Restoration of the Medieval Church of Sóly

The restoration of the medieval church of Sóly was finally completed after two decades of research and renovation. The village of Sóly is located near Veszprém and its church was first mentioned in 1009, in the foundation charter of the bishopric of Veszprém, issued by King Saint Stephen. There is a theory that Sóly is the location where the young Stephen defeated Koppány in 997, three years before his coronation. The present church, however, dates from the 13th century and was dedicated to St. Stephen Protomartyr. Archeological research identified the traces of an earlier, wooden church under the present edifice. The 13th-century building consists of a simple one-aisled nave and a rectangular sanctuary. The place was turned into a fortress at the time of the Ottoman occupation. From this period, a number of burials have been found inside the building. The damaged building was finally restored in 1706 and was embellished several times. By this time, the community and their church were Calvinist. Rich painted ornamental frames decorate the windows, embellished with biblical verses. In 1724, a painted wooden gallery was installed in the nave, and the church was adorned with painted coffered ceilings as well. As these elements were purchased and installed by the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest during the 1890s, they were now recreated in the form of copies. The original wooden balustrade in the sanctuary of the church, however, was at this occasion returned to the church. The western tower of the church was built in 1903.

Inside the nave of the church, a medieval fresco of the Crucifixion was uncovered in 2018. The stylistic features of this painting and the Cosmatesque border decoration around it indicate that it was painted in the 14th century. Possibly it was part of a larger cycle - but no other paintings have been found in the church. The newly restored church was ceremoniously opened on March 20, 2022. Contact the pastor to visit.

Crucifixion fresco in the nave

Here is a small video of the restored church.

In memoriam Ernő Marosi (1940–2021)

Ernő Marosi in 2017

Ernő Marosi (1940–2021), professor emeritus at the Institute of Art History of ELTE and a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, died on July 9, 2021, at the age of 81. With his death, we lost one of the most important Hungarian art historians of our time. His impact as a researcher and author of groundbreaking books as well as a teacher for almost six decades is immeasurable.

A simple listing of his professional positions does not do justice to his career. He started teaching at the Department of Art History at ELTE in 1963, immediately after graduating. In addition, he was a researcher at the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, serving as the director of the Institute between 1991 and 2000.  He had been a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Science since 2001 and from 2002 to 2008, he was the Vice President of the Academy. He also taught at the Central European University and was an active board member of CIHA. Research fellowships took him to places such as Washington D.C., where he was a Senior Visiting Fellow at CASVA in 1991, and Berlin. Among the prizes he received was the prestigious Széchenyi Prize (1997) and the Commander's Cross with Star of the Hungarian Order of Merit (2009). He continued teaching even after his retirement and remained active as a researcher until his death. 

His contribution to the field of medieval art history is better measured by his groundbreaking publications, which cover all areas of Hungarian medieval art. His research fundamentally re-wrote our knowledge of the field, placing Hungarian monuments in their broader, European context. During his career, there were several topics which he often revisited, providing new insights and interpretations to the most important monuments of medieval Hungary. His publications cover very diverse subjects ranging in time from the Coronation Mantle donated to the Székesfehérvár provostry by King Saint Stephen in 1031 to the patronage of Matthias Corvinus. Among his most important publications, we should first mention his book on the beginnings of Gothic architecture in Hungary, published in 1984 (Die Anfänge der Gotik in Ungarn. Esztergom in der Kunst des 12–13. Jahrhunderts. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984). A catalogue on stone carvings from the Árpádian-period and an illustrated overview of Hungarian art of the Árpádian-period (1997, co-authored with Tünde Wehli) also attest to his interest in architecture and stone carving of the 12th-13th centuries. The other focus of his research was the art of the 14th and early 15th centuries, primarily the period of King Sigismund. His dissertation focused on the Church of St. Elisabeth at Kassa (Košice), which was then published as a series of studies. Starting from 1974, he provided the proper art historical context for the famous statue find of Buda castle, a key monument of Central European sculpture of the International Gothic period. He co-organized two exhibitions on this period: first, in 1982 on art at the time of King Louis the Great (1342-1382) and in 1987, on the period of King Sigismund (1387-1437). Parallel to this work, Ernő Marosi edited and co-wrote the monumental handbook on Art in Hungary, 1300-1470 (published in 1987). In a series of later studies and in his academic doctoral dissertation, he almost immediately started to deconstruct the picture of the period given in the handbook, reflecting on new finds and providing new approaches (see especially: Image and Likeness: Art and Reality in the 14th and 15th Centuries in Hungary. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1995). In 2006, he was one of the key advisors and authors of the new exhibition dedicated to the period of King Sigismund (Sigismundus Rex et Imperator, Budapest-Luxemburg, 2006). 

