Costumes as Symbols. The Pictorial Representations of the Legend of King Ladislas of Hungary

Costumes as Symbols.
The Pictorial Representations of the Legend of
King La dislas of Hungary
Annamciria Kovcics
The main subjects of this study are the wall-paintings depicting the deeds
of St. Ladislas, sometimes called the „national“ saint of Hungary1 in the socalled
Battle of Kerles in I 068. This part of the legend of the saint is
lacking from his original Vita, but, strangely enough, is widely represented
on the walls of small churches. The text of the whole story is preserved in
its fullest form in the so-called Hungarian llluminated Chronicle, around
1358, and goes as follows in my rough English translation:
„The saintly prince, Ladislas, then, espied a Pagan carrying on the back of
his horse a beautiful Hungarian maiden. The prince thought that this
maiden had been the daughter of the bishop of V arad, and, although being
in severe wound, he started to pursue him, riding his horse whose name
was Szög. But, when he reached him by a lance’s point, he could do
nothing, for his horse was unable to run faster, while the other’s did not fall
back in speed, and thus, something like an ann’s length remained between
the tip of the lance and the Cuman’s back. Then St. Ladislas shouted to the
maiden saying: „Fair sister! Take the Cuman by his belt and jump off from
the horse to the ground!“ And she did as she was asked. But then, when
the Cuman lay on the ground and Prince Ladislas wanted to kill him with
his lance, the maiden strongly asked him not to do so, but Iet him [the
Cuman] go free. So it is clear from this as weil, that there is no faith in
women, for surely she wanted to spare the Cuman out of lusty Iove. The
1 He is named thus in Ernö Marosi, „Der Heilige Ladislaus als ungarischer
Nationalheiliger. Bemerkungen zu seiner Ikonographie,“ Acta Historiae Artium 33
(1987-88): 21 1-56. Also idem, Kep es hasonnu:is. Mllveszet es va/6sag a 14-15.
sztizadi Magyarorsztigon (Image and likeness. An and reality in Hungary in the 14th-
15th centuries), Müveszettörteneti Füzetek 23, (Budapest: Akademiai, 1 995), 67.
1 12
saintly prince, then, after a long battle, cut bis [the Cuman ’s] sinew, and
killed him. But the maiden was not the bishop’s daughter.“2
These murals are almost, one might say, „over-researched“ in
Hungarian historiography. Since I am attempting to add another „angle of
scholarship“ to help the understanding of the place of these representations
in the contemporary (i.e. 14th-15th century) world,3 it is necessary to start
my „tale“ from the oven, however traditionally it sounds, that is, to
introduce the historiography briefly, then to add my own remarks and
contribution.
After some sporadic attempts mainly conceming the literary traces
of Ladislas‘ legend and Vita, in the works of Fl6ris R6mer from the 70s of
the last century, we can find the description of the murals known by his
time4, along with the first copies of the wall-paintings themselves. These,
2 Vidit denique beatissimus Ladsi taus dux unum paganorum, qui super dorsum equi
sui ducebat unam puel/am Hungaram speciosam. Sanctus ergo dux Ladiz/aus putans
il/am esse filiam episcopi Varadiensis, et quamvis esset graviter vulneratus, tarnen
illum celerrime persecutus est super equum illum, quem Zug nominabat. Cum autem
alfingerel, ut eum /ancearet, minime poteral, quia nec eius celerius currebat, nec
equuus illus aliquantulum remanebat, sed quasi brachium hominis erat inter lanceam
e/ dorsum Cuni. Clamavit itaque sanctus dux Ladizlaus ad puellam et dixit: „Soror
speciosa, accipe Cunum in cingulo et iacta te in terram. “ Quod et fecil. Cumque
beatus Ladizlaus dux procu/ illum lanceasset in terra iacentem, voluit eum interjicere.
Quem puel/a valde rogavit, ne eum interjiceret, sed ut dimilferet. Unde in hoc
notatur, quodfides in mulieribus non sit, quiaforte amore stupri illum /iberare vo/uit.
Sanctus autem dux diu cum eo luctando e/ absciso nervo illum interfecit. Sed ilal filia
episcopi nonfuit.
It is important to note, and will gain importance later that in other versions of
the legend, however, it is the maiden, who either wounded the Cuman mortally by
cutting his legs, or who even herself beheaded him. For the other versions: the
chronicles of Heinrich von Mügeln (1352, 1360) can be found in Emericus
Szentpetery, ed., Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum ducum rentmque Stirpis Arpadiene
gestarum 1-2. (Budapest, 1937-38), II, 177 (the prose version of 1360) and 11.270 (the
Chronica Rithmica of 1352). Quoted in: Sander T6th, „Kepesseg es keptelenseg,“
(Ability and nonsense), BUKSZ 1011 (1998):70, n. 9,10. Also Zsuzsa Lukacs, „A Szt.
Uszl6-legenda a közepkori magyar falfesteszetben,“ (The legend of St. Ladislas in
medieval Hungarian wall-paintings), in Athleta Patriae. Tanulmimyok Szt. La.sz/6
törtenetehez, (Studies to the history of St. Ladislas), ed. Läszl6 Mezey (Budapest:
Szent lstvan Tarsulat, 1980), 161-204, 166, containing also reference to Russian
annals mentioning the historia of Ladislas.
3 For „the main problern of interpretation lies in recognizing the concrete qualities
which are bound to time and fimction. “ Marosi, Kep es hasonmas, 248, emphasis is
mine.
4 Fl6ris Römer, Regi falkepek Magyarorszagon (Oid murals of Hungary) Menumenta
Hungariae Archeologica 111. (Budapest, 1 874).
1 13
however, were quite free interpretations of the originals, changing often
crucially the weaponry or the costumes after the taste of the artist. The
copies of J 6zsef Huszka, made from 1880 onwards for years, on the other
band, are still valid for the research, and especially so because some of the
murals already were destroyed.5 After him, between the two World Wars
several authors touched the problem, from art historical points of view,6
while Geza Nagy called the attention to the eastem parallels and possible
origins of certain motifs in the legend, but also wamed against paying too
much attention to the fact that almost all known murals are in the border
areas ofthe country.7
In the present research two main tendencies can be seen, the first of
which started in 1944 when Gyula Laszl6 published his book on the
conquering Magyars8. He claimed the Asian Steppe origins of the whole
cycle, and supposed its survival without intem1ption from the Conquest
period. His view was shared by Lajos Vargyas from ethnography’s side,
citing folk ballads and certain heroic epics of Asian Steppe people,9 while
Czech and Romanian art historians tried to root the whole story in the
s J6zsefHuszka, „A Szt. Läszl6 legenda szekelyfoldi falkepeken,“ (The Legend of St.
Ladislas in murals of the Szekely Iands), Archeologiai Erlesilo 5 (1885), 221-3 1 .
Evaluation of his work: Terezia Kerny, „Huszka Jözsef es a szekelyföldi Szent Läszl6-
legendäk,“ (J6zsef Huszka and the Saint Ladislas-legends of the Szekely Iands), in
Müveszet Zsigmond kirt:ily kort:iban. 1387-1437. /. Tanulmt:inyok, (Art in the age of
King Sigismund 1387-1437. I. Essays.), ed. Läszl6 Beke, Ernö Marosi and Tünde
Wehli (Budapest: MTA Müveszettörteneti Kutat6csoport, 1987), 347-5 1.
6 For example, as a complex study, Elemer Va􀘬u. „A magyar viselet a közepkorban,“
(Hungarian costume in the Middle Ages), in Magyar miivelödestörtenet, (Hungarian
cultural history) vol. l, ed. Sändor Domanovszky (Budapest: n.p., 1940), 329-354,
hereinafter MMT; and idem, „A magyar viselet a közepkor vegen,“ [Hungarian
costumes at the end ofthe Middle Ages] MMT, vol. 2, 487-508.
