Horler Miklós: Budapest 1. budai királyi palota 1. Középkori idomtégla töredékek (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1995) (Magyarország építészeti töredékeinek gyűjteménye 4. Budapest, 1998)

András Végh: Medieval Terracotta finds from the royal Palace of Buda

The reconstructions suggest very specific façades. On the ground level there stood a series of arches; under the arches there was an ornate gateway. The level above was broken by groups of windows, all embellished to a different degree. Under the main cornice ran a frieze with arcature. Vertically, the façade was broken by narrow pilasters which, piercing the cornice, finished in pinnacles above the roof line. 2. Heraldic Considerations There is one heraldic item in the main group of terracottas which may guide us in the question of dating the group. This is a fragment of the Hungarian coat-of-arms, a shield with the Apostolic Cross standing on three mounds (Fig. 57.). Luckily, it is the more exciting segment, the lower section of the device, that has survived. This part has shown a great variety of forms over the centuries. On our fragment the forked ending of the cross can be seen, with a sharply pointed thorn in between, inserted into the middle of the three mounds. The latter can be considered a trefoil arched pedestal, a form widely used in Gothic times. In his study on the three mounds in the Hungarian coat-of-arms, L. Bernát Kumorovitz traced the development of this motif back to the reign of King Béla HI (1173-1196) since which time the Apostolic Cross has been an ever-present element in the heraldic device. On early depictions the pedestal survives in different forms

—for example, a crown, three steps, an arch, and other geometrical forms. It was during the reign of King Louis the Great (1342-1382) that the trefoil arch finally appeared. The three mounds are a later development of this motif.

56 They first appear on the Great Seal of this king, made in the first year of his reign, in 1342,

57 (Fig . 38.) then subsequently on several surviving documents and monuments, although never separated

—for example, on the second Great Seal of the king (from 1363) with a fleur-de-lys in the middle,

58 (Fig. 39) on more than ten miniatures in the Codex Chronicum Pictum written after 1358,

59 (Fig. 40.) and in the Codex Secretum Secretorum, written after 1358, and today to be found in Oxford.

60 Yet, none of these depictions is analogous to the device on the Buda terracotta piece, because all show the Cross either standing on, or hovering above, the three mounds; these representations of the Cross have no forked stem, and the thorn is likewise missing. The thorn is, however, not an unknown detail on the device; it appears on a coin of King Béla III,

61 and can be seen on the third Great Seal of King Charles Robert of Anjou (1331), in this case together with the forked stem ending, but without the three mounds.

62 After the reign of King Louis I the Great (Anjou), it is on the first Great Seal of Queen Mary (Anjou, 138287) that the Apostolic Cross appears without the mounds, with the latter appearing (in the form we have encountered) on the seal of the king.

63 The device was further developed during the long reign of King Sigismund of Luxemburg (1387-1437); several versions are known from that time. On the double seal of the king the left and right mounds form an elongated arch, the two ends being connected to the edge of the shield by a concave line.

64 This change of form supports Kumorovitz's theory, for it shows that at this time the pediment did not represent mounds, but was simply considered a structural element to be shaped freely in accordance with the current style. The trefoil arches first seen under King Louis I the Great (Anjou) reappear again, for instance, on the seal of the Hungarian Holy Crown used by the barons in 1401.

65 The same version appears on the Privy Seal of Ladisias V (Habsburg , 14437-1440): on the left of the divided shield the fork like, thorn stem of the Cross is set in the undivided mounds (Fig 4L). This proves that this representation was present, together with other different forms, as late as the 1440s.

66 It is only from the middle of the century onwards that the three arches began to appear divided; later they were placed under the Cross even if the latter was not attached to them. On a 1446 seal of the Regent Council that the divided version appears for the first time.

67 Later, during the reign of King Matthias I Corvinus (Hunyadi, 1458-1490) this form became the one used exclusively. Some of the many examples that can be cited are the King's Golden Bull issued in 1464, the coat-of-arms on his throne arras, and the coat-of-arms in the Codex Augustinus from the wellknown Corvina Library (1485-1490).

68 During the same time the depiction of the Cross, too, varied considerably. Its upper section was often longer than the lower one, a characteristic not apparent before the second half of the fifteenth century. No chronological order can be defined among the variants, they occur simultaneously. It can be stated that the depiction of the fork-stemmed Cross inserted into the mounds could only have appeared from the second half of the fourteenth century onwards. An earlier date is highly unlikely, since the first representation of mounds in the Hungarian coat-of-arms is first encountered at the time of King Louis I