Rózsa György: The Palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
IV. The first floor
the Danube side, a structure resembling the apse of a Romanesque church is the common background for the paintings representing the age when Saint Stephen, Coloman Beauclerc, and Louis the Great were reigning in Hungary. Because of his prominent position, King Stephen, standing in front of the spiral-columned, Romanesque tabernacle, becomes the main figure of all three compositions. He wears a purple robe, the realistically represented Hungarian royal crown adorns his head and the coronation cloak his shoulder. With his left he points at the apostolic cross and extends his right towards Prince Imre who kneels in front of him in a scarlet dolman and a blue-lined white cloak, and holds the Scroll of Admonitions written by Stephen. Gellért stands next to Imre in his bishop's vestments; masters Walter and Henrik of Pannonhalma appear on the left in the foreground. Hartvik, King Stephen's biographer, stands in the background to the left, next to a youth. In the centre of the foreground, leaning against a Romanesque baptismal font, there is a slab with the inscription: "EMLÉKEZZÜNKRÉGIEKRE!" [Remember the Ancients! ] To the right of the king a monk in a brown gown holds high the apostolic cross, behind him an architect-friar presents the model of the Székesfehérvár cathedral. On the right a grey-haired monk instructs a boy and a girl, behind them appears the hooded head of a violinist. In the left-hand side picture the central figure is Coloman Beauclerk who protests against the witch-burning imminent on the left of the foreground, by pointing at the code of laws in his right hand. His dolman is yellow, he wears a blue cloak lined with lilac-coloured material on his shoulder, and a strip-crown with cross on his head. To the right in the foreground a minstrel breaking his lute and a warrior with his sword lowered recalls the defeat of pagan culture. Behind them rise the figures of Saint Margaret and master Rogerius, the author of Carmen Miserabile which records the Mongol invasion. On the left Pelbárt Temesvári preaches from the pulpit while the background is populated with figures, both secular and clerical. The right-hand side picture leads the observer to the era of Louis I. The king stands level with King Coloman at the top of the painted steps in yellow dolman and blue cloak, and studies the model of Pécs University presented to him by the architect. The fine arts of the period are evoked by a model of Saint Ladislaus' statue of Nagyvárad and the figure of a fresco painter working in the background. The figures dressed in Oriental garments, standing on the painted gallery, depict the characters of medieval mystery plays. The bearded figure of the valiant Mik22