1 Geza Nagy, „Nörabläs emlekei a magyarsägnäl,“ (Traces ofwoman-abduction among
the Magyars), Ethnographia 4 ( 1894), 272-79. For the whole historiography of the
problern see the summary of Terezia Kerny „Müveszettörteneti adalekok a kerlesi
ütközet äbräzoläsaihoz,“ (Art historical remarks on the representations of the battle of
Kerles), in Gyula Läszl6, A Szt. Ursz/6-/egenda közepkori jalkepei (The medieval wallpaintings
of the legend of St. Ladislas). (Budapest: Täjak-Korok-Muzeumok
Egyesület, 1993), 213-226.
I Gyula Läszl6, A honjogla/6 magyar nep elete (Life of the conquesting Hungarians)
(Budapest, 1944).
9 Lajos Vargyas, „Honfoglaläs elötti hagyomänyok Szent Läsz16 legendäjäban,“ (PreConquest
traditions in the legend of Saint Ladislas), in Ath/eta Patriae, 9-19. Also
Mareeil Jankovics, >>Csil/agok között jenyesseges csillag(<. A S::ent Lt:isz/6-legenda es a
csil/agos eg („Shining star among the stars“ The legend of St. Ladislas and the stary
sky) (Budapest: Kepzömüveszeti Kiad6, 1987), 13-20.
1 14
Byzantine legend of Digenis Akritas. 10 In 1981 the article of Anciräs
Vizkelety was published which gave rise to the second main stream of
opinions about the origins of the cycle. He supposed that some of the
scenes could have been borrowed from Western chivalric epic.11 His
opinion was shared by Agnes Kurcz writing about the chivalric culture of
1 3th-141h century Hungary, 12 and, most recently by Emö Marosi13.
However, while Vizkelety only supposed the origins of some scenes in the
chivalric Iiterature of the West, Marosi, going further, utterly rejected any
Eastem influence. 14
More works could be cited from the sides of various studies
conceming the questions of church patrocinium, stylistic cormections of
the murals, artistic archetypes, literary elements in the legend, etc ..
Some scenes of the murals were discussed from the point of view of
costume research as weil. The most detailed analysis dealt with the
oriental costumes of the Cuman warrior only15, due to the specific interest
of its author. One has to observe, though, looking through publications
conceming the wall-paintings that discuss the gannents, that the tenns
used are at least vague, if not utterly incorrect. To prove this, together with
an attempt of a better description r will cite several examples later.
My goal wit11 this article is to support wit11 the help of costume
studies the frequently used statement that St. Ladislas – as he was viewed
and propagated by the Angevin kings – the ideal ruler-knight of the realm
wears always the most-up-to-date dress and weaponry of the given
1° For example Vlasta Dvoräkovä, „La legende de saint Ladislas decouverte dans
l’eglise de Velka Lomnica. Iconographie, style et circonstances de Ia diffusion de cette
legende,“ Buletinul Monumentetor lstorice 4 (1972), 25-42., and Vasile Dragut, „La
legende du »heros de frontiere« dans Ia peinture medievale de Ia Transilvanie“ Revue
Raumanie d ‚Histoire de I ‚Art 12 ( 1975), 1 1-41 . AJso Läszl6, Szt. Ltisz/6, 228.
1 1 Andräs Vizkelety, „Nomädkori hagyomänyok vagy udvari-lovagi toposzok?
Eszrevetelek Szent Läszl6 es a leänyrab16 kun epikai es kepzömüveszeti
äbräzoläsähoz,“ (Nomadic traditions or courtly-chivalric topoi? Observations on the
epic and art representations of the legend of Saint Ladislas and the Cuman)
lrodalomtörteneti Közlemenyek 85 ( 1981 ), 243-75.
12 Agnes Kurcz, Lovagi kult1ira Magyarorosztigon a 13.-14. sztizadban (Chivalric
culture in Hungary during the 13th- 14th centuries), (Budapest: Akademiai, 1988).
13 Marosi, Kep es hasonmtis, 76.
14 The criticism ofthis opinion T6th, „Kepesseg es keptelenseg,“ 69.
15 Andräs Pä16czy-Horväth, „Le cesturne coman au Moyen Age,“ Acta Archeo/ogica
Hungarica 32 (1980), 403-29.
1 1 5
period. 16 At this point, certainly the problem of dating arises, which, one
might say, often happens with the help of costumes. However, as one
Iooks through the existing scholarship, actually very few attempts can be
found to date any mural – or work of art in general in Hungary – with the
help of costumes. 17 Perhaps one of the most important conclusions drawn
right here at the beginnning should be that till the identification of costume
elements, and – if possible – the chronological arangement of these along a
rough timeline do not happen, there are only hypotheses that can be
affered conceming dating. My article, therefore, can be taken as one of the
possibilities among various others.
lf Ladislas served as a „model of knightly behaviour“ – embodying, of
course, besides the secular knightly virtues the main characteristics of a
miles Christianus18 – for the young noblemen of the country, painted on
the church walls, his up-to-date dress also could be an example, a set, a
kind of code: how an ideal knight – perhaps it is not too hold to suggest –
an ideal courtier should Iook like. We should not underestimate the value
of murals as messages for everyday life, even if in this case „everyday“
means the days of an upper social class.
A kind of „ideal“, wearing fashionable gannents: but one might ask
what these exactly were? Or what was considered as „fashionable“ by this
time? And, more, why do I say that the tenns used in the research are
incorrect? To answer these questions, and to discuss the main issue posed
earlier, a digression is to be made conceming the nature of fashion in the
late Middle Ages. For all this, of course, I will use the wall-paintings as
examples, or, more precisely, their three central figures: the abducted
maiden, St. Ladislas, and the Cuman warrior.
16 Kemy, „Müveszettörteneti adalekok“, 2 1 5; Marosi, Kep es hasonmas, 68; Lukäcs, A
Szt. Lasz/6-legenda, 1 7 1 .
17 Examples for this will be shown in the subsequent pages.
18 The system of knight1y virtues, as reflected in charters and chronicle writing of the
thirteenth and fourteenth century Hungary, was organised around the virtue ofjdi elitas
towards the king (or the Iord, more generally said, although few Hungarian aristocrats
had jamiliares in the Western sense}, linking with it the fame and glory of the brave
and valorous warrior. See Kurcz, Lovagi kultura, 221 -54, and Gäbor Klaniczay,
„L’image cheva1eresque du saint roi au Xlle siede,“ in La royaute sacree dans le
monde chretien. Bi/an et perspectives Colloque de Royaumont, mars 1 989, ed. Alain
Boureau and C1audio Sergio Ingerflom (Paris: Editions de I’Eco1e des Hautes Etudes
en Seiences Socia1es, 1992}, 53-62.
1 16
ClotJUng and dress always bore a special meaning for amedieval
person, especially so in the Jate Middle Ages. Costumes composed a part
of courtly life, their special meaning having been defined and refined by
members of the aristocracy for their own usage. The great changes of the
fourteenth century conceming costumes were the spread of short upper
garments atnong the men and the general trend towards tight-fitting
clothing both in male and female clotJUng. But, as there are other factors
besides the mere utility functions of a given garment, the symbolic aspects
of dresses also should be considered.19
It is generally agreed within the field of medieval costwne studies
that one of the main functions of a given gannent was to distinct according
social rank as precisely as it was possible. But this can be confused when
fashion appears. To be fashionable always meant to be different from the
others through the usage of not only dresses, but with several other special
signs as weil. Fashion, changing and pulsing in cycles20, meant for its
follower, besides to be among those who are fashionable, that he or she
could be clearly distinguished from those who were not fashionable.
