Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)

Image and Style

the Maas goldsmith and his disciples on the unfolding reception of classical art around 1200 and the birth of the distinctive Gothic sculptural style, which quickly spread, via the influence of Chartres and even more so Reims to places as far apart as Burgos, Bamberg and the Kingdom of Hungary.

The two seals made for Andrew II in the 1210s undoubtedly proves the very early adaptation of this West European style. The clothing stretched taut at the knees is the result of the same method as was used not long before on the Christ figure carved for the Last Judgement door on the fayade of the south transept at Chartres. The wing of the cloak turned back around the waist suggests precursors such as Nicolaus’ figures of the Klosterneuburg enamel plaques or the drawings of Villard de Honnecourt (fig. 48).360

Andrew II was obliged to alter his great seal once again in 1229 (Cat. 27).361 The king figure of the third great seal, like its predecessor, is a textbook representative of the Gothic Muldenfaltenstil, but in a much more superficial, uniformised version, a graphic simplification the sculptural values (figs. 49-51). The proportions of the figure have also degraded. Drawings or two- dimensional engraved metal pieces must have had an influence on the artist, but the bold figure of the king closely follows that of the second seal, and the style and conception remains that of its precursor. There is a broad spectrum of two-dimensional parallels. Among them are the drawings of Villard de Honnecourt (fig. 54),362 and the representation of Christ on the Nivelles phylacterum made by Hugo d’Oignies between 1222 and 30 (Brussels, Musée Royaux)363 and even the image of Christ engraved on the Holy Cross Reliquary of St Matthias’ Church in Trier.364 Similarly to Andrew II’s previous great seal and gold seal, made in the 1210s, the graphic figure style used here is also more rooted in north-western European small arts and illumination (figs. 55-61). Knowing the origin of the style, it is not surprising to find contemporary metalware and seals from Liege and Cologne among the art objects most closely related to Andrew II’s seals. Béla IV had to replace his royal seal only once, following die loss, following the Mongol Invasion, of the matrix made

360 \yc may a[so mention the large seated figures in Villard’s drawings of somewhat later: Hahnloser 1972, Taf. 15, 32, 49.

361 The reasons for making the new royal seal are reported in the seal clause of a royal charter of 1229: Ut igitur hec a nobis deliberacione regia facta donacio nec longa temporum canicie dilui, nec insoptio malignacium impetu nostris nostrorumque successorum temporibus retractari valeat, presenti pagine commendavimus ac sigillo nostro privilegiali novo, quod in prejudicium prioris cassandum parari fecimus in generacionum generaciones illibate observandum regia auctoritate roboravimus. Smiciklas III, 319 ; Szentpétery 1916, p. 6.

362 See Hahnloser 1972, Taf. 25, 32.

363 Hugo d’Oignies, pp. 295-296.

364 Ornamenta Ecclesiae, III, pp. 125-130.

upon his ascendancy to the throne (Cat. 33). The artistic standard of the royal seals he used during his lather’s lifetime (Cat. 30) and in the early years of his sole reign (Cat. 32) stands strikingly apart from those of Andrew II. They no doubt reflect the younger Icing’s isolation from political outlook of his father’s court and also, it seems from the refined manner of the Western fashions that prevailed there. Only the new double seal made after the Mongol Invasion, and the seal used by his son Stephen V as junior king and Duke of Styria after 1258, return to the artistic standards and classical Gothic tastes of Andrew IPs court; in so doing they attest to the continuity of artistic orientation of the Hungarian court (figs. 52 and 54). Another symbol of continuity is the seal of the Hospitallers’ Convent of the Holy King near Esztergom made after the Mongol Invasion,365 with a representation of St Stephen that follows the same conception as the seals of Béla IV and junior king Stephen V (fig. 53).

Just as we may reasonably conclude that Andrew IPs second great seal and his gold bulla were made by the same artist, there are royal seals from the second half of the thirteenth century which seem to be the work of the same hand, suggesting that there were goldsmiths in sustained employment with the court or in long-term relationship with their clients. This is how we should interpret Queen Isabella’s seal of 1272 (Cat. 45) and Ladislaus IV’s second seal, used from 1276 (Cat. 41). The fashioning of the enthroned figure on the two seals, particularly the sti If V-shaped folds of the cloak, displays distinctive, routine designs that strongly suggest they are the wrork of the same goldsmith, although he could hardly be described as one of the great masters of the age. We get a similar impression from the seal of Queen Fenenna some twenty years later. It contains a depiction similar in many respects to the figure on Queen Isabella’s seal, indeed appearing like a copy of it (figs 62-64).

Unlike that goldsmith, the artist who engraved three consecutive seals for Ladislaus IV in the second half of the 1280s (Cat. 42-44) worked to a very high standard and was at home with the latest sculptural idiom, just like the goldsmiths of Enteric and Andrew II in their time (figs. 65-67). The sculpturally-formed seated figure with deep- pleated clothes on all three seals may be linked to the style phase of Gothic sculpture after the middle of the thirteenth century whose highest level is represented by die Porte Rouge in Paris (fig. 68) and the Lettner statues in Strasbourg during the 1260s.366 There is one known occurrence of this style in Hungary apart from the royal seals, the seal matrix of the Túróé Premonstratensian Convent, in use by 1291 (fig. 69).367

365 Takács 1992, pp. 60-61, fig. 16.

366Sauerländer 1970, Abb. 270-271,282. 367 Takács 1992, pp. 27-28, fig. 31.

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