K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2008/10. (Veszprém, 2008)

KIRCHHOF, ANITA: The decorative system and reconstruction of the red dining room at Baláca - A balácai vörös ebédlő dekorációs rendszere és rekonstrukciója

ment into the closed, homogeneous spaces of the large red surfaces. The most richly decorated embroidery border naturally belonged to the middle, wider panel, an this is proved also by the fragment of a medallion.

194 The base of the embroidery border composed of repeating patterns is given by a green strip bordered by white,

195 and the inner part of it is decorated with a composition consisting of the repeated occurrence of two minutely elaborated motifs. One of the motifs is a flower with many petals, painted with yellow ochre colour, the other one is also a flower, only its lower part is painted with yellow ochre, while the upper part of it, the flower itself, is painted by the combination of white and blue colours.

196 The corners of the emroidery border are decorated from outside by corner lilies. As for ther two lateral red panels, on the basis of the fragments it is the reconstruction of the embroidery border belonging to the panel with the medallion representing mushroons which seems to be authentic. This border has the most loosely composed pattern among those of the three borders. The pattern is composed of the alternation of rosettes with alternating (red-green) centres between yellow lilies with their backs to each other and of blue pearls.

197 Same lily exists at the corners of this embroidery border of the middle panel, as well.

198 The fragments of the third known border decoration belonged by all means to the embroidery border of the other lateral panel, they have also a yellow colour. On them we see the combination of elements known from the other two panels, that is the alternation of rosettes with alternating (red-geen) centres between two flowers with many petals and with their backs to each other and of bule pearls.

199 The colours applied to paint the embroidery borders of the red panels match the colours applied for the whole wall-painting. The red and green colours of the centres of the rosettes as well as the blue centres of the pearls can be found in the background colours of the painted stuccos. The more highlighted embroidery border of the middle field with the green strip reflects the green strip which borders the red panels and the wall-painting as a whole, while the blue-white colours applied for the flowers are reflected by the blue and white combination of the figures of the stucco decoration. The green strip bordering the green wall-painting occurs already very near in the instance of the lateral panels, therefore there the painters had to apply the combination of other colours. In the instance of the two lateral embroidery borders there are no corner lilies, the closing was made by only rosettes.

200 The red-coloured monotonous compactness and homogeneity of the main zone is interrupted by the rich and vivid representation of the candelabrums on a black background, this pattern fills in completely the zone of the representation. The width of the candelabrums of the Red Dining Room can be reconstructed completely with the aid of some candelabrum parts (lower parts) can be put together from seven fragments.

201 The border of the candelabrums is marked from each side by a thin column which, at the same time, served to soften the contrast at the contact of fields with different ground colours. The columns were carefully decorated and a fine, painstaking elaboration is characteristic of every decoration element of the whole room. To bring out a light and shade effect the thin columns were divided longitudinally into two parts: the inside is cream coloured, while the outside is white. Besides, the columns are decorated by ribbons lapped around them in an opposite direction to each other. The ribbons had alternating red and blue centres, their edges are most probably hemmed. The lower part of the columns ended in a pedestal in repeated profiling. We have no fragments which would give information on the upper closing of the columns. Similar panels, bordered by the