Fashion borrows, therefore, some very characteristic signs of a certain,
distinguished group (like tlte aristocracy’s clotlting habits in tl1e late Middle
Ages were endaugered by the bourgeoisie/1, in order to make somebody
similar to the imitated. But at once the sign, no Ionger being in the original
19 Anne Hollander, Seeing Through Clothes (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University
of Califomia Press, 1993), 3 1 1 .
20 A detailed study in modern Iimes showed the cyclic change of the extension of
female dresses from long to short, and from loose to tight-fitting in the past three
hundred years. A. L. Kroeber and Jane Richardson, „Three Centuries of Women’s
Dress Fashions: a Quantitative Analysis,“ Anthropological Records 5 ( 1940), 1 1 1-153.
The same tendency was shown concerning the eleventh-twelfth century male costumes,
so often criticised by moralists. Gäbor Klaniczay „Divatos szakällak es eretnek
rongyok,“ (Fashionable beards and heretic rags), in idem, A civiliztici6 peremen (On
the margins of civilization), (Budapest: Magvetö, 1987), 175.
21 New approaches: Liselotte C. Eisenbart, Kleiderordnungen der deutschen Städte
zwischen 1350 und 1700 (Göttingen: Bausteine zur Geschichtwissenschaft, 1962), and
Diane Owen Hughes, „Sumptuary Laws and Social Relations in Renaissance Italy,“ in
Disputes and Selllements. Laws and Human Relations in the West, ed. John Bossy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 69-10 I . Neithard Bulst, „Kleidung als
sozialer Konfliktstoff. Probleme kleidergesetzlicher Normierung im sozialen geflüge,“
Saeculum 44 (1 993): 32-46.; idem, „Zur Entstellung ‚bürgerlicher Sittlichkeit‘ in
Deutschland und Frankreich ( 14.-18. Jahrhundert),“ in Sozialgeschichte des
neuzeitlichen Bürgertums. Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich. Arbeits-und
Ergebnisbericht fur die dritte Forschungsphase 1992-1994 (Bielefeld: Universität
Bielefeld, 1992-1994), 65-1 1 1 .
1 17
context, where it had its special meaning, looses its significance, and the
original, imitated social group immediately Iooks for another different
distinctive sisn – thus changing, so to say, the fashion itself, and becoming
„trend-setter“. Therefore, fashion confuses the system of distinction,
originally developed by a given society, by evading even the ideologies of
it. Thus, the moralists and preachers of the Middle Ages warned their flock
continuously against the sin of vanity expressed by the following of
fashion. With the fear of abandoning the old virtues came the fear of
confusion between social groups and the order of God.
To understand the importance of fashion, fashionable dress and
garments for medieval man, this short digression was necessary. But now
Iet me show in the actual examples, namely, the murals of small churches
mainly outside of present-day Hungary, how the three main characters of
the legend, i.e. the saintly prince, the abducted 1naiden, and the Cuman
warrior are represented and characterised with their costumes.22
It is especially interesting that the long tunic and cloak of saints,
kings, and dignified persons,23 in the late Middle Ages are replaced in the
case of St. Ladislas by the image of a fully armed knight. But the armour
of a knight was always more than a mere defensive weapon – soon after its
development it became an expression of a whole ethos, and even the
meaning of each part of it was elaborately discussed in the contemporary
writings_24 Therefore it is not a mere overcautiousness if one tries to be
precise in the description of a given arrnour part?5
While reading about the oldest recently known representation of the
Ladislas legend, the Kakaslomnic one,(Vel’kä Lomnica, Slovakia) dated
usually around 131 726 (fig. 1 ), one may find the „cloak“ used to indicate
„surcoat“, or „coat armour“ for the mail hauberk. Among Hungarian
22 For the sake of convenience, not for a kind of patriotism, I decided to indicate the
present-day names only tagether with the first appearence of every place-name.
Otherwise I use the Hungarian place names throughout . .
23 Odile Blanc, Parades et parures. L ‚invention du corps de mode a Ia ftn du Moyen
Age (Paris: Gallimard, 1997), 22, 136.
24 Keen, Chivalry, 1 54-62; Marosi, Kep es hasonmtis, 258.
25 David Edge-John M. Paddock, Arms and Armor oj the Medieva/ Knight (New
York: Crescent Books, 1 993), glossary in 183-89. In the following, I will try to be
consistent and use the terminology ofthis book.
26 Marosi, Kep es hasonmtis, 7 1 ; Laszl6, Szt. Laszlo, \09.
1 18
scholars, the general tenn for coat annour is the Gennan word Lentner. 27
In the thirteenth century the crusaders‘ gannent, named surcoat, or
surcotte, was the first stage in the evolution of both the coat armour and
the universal upper garment of that age, wom by men and women?8 In the
same century the coat armour is also named cyclas, although this name can
be applied as weil to a short, coat-like gannent, lined with fur or silk, cut
in one piece. The surcoat as coat armour in the thirteenth cenhrry is Joose,
made from cloth, and has no sleeves. This is the one wom by Ladislas in
the Kakaslornnic paintings, and, it is, more interestingly, striped. The
colour of the stripes is questionable, though there were attempts to identify
it as the coat-of-arms ofthe Arpadian dynasty_29
Fig. 1: Ladislas fighting the Cuman (Kakaslomnic, c. 1 3 1 7)
27 Gyula Krist6, Az Anjou-kor hcibonii (War in the period of the Anjous}, (Budapest:
Zrinyi, 1988), 241; Läszl6, Szt.Ltisz/6, passim. See also Harry Kühne!, ed.,
Bildwörterbuch der Kleidung und Rüstung (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1992), s.v. „Lentner“.
28 Joan Evans, Dress in Medieval France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952),
19-20; Marion Sichel, Costume Reference 1: Roman Britain and the Middle Ages
(London: Batsford, 1977), 32.
29 Läszl6, Szt. Ltisz/6, 1 13, while Marosi, Kep es hasonnuis, 71 defines the colours as
„black and white“.
1 1 9
The Gelence murals (Ghelinta, Romania) dated to the turn of the
13th-14th century, however, give a slightly different picture about the
armour of a knight. There, Ladislas‘ surcotte is made of leather pieces, but
his red aketon, i.e. the garment wom tmder the mail hauberk, is still long
and loose.30 The absence of arm defences and the general „mail period“
Iook of the knightly armour confirms the earlier dating. The same can be
said about the shorter hauberk and the more tight-fitting leather Jupon
wom by Ladislas in the Bögöz cycle (Mugeni, Romania).31 This tightening
effect is the characteristic and most fundamental change of male clothing
babits from the middle of the fourteentb century, often taken to
exaggeration and extravagance, as seen in the Chronicle of St. Denis in
writing about the battle of Cnky. There, the knights‘ garments are cited as
tbe main causes of the defeat: Their clothes, the writer says, were so tight
that the knights had to be laced up as women, their tights were multicoloured,
and the ends of their hoods dragged on the ground after them, as
did the ends of their sleeves. 32
The paintings at 6csa Premonstratensian church were restered quite
recently, in 199 1 . Although earlier, from the fragments of that time seen, it
was dated to the end of the 13th century, in the light of some newly
discovered parts the painting time can be corrected as to mid-fourteenth
century. There is a scene in the beginning of the cycle, showing the socalled
„Departure from Varad“ (i.e. Nagyvarad; now Oradea, Romania),
and the horsemen on the scene wear cotehardies with characteristically
banging sleeves.33 Less details are in the Vitfalva murals (Vitkovce,
Slovakia) conceming the saint’s garments, dated to the mid-141h century,
while the „Byzantinizing“ style lamellar armour of the Tereske (Slovakia)
30 This garment is clearly worn under the hauberk, and not over it, as it stressed by
Marosi, Kep es hasonnu:is, 7 1 .
