Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 22. 1982-1983 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1985)

Die Anjovinen in Mitteleuropa - Śnieżińska-Stolot, E.: Artistic patronage of the Hungarian Angevins in Poland. p. 21–28. t. I–V.

nosztra, and the first fathers to come were Hungarians, the conception of the Gothic foundation at Czçstochowa had been determined by the Hungarian tradition. This concerns especially Our Lady's Chapel, modelled after St. Paul the Hermit'chapel at of St. Lawrence's monastery Budaszentlőrinc, raised after importation of his relics to Hungary in 1382. Both chapels are situated north of the church, running parallel to the nave, but being linked with the eastern wing of the monastery (PIERADZKA 1939, 11—22; Smulikowska—Rozanow 1981, 93). Among other works of art left by Louis in Poland are two seals: of majesty and the second, smaller one. The first seal, executed probably immediately after Louis's coronation in 1370, initiates onesided seals in Poland. With minor changes only it repeats Louis's Hungarian seal of majesty, dating from the forties of the 14th с It may have originated in Hungary (ZEBRAWSKI 1865, fig. 15/40; PIEKOSINSKI 1899, 259, fig. 313; Diehl 1889— 1892, 107; GUMOWSKI 1910, 12). It depicts the king seated on a throne with the back, with a dog lying on the ruler's footstool (symbol of a good monarch). The background is decorated with lilies and at the sides are placed shields with coates of arms of the Hungarian Angevins and of Poland. The small seal, preserved as the unique specimen with a document dated 1381, is identical to Elizabeth Lokietek's seal of 1370, showing 3 shields of the Hungarian Angevins, Poland, and the province of Kujawy, in order to emphasize the fact that Louis belonged to that line of the Piasts through his mother (GUMOWSKI 1910, 12; ániezynska—Stolot 1981, 248). Queen Hedwig occupies quite a different position in the Polish history, the political and cultural importance of her reign, together with her personal qualities having been praised not only by chroniclers but also by oral folk tradition. The queen, famous for having restored the University of Cracow, the boarding house for Lithuanian students in Prague (1397) and the psalterists' college at the Cracow cathedral (1397), was equally engaged in patronage over arts (SZAJNOCHA 1856, 227; MACIEJEWSKA 1934; Tobiasz 1949, 279; Radlica 1957, 69—116; ZAWODZINSKA 1962, 19; Strzelecka 1963, 291—297; Strzelecka 1975, 92; Wolny-Zawadzki 1975, 21; Garbacik 1976, 39). Her foundations can be traced back to the nineties of the 14th c, which coincided with independent political activity undertaken by her at that time. (Strzelecka 1963, 293). In Cracow Hedwig raised the church and monastery of the Slavonic Benedictines, dedicated to the Passion of Christ, situated in the district of Clepardia (1390), the Carmelite church and monastery "Na Piasku" ("On Sand") in 1393 and St. Barbara's chapel. We know about the first two foundations from Dlugosz, and the third one can be linked with Hedwig on the basis of a notice in the document of the bishop Piotr Wysz (1402) (Piekosinski 1883, 268). Unfortunately, we cannot say much about their appearance: no traces have been left of the Slavonic Benedictines' monastery, the Carmelite church and monastery have been thoroughly remodelled and St. Barbara's church, erected originally (1394—1397/9) as a cemetery chapel near Our Lady's Church has also become baroque in style. Thist last monument was an aisleless building without a separate choir, clasped with buttresses, of which one fell on the axis of the facade, which would indicate that primarily the building had been covered with a tripartite nine fields vault (Paszenda 1967, 564; Bochnak

—Samek 1971, 94). In Hedwig and Jagiello's days, maybe on the initiative of the queen, who had been brought up in Louis's castles in Buda, Visegrád, Diósgyőr, and also in Vienna, was erected a new residential part, adjoining Casimir the Great's castle at Wawel. Originally it was called "Hen's Foot". On the ground-floor of this rectangular, three-storeyed pavilion, in its northern part, has been preserved a room covered with a cross vault with two keystones bearing escutcheons of the Hungarian Angevins and the kingdom of Hungary. Already in the Middle Ages this pavilion was described as "pulchrior arcis pars", and during its construction might have been employed "munator Hincza cum sociis et família", mentioned in court bills (1394) (Szablowski 1965, 34). Hedwig was also using quarters on the ground-floor, in the so-called Lokietek's Tower, which adjoined the above mentioned room with the Hungarian coats of arms. In the Tower a fragment of polychromy has been preserved, with two tied letters mm, which occur on works connected with the queen (ibid., 42; Misi^g-Bochenska 1938, 236). The significance of these letters has not been fully elucidated, Gebarowicz suggested that this was the queen's motto and at the same time the sign of understanding between her and the Pope Boniface IX, with which she used to sign letters with particularly important requests (GEBAROWICZ 1965, 22). Boniface IX himself had asked the queen to use such a sign every time she intended to emphasize "what she really and sincerely wished to obtain" (the letter dated 29 December 1391). That's why all objects with this sign, like the aforesaid polychromy, should be dated after 1391. The queen's earliest donation to the Wawel cathedral (1384) was equipment for the alter of Assumption, founded by Casimir the Great (DIAJGOSZ 1863, 216). By this means she honoured memory of her great predecessor, whom her father founded the tombstone. In the Wawel cathedral the queen had four altars erected: St. Anne's in 1391, of Visitation in 1392, St. Christopher's, and S. Brigid and Erasmus's shortly before her death in 1399 (ibid., 216—217, 245; WOJCIECHOWSKI 1900, 41, 50). Apart from their location, we know nothing more about their appearance. The last one, situated close to the high altar, functioned as ciborium and the queen was buried in front of it. So far all paintings founded by the queen have been known to us from descriptions. As mentioned in Dlugosz, she probably offered (already in 1387) a number of them to the newly created Vilnius cathedral (DLUGOSZ 1876, 469). The inventory of Our Lady's Church in Cracow of 1397 mentions a painting of Our Lady with the Child founded by the queen, "satis pulchra, gemmis et preciosis lapidibus decorata" (Piekosinski 1882, 519—522; Sokolowski 1906, CXXIII; KOPERA 1925, 148). Owing to the coat of arms placed on them, two other paintings mentioned in the oldest inventory of the Cracow cathedral (1563) can be linked with Hedwig: one representing Our Lady with the Child, decorated with escutcheons of the Polish and Hungarian kingdoms, and the other: Christ 22