Ernő Marosi examining the inner reliquary of St. Ladislas, 2004

Another focus of his research was historiography, especially the 19th-century beginnings of Hungarian art history. He edited a number of source collections on art historical writing as well as a volume on Hungary and the Vienna School of art history (Die ungarische Kunstgeschichte und die Wiener Schule 1846–1930, Vienna, 1983). He also wrote a basic overview of the methods of art history aimed at students (1973). He also dealt extensively with issues of monument protection and museum history - often writing on contemporary issues in these fields as well. Naturally, he was a keen observer of contemporary art as well.

As a university professor, he also provided some of the basic surveys and textbooks on medieval art in Hungarian. In 1972, he wrote a survey book on Romanesque art, which was later expanded into a textbook on the art of the Middle Ages, 1000–1250 (published in 1996). This was soon followed by a second, much larger volume on the art of the Middle Ages, 1250–1500, published in 1997. He also wrote overviews of Hungarian Romanesque Art (2013) and Gothic Art (2008). His collection of primary sources on medieval art translated into Hungarian (first published in 1969 and then in an expanded edition in 1997) is a much-used source collectionto this day.

During his long career, he published hundreds of studies in various journals, conference volumes, and exhibition catalogues. Coinciding with his 80th birthday, a three-volume collection of his selected studies on medieval art was published, coordinated by the Thesaurus mediaevalis research group led by Imre Takács (“Fénylik a mű nemesen”. Válogatott írások a középkori művészet történetéből. Budapest, Martin Opitz Kiadó, 2020). The book makes available many of his studies published internationally, in the form of newly made and annotated Hungarian translations prepared by Marosi himself. The ninety studies in two volumes are accompanied by a third volume containing 1359 illustrations. A bibliography of his publications is also included there: it fills almost forty pages of the book. His colleagues and students paid tribute to his work in a Festschrift published for his seventieth birthday (Bonum ut pulchrum. Essays in Art History in Honor of Ernő Marosi on his Seventieth Birthday. Eds. Lívia Varga - László Beke - Anna Jávor - Pál Lővei - Imre Takács. Budapest, Argumentum, 2010) and he was also celebrated with a conference organized by the Institute of Art History of ELTE, titled Disputatio de quodlibet. In 2010 and 2020, Enigma, a journal of art theory, published two thematic issues dedicated to Ernő Marosi (Enigma vols. 61 and 100).

Ernő Marosi in 2005

Like generations of art historians studying in Budapest, I took some of my first art history classes with Ernő Marosi, who taught European medieval art. He was my supervisor when I was an MA student in medieval studies at Central European University (1994–1995) and encouraged my doctoral studies, suggesting I work on the newly discovered fresco cycle at the Augustinian Church at Siklós. Later, he would also serve as an external reader of my dissertation, which was supervised by Walter Cahn at Yale University. I had a chance to work with Ernő Marosi on numerous occasions after I returned to Hungary – especially during the preparations for the international exhibition on King Sigismund (2006). He participated in the international conference organized in Luxemburg (2005) in conjunction with the exhibition and also provided the art historical commentary for a digital edition of the Viennese manuscript of Eberhard Windecke's chronicle on Emperor Sigismund (Eberhard Windecke emlékirata Zsigmond királyról és koráról = Eberhard Windeckes Denkwürdigkeiten zur Geschichte des Zeitalters Kaiser Sigmunds. Budapest, Arcanum, 2009). More recently, Marosi published numerous studies on late medieval wall painting – including an introductory essay to a volume on wall paintings in north-eastern Hungary, co-authored by me (2009) and edited by Tibor Kollár. In June of this year, he graciously agreed to present our new book on medieval wall paintings in Zólyom County (Zsombor Jékely – Gergely Kovács: Falfestészeti emlékek a középkori Zólyom vármegye területén. Ed. Tibor Kollár. Budapest, 2021), although his illness prevented him from fulfilling the task. He was an inspiration and mentor to me for 30 years and he will surely inspire future generations of art historians, even those who never had a chance to meet him. He will be greatly missed.