31 Hisjupon is called „lamellar hauberk“ in Läszl6, Szt. Ltisz/6, 59.
32 Chronique des Religieux de Saint Denis, V. 463, in French translation: „Et /es
autres avoient robes froissees !mr /es reins comme jemmes; aussi portoient une
chausse d’un drap et /“autre d“un autre et /eur venoient /eurs cornettes et leurs
manches prcs de terre et semb/oient mieux Jongleurs que autres gens“. This remark
has sometimes been interpreted as the earliest mention of the corset. However, the
passage refers only to the characteristical attribute of the pourpoint, continuous
through the period: Besides the trend of slenderizing, the back part was made even
more tight-fitting by lacing.
33 See Zsuzsa Lukacs- Juan Cabello- Peter Csengel, „Az 6csai premontrei prepostsag
kutatasai,“ (The research ofthe Ocsa Premonstratensian monastery), Müemlekvede/mi
Szemle I (1991): 16-20.
120
knight-king corresponds to the representations of the Hungarian Angevin
Legendary nicely 34
Fig 2: Ladislas in the ß{mtornya-cycle (Johannes Aquila, 1383)
The next stage in the development of Ladislas‘ image as an ideal knight in
weaponry as weil is shown in the Bantomya (Tumisce, Slovenia) cycle,
34 Marosi, Kep es hasonmtis, 7 I .
121
painted by Johannes Aquila.35 The late 14th century short Jupons (the
painting was made in 1383) with aketons more tight-fitting under the even
shorter hauberks can be observed, along with conical helmets, and belts on
the hips.36 Belts were always important costume accessoires. They held
the dress together and, at the same time, drew a line separating the upper
and lower parts of the costume, and, therefore, the human body as weil,
bearing a deeper significance in courtly symbolism. They came to be more
elaborately decorated in this period than in the thirteenth century, and,
wom on the hips, supported the wearing of the courtly civilian garments,
as the cotehardie and pourpoint, and were wom for military dress, termed
often as cingulum militaris37 Mounted belts – even mounted with silver –
spread beyond the nobility. In Hungary, the mounted belts were observed
in cemeteries of peasant communities in the Alföld region (Agasegyhaza,
Aranyegyhaza,38 Kaszaper39), and near to Buda, at Csut40, as parts of
everyday costume, although in lesser quality and artistic degree than
among the aristocracy. Decorative and practical items were hung from
belts, like the different bags, named in the thirteenth century aumoniere,
used mainly for almsgiving.41 This belonged mainly to female gannents. In
the fourteenth century the male costume borrowed it, tmder the name of
gibeciere or escarcelle. Among the other accessoires, often a dagger was
35 Johannes Aquila und die Wandmalerei des /4. Jahrhunderts. Tagungsbeiträge und
Dokumente aus den Sammlungen des Landesdenkmalamts Budapest, ed. Ernö Marosi
(Budapest: MTA MKI, 1989)
36 The precise dating of this cycle was helped by the identification of the painter, and
by an inscription as weil. See Marosi, Kep es hasonmas, 72, and Lukäcs,
Falkipjesteszet, 190.
37 An account from 1364 mentions a dress bought for the French king, with belt: „une
sureeint a une bouc/e et mordant et cinq c/os d‘ or“. The testament of Louis d‘ Anjou,
from 1 3 79, includes a belt with mounts forming the beginning letters of a popular
virelai. Evans, Dress in France, 29.
38 Kälmän Szab6, Az alföldi magyar mlp miivelödestörreneti emlekei (Remains from
the cultural history of the people at the Great Hungarian Plain) (Kecskemet, n.p.,
1938), chapter on costume history, esp. 42-7.
39 Alajos Bälint, „A kaszaperi közepkori temetö,“ (The medieval cemetery of
Kaszaper) Dolgozatok a Magyar Kiralyi Ferencz Jozsej Tudomanyegyetem
Regisegtudomanyi lntezeteböl l-1 ( 1 938), 7-36.
40 Läszl6 Gerevich, „A csuti közepkori sirmezö,“ (Medieval burial finds at Csut)
Budapest Regisegei 1 3 ( 1 943), 140, the bell buckle of the grave no. XXXVI.,
decorated with dotting and engraved hearts. The author claims it to be of Byzantine
origin, but the dating of a similar buckle from grave no. XL VI., with the help of a coin
of Queen Mary ( 1382-1 395), makes this connection a bit uncertain.
41 For an interpretation see Blanc, Parades, 27, and ibid., fig.2.
122
added, fastened to the bag, borrowed for civil usage from the knights‘
wardrobe.
The next two exarnples are known only from the sketches made by
J6zsef Huszka around 1898, because they were destroyed shortly after
1 900.42 The Erdöfule (Filia, Romania) church’s St. Ladislas can be
paralleled with the knights of the farnous manuscript of the so-called
Hungarian Illwninated Chronicle, painted around 1360.43 He wears red
aketon and tights made of cloth in the same colour, but there is no
indication of hauberk, at least in the sketches. The main relation between
the two representations is, however, the white coat armour44, which is
fringed at the sleeves and below, like many figures‘ in the Chronicle; and
the frrst appearance of a gauntlet among the murals also can be observed
here. The second destroyed church was at Maksa (Moac􀇔a, Rom.), where
again the main characteristics of the Illwninated Clrronicle’s annour were
present: aventails45 attached to bascinet type hehnets on the figures of the
Htmgarian soldiers in the battle scene; an aketon, a hauberk wom over it,
ending above the knee, and a fringed, Iight-fitting coat annour with
sleeves.
The paintings of Rimabanya (Rimavska Baiia, Slovakia) church, if
seen only from the point of view of knightly annour could be dated further
to the begirming years of the 1 5th century. Here Ladislas wears an almost
full-plate annour, along with a supposed breastplate under his coat armour,
a significantly shortened hauberk, and a complete lower ann defence
(vambrace) with elbow guards (couters), and gauntlets. But, as will be
discussed later, a special headdress fonn of some female figures in the first
scene pushes back the daring rather to the very last third of the 14th
century, as it was claimed to be circa 1375.46
The 1 5th century brought the flourislunent of full plate armour in
Central Europe, although it appeared earlier in Western Europe.47 It
42 The church was destroyed at the turn of the century, and the paintings are therefore
known only from the sketches made before that time. Läszl6, Szt. Ltisz/6, 72.
43 Kepes Kr6nika. Hasonnuis kiadas (llluminated Chronicle Facsimile copy) General
editor Läszl6 Kispeter (Budapest: Corvina, 1964).
44 This is considered a „white mail“ in Läszl6, Szt. Ltisz/6, 74.
·􀆡 This part of the armour was to be replace the mail coif (hood) of the earlier period: a
mail curtain, covering the shoulders, attached to the base of the helmet by small
staples. Examples:Edge-Paddock, Arms and Armour, 66, 78, 87, 183.
46 For the earlier dating see Lukäcs, Falkepjesteszet, 198. Marosi in Kep es hasonmas,
73, states the later date.
47 Edge-Paddock, Arms and Armour, l l 0.
123
showed up as consisting of a leather aketon under a very short mail
hauberk, a breastplate with attached lamellar plates called fauld, continued
on the back in the Iamination of the culel, full arm defences (rerebraces
and varnbraces) including shoulder-guards (pauldrons) and elbow guards,
gauntlets with knee pieces (the poleyns), and full greaves with lamellar
sallerets.
Fig. 3: Ladislas and the Cu man frorn Szeke/yderzs (15’1′ c.)
