widely used at that time, and by this we mean not only architectural elements, but those of sculpture and reliefs, also. The fragments discussed in this chapter are examples of this kind of refined, decorative sculpture. IX. TERRACOTTA FINDS IN THE MEDIEVAL TOWN Although the subject of the present study is the terracotta architecture of the royal palace, I should nevertheless like to give a short summary concerning the pieces found beyond it, in the former medieval town, known today as the Castle District. The remains of a burgher house were excavated by Zoltán Bencze in the courtyard of the Museum of Military History. The grounds once belonging to the house extended as far as the inner town wall. At the bottom of a Turkish drain pit just on the other side of this wall a terracotta fragment was found. 93 (Cat. 100.755.) (Fig. 378-379.) It differs both in style and in material from all the bricks examined so far. Along its edges there runs a moulding with a cyma recta profile, and the surface of the brick is decorated with twining. The overall impression is that of a Renaissance stone-carving. Another brick with the very same pattern was found at Fortuna street 16. (by the archaeologist, Julia Altmann) (Cat. 100.786). 94 As both bricks are different from the finds in the royal palace, we presume that they formed part of a building in the medieval town and are an indication that terracotta architecture was known there, too. The same applies for the very simple bricks, found during the demolishing of the Garrison Church (formerly medieval Parish Church of Mary Magdalene). 95 No connections between the terracotta architecture in the royal palace and in the medieval town have been established so far. X. ANALOGIES 1. Terracotta Finds in Buda and in Medieval Hungary We already know that brick has been used in Hungary ever since permanent building material were needed. The construction ol" many of the early Benedictine monasteries and parish churches — as well as some of the early castles built of enduring material — was of brick. The early Benedictine monasteries of Kaposszcntjakab and Somogyvár; the churches of Karcsa, Csaroda or Csempeszkopács; and the castles in Kereki, Simontornya and Körösszeg, though built of brick, display evidence of the same architectural principles as similar stone structures. 96 However, the more sophisticated architectural details were always made of stone, and they are lacking only on extremely poorly decorated edifices. Modelled terracotta elements occur, also, if only of the simplest form, e.g. column-shafts, pedestal cornices, and jambs with