A final, personal note: Thirty-one years ago, as a first-year art history student, I had an opportunity to travel to France. Ernő Marosi's lectures on medieval art were a fresh experience - the notes of his lectures served as my guide on my trip. I visited everything from Romanesque pilgrimage churches in the south of France to the great Gothic cathedrals of northern France and the late Gothic and Renaissance castles of the Loire Valley. After my first year of college and this French tour, I decided definitively that I would like to pursue medieval art. In 2021, news of the death of my teacher, Ernő Marosi, reached me inside the Benedictine abbey church of St. Denis, the birthplace of Gothic.

Ernő Marosi and Zsombor Jékely listening to József Lángi, 2019

* (Most of the links above take you to full-text versions of some publications written or edited by Ernő Marosi. Photos by Attila Mudrák and the author).

Romanesque Stone Carvings Found at Borosjenő Castle

New finds of Romanesque stone carvings were presented by the László Teleki Foundation earlier this week. The carvings were found during reconstruction work at the castle of Borosjenő (Ineu, Romania) in 2016 and 2019. The carvings most likely come from the abbey church of Dénesmonostora, which was located near the castle and was abandoned by the early 16th century. The stone carving were found in walls of the castle dating from the 1530s-1540s. These carving now provide some context from the lone capital decorated with a siren, which had been at the Hungarian National Museum since the 1870s.

The finds shine some light on the rich architecture and culture of a chain of Árpádian era monasteries established along the lower Maros river valley - an area that played a key role in the transportation of salt from Transylvania towards the plains. Perhaps Bizere is the most famous monastery in this region, which had been excavated during recent decades - and which is discussed in an important conference volume on monastic life. More recently, excavations were started at the Cistercian monastery of Egres as well. Dénesmonostora was established for the Augustinian canons, at an unknown date before 1199. 

Siren from Borosjenő (originally Dénesmonostora), Hungarian National Museum

No research on the castle of Borosjenő had been carried out since it was rebuilt in the 1870. The building stood empty since 2004, and the municipality is currently working on rebuilding the castle. Already during the surveys carried out in 2016, it was discovered that the walls incorporate a large number of pre-1200 stone carvings used as building materials. At that time, 9 early carvings were recovered. In 2019, with support of the Rómer Flóris Plan, another 14 smaller or larger stones were found, and dozens more were documented within the walls. This work was carried about by Zsolt Kovács and Attila Weisz, art historians from Cluj.

Borosjenő (Ineu) castle, awaiting restoration

The stone carvings are mainly capitals and bases of columns, decorated with various vegetal carvings in Romanesque style. They most likely date from around the middle of the 12th century, and are very important because from this region nothing similar has been found so far - now these finds can be analyzed through comparisons with carvings from such important ecclesiastiacal centers as Székesfehérvár or Pécs. The excavation of the site of the former monastery is also planned for the near future, which would certainly help place these objects in context.

A final remark: earlier this year I published a brief study on the churches of the Augustinian canons in Hungary, where Dénesmonostora was mentioned, but I could not say much about its church. As these investigations will continue, we will certainly know more about the canons regular in Hungary as well, an order which played an important role in the 12th century monastic reform in Central Europe. 

Photos by Attila Mudrák, used with permission of the László Teleki Foundation.

New Book on the Art of Medieval Hungary

After several years of preparation, a new book dedicated to the Art of Medieval Hungary was finally published by Viella in Rome. Edited and written by a team of Hungarian and international experts, including today’s foremost experts in medieval art history, the book provides an up-to-date overview of research about the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The editors are Xavier Barral i Altet, professor of art history at Université de Rennes, Pál Lővei, researcher at the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Vinni Lucherini, professor of art history at Università di Napoli Federico II, and Imre Takács, Head of the Art History Department at ELTE.