124
The most splendid example of this type of annour can be seen in the
Szekelyderzs (Dirjiu, Romania) murals (fig. 3), with some modifications:
There are no shoulder defences, or sallerets, and the upper ann defences
are also missing. But under the plate greaves the figure must have had at
least leather greaves and pieces of mail, attached to the aketon by srnall
cords: this was the only way to wear plate annour by this time, and later
on.48 The same full-plate type can be observed in the wall-paintings of
Gömörrakos (Rako􀄱, Slovakia), although the absence of the breastplate
can show an earlier phase of development. In the Szepesmindszent
(Bijacovce, Slovakia) paintings (fig. 4), besides the short hauberk and the
full greaves wom by the main figure, the „pigeon ehest“ effect of his coat
annour either indicates the tightness and the padding of this type of
garment, or rather shows an otherwise hidden breastplate, tlms confirming
the later dating of these scenes.49
Fig. 4: Saint Ladislas and the Cuman from Szepesmindszent
48 Ibid., 1 17-8.
49 Läszl6, Szent Lasz/6, 135-38, and Lukäcs, Falkepjesteszet dates the murals to the
second half of the 14th century, while in Marosi, Kep es hasonmas, 73, the very
fragmentary murals are dated to the first half ofthe I Sth century.
125
The Sepsikilyen (Chilieni, Romania) frescoes show a St. Ladislas wearing
an embroidered coat armour, indicating most probably a kind of
omamental woven silk; but other details of this painting, as the turban of
the Curnan warrior, push the dating further on to the second half of the 1 5th
century. To the same group belong the murals of the Zsegra church,
(Zebra, Slovalcia) but its heavy re-painting in the 1 7th century makes the
study of the costumes almost impossible. Only the first part of the legend’s
scenes can be viewed as original, and from the short tight-fitting coat
armour, reaching almost only the hips, and from the developed plate
armour in legs and arms, it most probably can be dated to the early 1 5th
century, although, and this should be remembered, tbe appearance of plate
defences does not automatically suppose the fifteenth-century dating.50
The anti-hero, the negative stereotype (in Western sense) of the historia is
the Cuman warrior, who abducts the Hungarian maiden. If I proceed on to
the discussion of his gannents on the St. Ladislas murals, the tenn
„orientalism“ almost naturally jumps into the middle of the problem, so
perhaps it won’t be useless to say a few words about orientalism in
general, and to sketch the Situation of the Cwnans and other eastem ethnic
groups in Hungary in the 14th century.
Orientalism marks a special type of fashion, appearing in Western
Europe, especially in the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteentl1
century, meaning the spread of not only dresses regarded as „eastem“ or
„Asian“, but certain decorative motifs, Asian servants, a general interest
towards the „exotic“, etc. In the fifteenth century, this was, no doubt,
connected with tl1e conquests of the Ottoman Empire in Europe as weil,
but in the following pages only the fourteenth century aspects of tl1is
question will be taken into consideration, in connection with Hungarians
and, especially, Cumans, living in the Hungarian Alföld region since the
middle ofthe thirteenth century 51
lO
Plate leg greaves appear already in afair number in the miniatures of the Hungarian
Illuminated Chronicle. See Kepes Kr6nika, fol. 47a, fol. 69’a . For the description of
the Zsegra paintings see Läszl6, Szem /.Asz/6, I I 5-120.
SI
Andräs Päl6czi-Horväth, Petchenegs, Cumans, !asians (Budapest: Corvina, 1989),
for the historical background of the Steppe people in Hungary du ring this period. See
also for general orientation about the thirteenth century military history of Hungary,
and the role of the Cumans: Krist6 Gyula, Az Arpad-kor habonii (Wars of the Arpadian period), (Budapest: Zrinyi, 1986), 271-281.
126
Oriental style dress elements – the caftan, the hat with turned-up
brim – , and long beards etc., were regarded as a kind of „exotism“.
Chronicle writers from the beginning of the fourteenth century recorded
strange habits of clothing and hairstyle in Styria, Bohemia and German
territories. Arranging their hair „ut Judei vel Ungari comam “ and „more
barbarorum barbas Iongas nutriunt“, 52 the nobles of these territories were
eager to differ from their contemporaries as all fashionable persons would
like to do in any era.
The Cumans had rights granted to wear their traditional cesturne
elements in the so-called „Cuman laws“ of King Ladislas IV, issued in
1279.53 The second paragraph of the laws assured the Cumans that they
did not have to shave their heads, cut their beards, and that they would not
be forced to give up their „costume habits“.54 The military value of these
people was recognised, accepted and used in the second part of the
thirteenth, and in the fourteenth century.55 Archaeological remains found in
the Alföld region testify the importance of Cuman and Petcheneg light
cavalry and their Ieaders in the court of Charles Robert as weil. Though
the buckle of the Kigy6spuszta belt, showing a knightly me/ee with figures
wearing the characteristically arrnour of the sixties of the thirteenth
century, dates this find earlier, but the additional mounts of the belt push
the time of compilation of it to the beginning of the fourteenth century.56
s2The chronicle of Anonymus Leobiensis: Scriptores rerum Austriae I. 941:“cessavit
etiam turn usus mitramm virilium. per quas imer laicos plures, Christianos
agnoscebatur, a ludeo de coma etiam va/de paum ve/ omnino ut Judei ve/ Ungari
comam dividebant „; Peter von Zittau: Chronicon Aulae Regiae. Fantes rerum
Bohemicarum IV. 404.: Ungarice gentes portant curtas quoque menleslest gens ista
levis, iaculis sevissima slevis“ .
s3See Istvän Gyärfas, A jasz-kunok törtenete (History of the Cumans and Iasians) I.
(Kecskemet: n.p., 1 870), 438-42. and lstvän Szentpetery-Ivän Borsa, Az Arpad-hilzi
kiralyok okleve/einek krilikai jegyzeke II. (Budapest: Akademiai, 1961 ), 236, 247.
s• „preter abrasionem barbarum et abbreviationem capi/lomm et habitum vestium
eorundem, super quibus venerabilis pater dominus legatus, ad nostram devotam
instanciam, enitate paterne pietatis condescendens, invitios non coegit, sed in aliis se
moritus Christianontm conformabunt“, says the charter, since earlier the Iegate
prohibited the wearing of Cuman hats. See Szentpetery, SRH I. 472-473, the text of
the Illuminated Chronicle: „pileos Cumanicos, quorum usus in Hungaria jam in
consuetudine habebatur, abiicere demandat“ i. e. the papal Iegate. ss
For a general picture see Krist6, Az Arpad-kor habortii, 252-59, and idem, Az
Anjou-kor habonii, 250 ff.
s6Istvän Eri, „Adatok a kigy6spusztai csat ertekelesehez,“ (Data to the evaluation of
the Kigy6spuszta belt buckle) Folia Archeologia 8 ( 1 956): 137-51, and Andräs
127
The Cs6lyos find contained elements of light cavalry annour: a helmet, a
hauberk, two rounded shoulder pieces, all lighter than the contemporary
Western ones, with analogies from Steppe people57, dating the find also
somewhere between the last decades of the thirteenth to the first quarter of
the fourteenth centuries. Cemetery excavations in the same region also
support the theory ofthe continuous usage of Cuman habits in dress during
the fourteenth century: cloakpins or chest-discs, used to close and decorate
caftans were found in the graves of Kaszaper, Agasegyhäza and
Aranyegyhaza.58 To cite some written sources as well I can mention a
legal case conceming six es tat es of the Csanad farnily (the relatives of the
archbishop of Esztergom) in the mid-fourteenth century, when the estates
are described as Iands of the Petchenegs, living and serving the king in the
„old way in military campaigns“59, while a papal Ietter from 1 399 mentions
the Alföld Cumans and Petchenegs as „they have no towns, wandering
with their tents, families and cattle“.60
In the two Naples campaigns of King Louis the Great a considerable
amount of Cuman and Petcheneg light cavalry took part as well,61 best
described by the chronicle writer Matte Villani, who mentions such details
of their costumes as Jeather „farsetti“, that is, jupons wom several over
each other 62 The Italian diffusion of orientalising representations,
henceforth, could not be taken as a mere coincidence, for example in the
representations of the Adoration of the Magi, or a bronze sculpture in the
cathedral of Orvieto.63 The appearance of these warriors in Italy „certainly
Päl6czi-Horväth, „A cs6lyosi kun sirlelet,“ (Cumanian grave goods from Cs61yos),
Folia Archeologia 20 ( 1 969), 108-33., esp. 1 1 8.
