Vida Gabriella: A miskolci fazekasság a 16-19. században (Officina Musei 8. Miskolc, 1999)
THE POTTERY OF MISKOLC
is affected by the Middle Eastern and Turkish luxury goods, textiles, metal pots, saddles, weapons, etc. and on the other hand the Renaissance decorative art originating from Italy and concurring the whole of Europe. This style preceded the Turkish invasion and it encompassed the households of the higher and lower echelons of society. The ceramic style with brown contouring, green and red infilling, utilising floral motifs has encompassed the area within the Szeged, Pécs, Balatonfelvidék, Vác, Rimaszombat, Kassa, Kolozsvár line, i.e. the area of Turkish influence and its borders. But the attention of archaeologists is not yet captivated by the ceramic arts of this late age, it is possible that a lot of unresearched material still lies in the store rooms of museums today. The remnants examined to date exhibit uniform stylistic characteristics within this whole area. This floral motif Renaissance ceramic style on a yellow-white background utilising green and red colours was not only typical in Hungary during the 17- 18 th century, but it was also common in the whole of Europe: from England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland through to the Benelux countries. Differences were obvious mainly in the motifs used and the techniques of contouring. The motifs were sometimes bordered by drawn lines or scratched, but occasionally the two techniques were used in conjunction. Whole pots remained intact from the 18th century produced with sgraffito technique from Galicia and Bukovina area inhabited by Huculs, some were produced in the Ukraine, mixed with the drawing technique in the Uplands, in Hont County Bakabánya (Pukanec), Belluja, Berencsfalva, in the Upper Tisza area in Vámfalu, Bikszád and Tiszabogdány. The question arises: if the decoration style was utilised in a far wider area during the 16-17 th century, than during the 18 th and lastly through 19-20 th century, what were the reasons for its survival or demise? From the 17 th century the differences of taste between the better and less well off classes began to vary, so the object population carrying the motifs were differentiating too. The higher class families surrounded themselves with ceramic objects, porcelains, glassware available through international trade from Eastern and Western Europe. So this social group was affected by the Baroque decorative style spreading from the west and supported by the Catholic Church. This change occurred mainly in the western part of the country. The cheaper manufactured, but poorer quality ceramics were favoured by the middle classes. Religious reasons also played their role in the survival of this style, i.e. the Greek orthodox pomana custom, the protestant prohition of paintings and its opposition to barogne or the ritual tools of Jewish eating habits. The style also survived longest in areas, where the dominant social classes were not very well off, so they could not obtain luxury goods through international trade. On the Great Plains and its border regions in the agricultural towns the middle and lower gentry, and the well off peasantry were the dominant social classes, which have preserved their religious (Protestant or mainly Reformist) and relative self-governing autonomy during and after the Turkish occupation. The similarity between the motifs, composition principles and colour usage of the ceramic arts and the 16-18 th century furniture and gentry style embroidered cloths (mainly in Protestant churches the painted ceilings, railings and seating) cannot be denied. This is why this decorative style remained in Sárospatak, Miskolc, Tiszafüred, Ónod and Mezőcsát, Debrecen. Negative examples are Eger and Pásztó: archaeological evidence proves the existence of this style during the 16-17 th centuries. In these towns due to the majority of Catholic faith believers and the spreading of the Baroque style supported, by the Roman Catholic Church from the 18 th century there are no remnants of