The editors have developed a novel concept for this collection of studies: rather than providing a simple chronological structure, the first part of the book consists of a series of studies arranged into thematic groups, surveying medieval art in various contexts: the art of towns and villages, art in the context of liturgy and religious cults, and art in various public and private contexts. A great attention is also given to the sources and the historiography of medieval art in Hungary. The second part of the book contains two sets of shorter essays: one dedicated to key monuments and medieval artworks, while the second set deals with museums and collections of medieval art.

Publication of the book was coordinated by the Hungarian Academy in Rome, and especially its previous director, Antal Molnár. As stated in the publisher's description: "the Hungarian Academy of Rome offers to the medievalist community a thematic synthesis about Hungarian medieval art, reconstructing, in a European perspective, more than four hundred years of artistic production in a country located right at the heart of Europe. The book presents an up-to-date view from the Romanesque through Late Gothic up to the beginning of the Renaissance, with an emphasis on the artistic relations that evolved between Hungary and other European territories, such as the Capetian Kingdom, the Italian Peninsula and the German Empire. Situated at the meeting point between the Mediterranean regions, the lands ruled by the courts of Europe west of the Alps and the territories of the Byzantine (later Ottoman) Empire, Hungary boasts an artistic heritage that is one of the most original features of our common European past." In addition, the book was produced under the auspicies of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and with the support of the National Bank of Hungary.

Thanks to the expertly written essays, as well as the exhaustive bibliography included in the volume, the book can be regarded as an essential new starting point for research on art in medieval Hungary. The detailed contents are listed on the publisher's website, and I copied them below as well. I case you are wondering, I contributed a study on village architecture, specifically on the art and architecture of parish churches in Hungary, as well as a shorter essay on the former Augustinian church of Siklós. I included one of my illustrations below.

Plates from the book

The Art of Medieval Hungary. edited by Xavier Barral i Altet, Pál Lővei, Vinni Lucherini, Imre Takács. Bibliotheca Academiae Hungariae - Roma. Studia, 7. Roma: Viella, 2018.
732 pages, 176 plates, ISBN: 9788867286614
The book is now available for purchase.


From the contents - List of studies in the book

• Xavier Barral i Altet, Introduction. Hungarian Medieval Art from a European Point of View
• I. Sources and Studies for Hungarian Medieval Art
  Ernő Marosi, Two Centuries of Research, from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the Present
  Kornél Szovák, Written Sources on Hungarian Medieval Art History
• II. City and Territory
  Katalin Szende, Towns and Urban Networks in the Carpathian Basin between the Eleventh and the Early Sixteenth Centuries
  Pál Lővei, Urban Architecture
  Zsombor Jékely, Expansion to the Countryside: Rural Architecture in Medieval Hungary
  István Feld, Castles, Mansions, and Manor Houses in Medieval Hungary
• III. Architecture and Art in the Context of Liturgy
  Béla Zsolt Szakács, Romanesque Architecture: Abbeys and Cathedrals
  Krisztina Havasi, Romanesque Sculpture in Medieval Hungary
  Imre Takács, The First Century of Gothic in Hungary
  Pál Lővei, Imre Takács, “Hungarian Trecento”: Art in the Angevin Era
  Gábor Endrődi, Winged Altarpieces in Medieval Hungary
• IV. Religious Cults and Symbols of Power
  Gábor Klaniczay, The Cult of the Saints and their Artistic Representation in Recent Hungarian Historiography
  Vinni Lucherini, The Artistic Visualization of the Concept of Kingship in Angevin Hungary
  Pál Lővei, Epigraphy and Tomb Sculpture
• V. Forms of Art between Public and Private Use
  Evelin Wetter, Precious Metalwork and Textile Treasures in Late Medieval Hungary
  Anna Boreczky, Book Culture in Medieval Hungary
• VI. The Middle Ages after the Middle Ages
  Imre Takács, Medieval Twilight or Early Modern Dawn: Art in the Era of Sigismund of Luxembourg
  Árpád Mikó, A Renaissance Dream: Arts in the Court of King Matthias
  Gábor György Papp, Medievalism in Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Architecture
• Annex I. Medieval Artworks and Monuments
• Annex II. Museums and Collections Holding Medieval Art