H Päl6czi, „Cs6lyos, „, 120-1 3 3.
$S Bälint „Kaszaper, „, 7-36.
$9 „terras Byssenomm antiquo more excercituare debentium“. 01. 29138, quoted in
György Györffy, A magyarsag keleti e/emei (Oriental minority elements of the
Hungarian nation) (Budapest: Gondolat, 1990), 163.
60 Gyärfas, A jasz-kunok … , lll. 532.
61 Gyärfäs, A jasz-kunok .. . 111., 67-8. also Györffy, A magyarsag keleti elemei, 289.
62 Matteo Villani, Cronica di Malleo Villani (Firenze: Magheri, 1 825-26), chapters
VI., X., XIl.
63 Stella Mary Newton, Fashion in the Age oj the 8/ack Prince. A Study oj the Years
1340-1365. (Woodbridge, Boydeli Press, 1980), 92-93. The author examines the
question from the point of view of international „fashion“ of the period, especially in
fourteenth-century ltaly, quoting primarily pictorial examples. However, when in the
case of the Hungarian llluminated Chronicle she speaks about „tall conical hats from
the sharp point of each of which a single feather rose“ (93), the argument of this
„Tartar“ fashion connected with the Chronicle and its Cumans and Huns, is
128
made an impression which was eventually reflected in fashionable dress“ .64
The expression „like Tartars“, used in chronicles or moral treatises by that
time, simply could refer to any eastemer, but especially to Cumans and
Hungarians, spreading through the Kingdom of Naples between the years
1347 and 1350, but remaining there with smaller contingents and
mercenaries in the whole century.
What we can say if we Iook at the wall-paintings of the deeds of the
„saintly prince“? The Cuman would be expected as wearing a caftan, this
popular Eastem garment, which could be opened in the front or at the
sides. These two main types can be the indications of two types of Eastem
costume elements: a shorter variation, with slimming seam in the waistline,
closed in the middle; and a longer, more loose garment, closed in the left,
or the right side.65This second is the „classic“ caftan, while the first type is
defined as a „Petcheneg“ variation.66 However, this is not so in some
cases. In the Vitfalva (Vitkovce, Slovakia) murals, while showing very
schematic male figures in loose dresses, the abductor’s caftan has buttans
in the middle of the ehest, which is at least uncommon in Eastem
garments. He wears a Western type short dress, at Rimabänya (Rimavskä
Baila, Slovakia): dark red, tight-fitting and surprisingly short (fig. 5). In the
Bäntornya (Turnisce, Slovenia) paintings, painted by Johannes Aquila, the
situation is the same.
contradicted by the fact that in the Chronicle there are no hats decorated with feathers
at all, although the hat is the most varied costume element in the Chronicle. Even a
close examination of the miniature could not convince me to discover any feather on
any hat ofthe Cumans or other oriental people depicted
64ibid., 92.
6sBoncz, Ödön „Kun es magyar viselet az utolsö Arpädok es Anjouk alatt,“ (Cumanian
and Hungarian costumes under the rule of Arpadian and the Angevin dynasty)
Archeologiai Ertesitö ( 1 877): 198-207., esp. 1 93. According to the traveler’s
descriptions of Rubruquis and Carpini, the caftan of the Tartars was always closed on
the right. Napkelet fe/fedezese. Juliamts Plano Carpini es Rubruk utijelentesei (The
discovery of the Orient. The travelers‘ reports of Julianus, Plano Carpini and Rubruk)
ed. György Györffy (Budapest:?, 1 965), 79-80.
66 Pälöczi, Petchenegs, 77.
129
Fig. 5: The Cuman from Rimabanya
But in most cases the Cuman is dressed in caftan, and, in an even more
characterising way, this dress is yellow. [e.g. in Gelence, Vitfalva, Zsegra,
Maksa, Szepesmindszent (fig. 4), Sepsibesenyö).67 It should be observed,
67 Unfortunately, there is not enough time and place to discuss the various
interpretations of the rather mysterious name of the Cuman appearing in the
Kakaslomnic murals above his head (THEPE). But perhaps the flames coming from his
mouth in this painting and in the Szekelyderzs and the Szepesmindszent ones, tagether
with the yellow caftan can be taken as a streng indication of a negative figure/force. In
the Illuminated Chronicle, for example, King Coloman, who in the text is rather
negatively described, is consistently shown wearing a yellow caftan as well,even in fol.
5 1 b, on his coronation scene.
1 3 0
however, that the caftans depicted are usually closed in the middle, and are
rather short, like the type defined as „Petcheneg“ [Kakaslomnic (fig. 1),
Gelence], while the Erdofiile murals show a kind of woven decoration,
with a neckline cut from Ieft to right. A similar indication of decoration can
be observed in the Maksa wall-paintings, and embroidered edges are
shown on the dress ofthe Szepesmindszent Cuman (fig. 4); here his caftan
is especially tight, which can be seen on the wrinkles ofthe long sleeves.
Almost everywhere the Cuman warrior wears another typical
Eastem dress element, that is, a hat with a tumed-up brim. The trimming of
the hat is always in a different colour [for example, black hat with white
brim in Szepesmindszent (fig. 4); red with white brim at Szekelyderzs (fig.
3)], and in most cases he has a mail coif under the hat: this habit is not,
however, contradicting to the „light cavaJry“ character of the Cwnan
warrior 68
The tendency to schematise the Cwnan’s dress in the fifteenth
century murals is clear, and this from on the one hand can be connected to
the disappearance of these elements from the habits of the Cumans
themselves, and, on the other hand, to the greater impact of international
„stereotypes“ conceming Griental costume pieces, as pointed hats or
yellow garments.
The female costumes of the century had Iess variety than male ones, but
were at least their equals in splendorous appearance. The cut of the female
garments in the fourteenth century did not change significantly from that of
the thirteenth century, when the difference between male and female
gannents was not so definitely marked.
The cotte, the undergannent introduced in the thirteenth century,
became more tight-fitting, as it was seen in the case of the male costwnes
as well.69 The back was opened, and Iaced with ribbons 70 The skirt part
was cut in comparatively loose form. In the first part of the century the
difference was not so striking, but the sleeves were buttoned in the same
manner as in the case of the male ones, and the close-fitting cut made the
68 See Krist6, Az Arpad-kor hriborzii, 27 1, or Pal6czi, „Cs61yos“, 120-133.
69 Under the cotte the camise could be wom, a kind of shirt , as weil as the chainse,
the undergarment of the eleventh-twelfth centuries. In the 14’h century, the latter term
was applied to a 1ong undershirt. Sichel, Costume Rejerence, 157; Brad1ey, Western
Costume, 1 5 I .
70 The lacing of the undergarmem was transferred to the front from the fifties of the
fourteenth century. Bradley, Western Costume, 140.
