Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)
DÉTSHY Mihály: Sárospatak várának "aranyos kárpitjai"
textiles and fabrics for hangings in various colours for the dining room. Then he adds that "as far as the golden wallhangings of the /dining/ palace is concerned, we have acted as Mylord had kindly ordered" 5 . It is likely that this order referred only to the search for such tapestry. However, these efforts gained success only after the 1644-45 campaigns, when two diplomats sent by the Prince and his wife to Pozsony (Bratislava) and Vienna for political negotiations were commissioned also with this task. One of them, György Jantsovitt reported from Pozsony (Bratislava) on August 23, 1646 to Zsuzsanna Lorántffy: "I could not find tapestries with history figures except for those that I had already referred to in my correspondence with Your Ladyship earlier and even those do not match the measures I had brought with me unless one folded their border back where the wall is narrower". 6 On October 2 he wrote about it again to the Princess: "As regards to the tapestries, as soon as we are a little free from our political commitments, I immediately will travel to Vienna together with Mister Klobusiczky and we would try our best to fulfil Your Ladiship's commission." 7 The unsuccessful trials were followed by others in 1647. On September 17 Debreczeni informed his lady as follows: "I could not talk to Mister Klobusiczky about the tapestries for the small Palace of the Sárospatak Castle, for I could not find him at home" and then again on September 28: "the tapestries will probably be purchased soon". 8 Indeed, on January 26, 1648, György Mednyánszky, "high-official" of the prince in West-Hungary, gave a detailed report to Zsuzsanna Lorántffy about his negotiations in Vienna: "... as to the wallhangings; although Mylord had mentioned in one of his letters and assured me that I would have certain information about them from Your Ladyship, I could not find any reference about it in your letter: I would humbly like to ask Your Ladyship to provide me with the necessary instructions so that I could act as wanted, since I have already assured the merchant and hope he would not sell them to anyone else, since I would buy them for Your Ladyship. I have not found any similar material in Vienna, but as I had declared to His Lordship in my former letter it is impossible to find pieces that exactly match the disposition of the Patak Palace. Then one says we should have one made but there is no way since the Enemy totally ravaged that place the other day. We can have one made for a room according to customs of small and bigger pieces, measuring altogether 41 Viennese Ells. But first of all the Palace has to be measured and if the said number of the ells is sufficient, we could easily suit the pieces to the wall, since the pieces are four, seven and nine ells large. Then at first he wanted 642 dollars for it but I am sure he would cut down although they are decorated with very fine figures and stories, with silk abundant in them and as I had already written, could not find any similar • in Vienna. I have thus sent the size of the Viennese ell so that Your Ladyship could have the Palace measured and inform me about it as soon as possible." 9 The data of the above letter tempt us to identify the tapestries offered to Mednyánszky in Vienna with the 36 pieces in the 1701 list and inventory, though we have no indisputable proofs about that. However, we may well suppose lhat Zsuzsanna Lorántffy wanted and purchased representative furniture, including tapestries, in 1646-47 for the southern upstairs rooms and the "dining palace", which were finished at that time. She had similar tapestries in her other residences as