Siklós, Augustinian church. Detail of the early 15th-century wall paintings

• 
  

800 Years of Ják Abbey

Fresco of St. George at Ják, c. 1256 

This weekend - the weekend after Saint George's Day - mark the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine monastery of Ják. It is known that the monastery was established by Márton "the Great" comes from the Ják kindred some time before 1223 (when its abbot was first mentioned). Circumstantial evidence puts the date of this foundation to the year 1214. The abbey church was dedicated to St. George, who was a favoured saint in Hungary during the late Árpádian period, and one particularly liked by the Ják kindred. The abbey church, built in late Romanesque style, was finally dedicated in 1256. Construction thus lasted for a few decades, and was not without interruption. The church is one of the most monumental examples of early thirteenth century monasteries erected by noble families in Hungary - other examples include Lébény or Türje. It was built as a three-aisled basilica, with a massive western part with two towers and a gallery between them. Construction started on the northern side, then continued on the southern side in the second phase. After a change of plan it was decided to vault the entire church, and it was in this phase that the western area was also built. This phase of the work - during the 1230s - is characterised by strong connections with the building workshop of Bamberg cathedral. In the end, the church was not fully finished as planned - work was interrupted either by the Mongol invasion (1241-42), or by the death of Márton comes in 1250. The central and southern aisle of the nave was not vaulted, only covered with a flat wooden ceiling - but the church was considered finished by the 1256 consecration. The western portal of the church, as well as its additional carved decoration, and also its painted decoration make the church one of the most important 13th century monuments from Hungary. The rotunda standing next to the abbey church was also built in the 13th century, around 1260.

Ják abbey church. From Wikimedia Commons

The church was restored several times, most extensively between 1896-1906. The massive stone spires of the towers, and the vault of the central aisle were added at this time. Literature on the church is extensive, especially in Hungarian and German.  You can find some photos on this website, including images taken before the late 19th century restoration.

More recently, the exterior of the church was cleaned. With the current festivities celebrating eight centuries of the Abbey, the goal of the organizers is to raise money for the restoration of the frescoes in the church, especially the fresco of St. George painted on the wall of the main apse. You can read my study on these frescoes, from a 2001 catalogue dedicated to Benedictines in medieval Hungary (the study is in Hungarian).

The western portal before 1896

Other online resources, mainly in Hungarian:

Technical analysis of the sculptures of the west portal

Photos in Wikimedia Commons and on the website of Pázmány Péter University.

Study and photos on the templom.hu website, data on the műemlékem.hu website.

Conference on Early Medieval Illustrated Texts in Budapest

Apollonius Pictus manuscript: National Széchényi Library

There will be an international conference dedicated to early modern illustrated texts next week at the National Széchényi Library in Budapest. The symposium, organized jointly by the Library and Pázmány Péter Catholic University, is titled: Facing and Forming the Tradition. Illustrated Texts on the Way from Late Antiquity until the Romanesque Times.

The conference represents a new step in the research initiated by the publication of a study-volume and facsimile of the Apollonius Pictus manuscript held at the Széchényi Library. A number of prestigious international scholars, who have already dealt with the manuscript, will be present at the conference. The event is organized by Anna Boreczky and Béla Zsolt Szakács, and will be held on 18th – 20th March, 2014. The programme of the conference can be seen and downloaded from below (thanks for Gábor Endrődi for uploading it):

You can also read the conference abstracts on Scribd. I am really looking forward to this event! More information is available on the website of the library.