1 3 1
introduction ofthe additional pieces necessary. The neckline was rounded,
but by around 1 340 it began to deepen and widen. A narrow belt was wom
around the hips with it. ln 1362 a certain Iady named Volande de Bar
1isted among other good stolen from her a scarlet cotte, the sleeves and
edges being decorated with pearls and small gems.71 A much more modest
cotte is wom by the abducted maiden in the Gelence murals, indicating a
kind of „home garment“.
However, the cotte itself could not have been seen, if the surcotte’s
sleeves had not been cut, making the armhole deeper and deeper. The two
garrnents, cotte and surcotte were usually mentioned together: In 1338 the
Queen of France had a robe of four pieces, composed of a cotte, two
surcottes, and a corset, a mantle with round cut.72 As a general trend, from
the middle of the thirteenth century, the cotte, surcotte and cloak/mantle
was made of similar material, hence the definition „une robe“ in the
inventories of the period.73
The surcotte itself in the beginning could be shaped with a wide
neckline and with or without short sleeves. In the Kakaslomnic paintings
(fig. 6), dated around 1 3 1 7, the dress of the Hungarian maiden shows an
early variation: green cotte with long, Iight-fitting sleeves, and a red surcot
lined with white. The neckline here is V-shaped, and the annl10les are not
too deep, as in the second half of the century, when a special variation, the
surcot ouvert was used almost exclusively. This gannent, although
definitely represented in the wall-paintings, was misinterpreted by many
researchers in the past, defined as a kind of „waistcoat“, lined or trimmed
with fur 74 Strangely enough, research has failed to this error, which
appears in quite recent works as we11 75 In the wall-paintings of the
71 Evans, Dress in France, 32 .
72 Ibid., 3 1 .
73 In 1298, the Countess of Artcis had a robe of live parts, namely: cotte, surcotte,
gardecors (similar to that of the men), cape, belanging to the gardecorps, and a cloak
lined with mini ver. Jeanne de Bourgogne, Queen of France, receives in 1 3 1 6 a robe of
five pieces, made ofpink scarlet cloth, also with miniver. Evans, Dress in France, 25.
74 Mihäly Nemes-Geza Nagy, A magyar viseletek könyve (Book of Hungarian
Costumes) (Budapest: Franktin Tärsulat. 1 900), 1 10 „a sleeveless waistcoat“, referred
also in Varju in MMT 1., 330 and Endre Domanovszki, Korok ruluii (Dresses through
ages) (Budapest: Corvina, 1 979), 98 „a waistcoat was worn over it, at first reaching to
the hips and was cut deeply under the arms“. Wagner even goes further, and besides
naming the dress appearing in fourteenth-century Bohemian manuscripts, „waistcoat“
(„Jäckchen“ in the German text), understands the French surcot ouvert similarly. See
Wagner-Drobnä-Durdik, Tracht, 16.
75 Läszl6, Szent Lilsz/6-/egenda, 73: „a light litt1e waistcoat.“
132
Erdöfiile church, for instance, one can recognise even in the raw sketch
available at present for researchers, the surcot ouvert, almost identical with
its French analogies. It has deep armholes, and is embroidered in front, and
the white cotte worn under it is clearly visible.76 In the Maksa murals the
same type can be observed, which was again identified as „a waistcoat“,17
while in Vitfalva it appears over a red cotte, in blue, with white trim
around the neckline and the annl10les.
Fig. 6: The moiden from Kokosiomnie (c. 1317)
The Szentmihalyfa wall-paintings are especially interesting for studies of
female garments. These frescoes, restored in 1 988-89, are in fragmentary
76 Ibid., 72-74, the dating the paintings not earlier than the forties of the fourteenth
century. St. Ladislas wears in the same picture a white pourpoint, with fringed edge
and sleeves, interpreted as „cloak“.
n Läszlo, Szent Lasz/6, 69.
133
state, but fortunately, exactly the scene showing the maiden beheading the
Cuman remained. Here a red cotehardie, that is, an outdoor dress with
characteristic banging parts, the so-called coudieres, trimmed with fur, is
wom over a red cotte with close-fitting long sleeves.
The Rimabanya cycle from the last third of the fourteenth century (fig. 7)
shows a different dress type in all of its scenes:78 the tight-fitting bodice,
loose lower part from the hips, with deep decolletage and long, closefitting
sleeves is also wom by Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Charles
Robert in the Hungarian Illwninated Chronicle79 In the same manuscript,
on fol. 36a, Initial P, the dress ofthe Hungarian maiden in the scene ofher
rescue from the Cuman by St. Ladislas resembles that wom by the one on
the first scene of the Rimabanya wall-painting, but here the girl wears,
under her tight-fitting surcoat, a Ionger cotte made from the same material.
The dress of Queen Elizabeth on fol. 70a is nearly the same, but the seams
at the hips and at the waist can be observed we11.80
Fig. 7: The maiden from Rimabtinya.
71Despite the opinion that “ the dress of the maiden is different in the subsequent
scenes“, the decoration and the cut of the dress is the same, although the paint is
slightly different. Laszl6, Szent /Asz/6, 152.
􀇵or instance in fol. 70a, Initial A.
1110n the contrary, Varju, in MlviT II.. 409, claims that the upper and lower parts of
the female gown were always cut in one.
1 34
Foreign writings mention the exaggerated decoration of garments
with small mounts and pendants as a special Hungarian habit which
perhaps is indicated by the decoration of the garment of the Rimabanya
maiden.81 Among the surviving examples one could mention the dress of
Queen Agnes of Habsburg, wife of Andrew III.82 The treasure find from
Kelebia included pieces with inscriptions, which made the identification of
at least one owner possible.83 Some other finds, like the treasure from
Kiskunhalas-Fehert6, Kiskunhalas-Bodoglärpuszta, or Emeszthäza, also
contained mounts for dress decoration, sewn into various part􀈄 of the
dress.84
The finds from Zalaszentgr6t, Kelebia or Emeszthäza85include
clasps which could not serve as belt-buckles, as it was supposed earlier –
their decoration makes this impossible. They may have been used to fasten
the mentioned mantles, and were used in pairs. Although the clasps from
treasure finds are all in geometrical shapes, there existed several types of
omamental and even beast or bird-shaped clasps or fibulae-Iike buckles as
weil in the period. A description of the wedding ceremonies of Catherine
of Burgundy and Leopold of Austria mentions clasps fonned in the shape
of daisies, roses, peacocks, finches, falcons, Jittle dogs, squirrels, etc.86
I already mentioned the Bögöz murals conceming some strange
female head-dresses. These seem like kind of veils Iogether with wimples
arranged in „homs“ in the middle of the foreheads. This can possibly refer
81 Boncz, „A magyar viselet. . . “ 204, quotes the Anonymus Leobiensis, for example:
„alii sinistram manicam ornabant diversi modo, ve/ cum sericio, vel cum argento … a/ii
/aminem, de alieno panno cum litteris argenteis ve/ sericiis in pectore deferebant: a/ii
in sinistra parte pectoris imagines dejerebant: alii circu/is sericeis circa pedous per
totum se circumcingebant“ Scriptores Rerum Austr. I. 947. 12 Emil Delmar, Közepkcri magyar · emlekek Svajcban {Medieval hungarica in
8S3w itzerland) (Budapest,n.p., 1941 ), 9. According to the inscription, „Arme/la consortis Pau/i bani Dem .. „:the person in
question could be the wife of Pal Garai, banus of Macs6, namely K6s Nekcsei. Mihäly
Köhegyi, „XIV. szazadi ezüstkincs Kelebiar61,“ (A 14th century silver treasure find
from Kelebia) Cumania /. Archeologia ( 1972): 209. 8• Kurcz, Lovagi kulttira, I 09; Magda B. Oberschall, „A kiskunhalas-bodoglarpusztai
közepkori kincslelet,“ (A medieval treasure find from Kiskunhalas-Bodoglärpuszta)
Magyar Mtizeum ( 1945): 13-2 1 .; and J6zsef Hampel, „Az emeszthäzi leletröl,“
(Remarks on the find from Erneszthaza) Archeol6giai Ertesitö I S ( 1 88 1 ): 1 75-1 77. 81Eva Kovacs, „Ket 13. szäzadi ekszerfajta Magyarorszagon,“ (Two 13th century
j8ewellery types in Hungary) Ars Hungarica I ( 1973): 67-96. 6Evans, Dress in France, 55.
