H. Kolba Judit szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum Guide 2 - From the Foundation of the State until the Expulsion of the Ottomans - The history of Hungary in the 11th to 17th centuries (Budapest, 2005)

ROOM 3 - The Age of Sigismund of Luxembourg and János Hunyadi (first half of the 15th century) (Etele Kiss - Ágnes Ritoók)

20. Travelling pyx (Viaticum case) with the representation of the Vir Dolorum (Man of Sorrows), 1451 expression of social status. The last-mentioned aim was served by, among other things, the frequent use of coats of arms on buildings and tombs. In the course of the reconstruction work at Csesznek, the amis of the new owner, Palatine Miklós Garai, and those of his wife, Anna Cillei, were carved on a lion belonging to the gate and on the ledger of a door. The demand for letters patent of nobility (coats of arms) increased, especially after Sigismunde journeys in Western Europe. The golden age of the granting of arms in Hungary was the first third of the 15th century, especially the years of the Synod of Constance (1414-18). Several families of the Rátót clan, on whose arms a lime leaf appears, acquired great property and political influence in the first decades of Sigismunde reign. The tombstone of László Kakas de Kaza, who also belonged to the Rátót clan and who was constable of Patak castle, shows the arms together with helm and crest. The cuts in the border on the kerchief covering the helm, characteristic of the last third of the 14th century, were transformed in later carvings into plant ornamentation which covered the entire surface of the tombstone. Lőrinc Tari, cupbearer to the king, also belonged to the Rátót clan; during the course of rebuilding work, he had his arms carved over the entrance of the church next to his manor-house. Material proof of the close connection between the royal court and the aristocracy is afforded not only by relics of goldsmithe art, but also by the stove tiles from different estate-centres and identical with the Visegrád and Buda pieces (Kőszeg, PomázKlissza and Ozora). But in the first half of the 15th century, the houses of the nobility, among them the Tar manor-house, mostly had one or two simple stoves. JÁNOS HUNYADI The early death of Sigismunde successors and the "kingless" years that followed (the interregnum which lasted from 1444 until 1452) interrupted the continuity of the court art of the Sigismund age, affecting the whole country. The large-scale building activity of János Hunyadi at Vajdahuny ad (Hunedoara) and several other places on Transylvanian soil could not make up for this. The Hunyadi family received the Hunyad estate from King Sigismund in 1409. Rebuilding the 13th-century fortress, János Hunyadi first modernized the defence system, and later on had a chapel and palace buildings erected that were worthy of his status. The southern wing housed a Great Hall on two levels. On a capital at the lower level the arms of János Hunyadi appear; on the upper-level consoles, the most important elements in the ornamentation of the building, those of the family and of kinsmen. King John Szapolyai wished to commemorate Hunyadié successful actions against the Turks when he had his sepulchral monument made in 1534.