135
to a special Eastem type, like those of the ladies tenned as „Cuman
women“ on the miniature ofthe Illuminated Chronicle fol. 16a.
Speaking about head-dresses, the figures of women standing at the
gates of the town in the first scene of this cycle wear another type, namely
the krüseler, perhaps the strangest headdress of the century. lt also was
called in the French and English-speaking areas the nebule-headdress,
after the heraldic device almost identical to its look87. This headdress,
appearing in the sixties of the century, was made of several veils, folded
repeatedly into each other around the face, the edges being frilled and
plated beforehand. Though this was most popular in areas like Gennany,
Bohemia, Hungary and England, it was completely absent in France.88 In
the Illuminated Chronicle Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King Charles
Robert wears this type of headdress (for example on fol. 70a, on fol. 7 1 b ),
as does Queen Helen, the wife of King Bela II (the Blind) on fol . 57b, and
St. Elizabeth on fol. 62b.89
Conclusion
Clothing as a public display played an important part in medieval life. One
of the main functions of a given garment was exactly to distinguish
according to social rank as precisely as it was possible. Therefore, the
wall-paintings of the St. Ladislas-legend can be analysed by costume
studies to see whether the gannents appearing in the scenes can help
gaining additional infonnation conceming the connection between status
and outer appearance.
In the figures showing Prince Ladislas, the annour depicted is
always the most fashionable in the period, as it befits the later saintly king,
and the concept of bis bravery and justness often expressed in the
fourteenth century.90 Certain elements of the legend even derived from
courtly epic of the chivalric world, although parallels for the two most
87 Houston, Medieva/ Costume, 86-87. The type can be observed in the Jlluminated
Chronicle as weil, but earlier sturlies consistently called it „a headdress trimmed with
fur“, what is, as we see, wrong.
88 Kühne!, Bildwörterbuch, s.v., „Krüseler,“ while mentions its widespread usage in
German territories, the diffusion of this headdress type in Hungary, is lacking fi’om his
listing. Marosi, Kep es hasonnu:is, 59, claims its surely Eastern-European origin, citing
Stella Mary Newton. Newton in Fashion, 86-94, however, cites proofs that it appears
in Germany and England, while Iacks in France.
89 For indications ofkrüselers in Hungary: Gerevich, „Csut,“ 1 6 1 – 162.
90 Marosi, Kep es hasonmas, 76.
136
important scenes, namely, the wrestling and the beheading, were not to be
found in pictorial sources. However, the Iiterature of the Arthurian cycle
contains stories about the beheading or wrestling down of an enemy,
especially cormected with the favourite hero of the English material, Sir
Gawain.91 Also, the theme of a maiden’s abduction can be derived from
courtly epic, as it was already supposed in research.92 But the elements of
old Eastem fol.klore material also should be considered, especially in the
case of Hungary. The surprisingly fashionable elements of armour and
cesturne in the murals show that the Western garments were spread and
known among the strata of nobility connected to the courtly circles. The
dress representations of tl1e abducted maiden even confirm the knowledge
of some of the most precious and fashionable female garments, which is
lacking from the courtly manuscript of the Illuminated Chronicle. With the
indication of these dresses, the high social status of the maiden is clearly
shown, what is expressed in the existing written variations of the legend
(sometimes the daughter of a bishop, then a high noble Iady, or even the
Virgin Mary).
The Cumans were one of those Steppe people who by the fourteenth
century still pursued their old habits in the Alföld region. The warrior of
the murals, on the other hand, is represented with a nurober of dress
elements able to raise negative associations in the observers of the
murals.93 His caftan, popular among the light cavalry soldiers of the
Hungarian Angevin kings, his hat, his equipment of composite bow and
arrows, and the colour ofhis gannent, the yellow, all Iogether gave him the
perfect air ofthe anti-hero.
910n this question see the chapter on Gawain in Richard Barber, Arhur of Albion
(London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1961), 95-122., amd Proinsias MacCana, Celtic
Mythology (Feltham: Newnes Books, 1983), 98-99.
92 Vizkelety, „Nomadkori … „, passim.
93For the Western European view: Blanc, Parades … , 166-75. and Francoise PiponnierPerrine
Mane, Se vetir au Moyen Age (Paris: Adam Biro, 1995), 1 14, 175. Also Emö
Marosi, „Zur Frage der Quellenwerken mittelalterlicher Darstellungen. ‚Orientalismus‘
in der Ungarischen Bilderchronik,“ Medium Aevum Quotidianum 22 (1991): 74-107,
but with a different opinion.
137
MEDIUM AEVUM
QUOTIDIANUM
39
KREMS 1998
HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG
DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titelgraphik: Stephan J. Tramer
Herausgeber: Mediwn Aevwn Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der
materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich.
Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, olme deren ausdrückliche
Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdmck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. – Dmck:
KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-l 050 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Axel Bolvig, Danish Wall-paintings -an Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Axel Bolvig, Ars /onga- vita brevis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Jesper Jerre Borrild, Medieval Danish Wall-paintingsan
Internet Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Annedorte Vad, Devils here, there and everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Steen Schj0dt Christensen, Mysterious Images –
Grimacing, Grotesques, Obscene, Popular:
Anti- or Conunentary Images? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Martin Bo N0rregärd, The Concept ofLabour
in the Danish Medieval Wall-paintings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Axel Bolvig, Images ofLate Medieval ‚Daily Life‘:
A History of Mentalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Annamäria Kovacs, Costumes as Symbols.
The Pictorial Representations of the Legend of
King Ladislas of Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Anca Golgtitan, Family, Patronage, and Artistic Production:
The Apafis and Mäläncrav (Almakerek, Malmkrog),
Sibiu District, in Transylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
3
Vorwort
Medium Aevum Quotidianum legt mit Heft 39 einen Band vor, welcher
sich schwerpunktartig mit der Analyse von Bildquellen, vor allem
Wandmalerei, auseinandersetzt Die Autoren der Beiträge stammen aus
zwei Institutionen, in denen Bilddokumentation und Analyse konzentriert
betrieben werden: dem Department of History an der Universität
Kopenhagen und dem Department of Medieval Studies an der Central
European University, Budapest. Das erstgenannte Institut ist besonders
durch seine Digitalisierung des Gesamtbestandes dänischer Wandmalerei
bekannt geworden, der über das Internet allgemein zugänglich geworden
ist und als Basis für umfassende qualitative und quantitative
Bilduntersuchungen herangezogen werden kann. Das Department of
Medieval Studies der CEU konzentriert sich in Zusammenarbeit mit dem
Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften auf die Sammlung,
Katalogisierung, Dokumentation und Analyse zentraleuropäischen
Bildmaterials. Die VerfLigbarkeit des aufgearbeiteten Bestandes via
Internet ist in Vorbereitung.
Medium Aevum Quotidianum ist nun auch mittels Internet
erreichbar (http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/maq/). Im Augenblick bieten
wir das Inhaltsverzeichnis aller seit unserer Gründung im Jahre 1982
erschienenen Bände. Aktuelle Informationen, Links zu anderen, uns
wichtig erscheinenden Websites sowie Berichte werden in Zukunft das
Service-Angebot erweitern.
Gerhard Jaritz, Herausgeber
5