In memoriam Melinda Tóth

Art historian Melinda Tóth passed away in January 2013, at the age of 74. Melinda Tóth spent a lifetime researching Hungarian Romanesque art and was one of the leading scholars of the field. She worked until her retirement at the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her research concentrated on two fields: Romanesque sculpture and Romanesque wall-painting, in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. She was the author of the most recent monograph on wall-painting in Hungary in the Árpád-period (1974, a revision in the form of an article was published in 1995). In the field of Romaneque sculpture, she concentrated mainly on the study of Pécs cathedral. It was largely due to her efforts that the magnificient stone carvings from the medieval cathedral found a permament home in the new cathedral museum, which opened in 2004. Unfortunately, the catalogue of the carvings and the accompanying study on the cathedral sculptures was not finished until the death of Melinda Tóth. However, she published numerous studies on the subject in various journals and exhibition catalogues. I could not find a bibliography of her works online, but a query in Kubikat gives good results.

I had a chance to work together with Melinda Tóth at the mid-1990s, when she worked on the survey and cataloguing of the Pécs sculptures. This material was at the time kept at an abandoned movie building in a village in the hills above Pécs. The situation there was so appaling that even the World Monument Fund was alerted. Restoration of the pieces then began with their support. However, it took another ten years for the new museum to be built according to the plans of Zoltán Bachman.

Stone carvings from Pécs cathedral in storage, 1990s

Detail from the story of Samson; 12th c. relief from Pécs cathedral

My Hungarian-speaking readers can read a new study on Pécs cathedral written by Gergely Buzás, and made available online in memory of Melinda Tóth. I also wrote about Pécs cathedral in a previous post.

'Apollonius pictus' facsimile published by National Széchényi Library

The National Széchényi Library just announced that an exclusive facsimile edition of the so-called Apollonius manuscript has been released, accompanied by a collection of studies by international authors.

The oldest medieval manuscript of the National Széchényi Library is a fragment, which has recently been identified (COD. Lat. 4). It contains a late-antique "adventure novel" of the story of King Apollonius of Tyre. The novel enjoyed great popularity in the Middle Ages. The manuscript contains not just the text of the novel, but 38 uncolored pen drawings, making it the oldest illustrated copy of the story. Despite the importance of the manuscript, it has been almost completely unknown.

The parchment manuscript was written around the year 1000, in the Benedictine monastery of Werden an der Ruhr, situated in the archdiocese of Cologne. The manuscript remained there during the Middle Ages, but then entered a collection in Cologne. By the 18th century it was held at the Evangelical Convention in Sopron, from where in 1814 it entered the National Library.

The manuscript was identified and first analysed by two researchers, Anna Boreczky and András Németh, and by 2010, a number of foreign researchers - most notably Xavier Barral i Altet - were involved in first phases of research, the results of which were presented to the public on December 8, 2010. The present facsimile edition is the result of a international collaboration, and is accompanied by multi-language commentary. The commentary volume starts with an introduction by Ernő Marosi, and was written by Xavier Barral i Altet, Anna Boreczky, Herbert L. Kessler, András Németh, Andreas Nievergelt and Beatrice Radden Keefe. In addition to the basic data and a bilingual (English and Hungarian) description of the manuscript, a critical edition of the text is also included. 

Data of the volume: Apollonius pictus. Egy illusztrált, késő antik regény 1000 körül. / An illustrated, late antique romance around 1000. Ed. Anna Boreczky and András Németh. Budapest, Széchényi National Library, 2011.

The above text is based on the information released by the National Széchényi Library. A review will follow, once I get hold of the publication. Below is one page of the fragmentary manuscript.

Library of Medieval and Renaissance art in Transylvania

Rather than being a proper post, this is more like a collection of links - links to full-length books on medieval and Renaissance art in Transylvania. New databases, especially the Transylvanian Hungarian database maintained by transindex.ro and the newly opened Transylvanian Digital Database of the Transylvanian Museum Society, have made a number of old and new publications available, which - together with other resources - provide a good overview of art historical research in Transylvania. As most of these publications are in Hungarian, the following links will be mainly of use to my Hungarian readers - but others may find something useful as well (as some publications are in English or German). The focus of these publications is architecture, but a few other things are also available online. I'd be glad to add more resources to these - let me know if you've spotted something relevant!

I. Historical overview

History of Transylvania, ed. by László Makkai and András Mócsy, General Editor: Béla Köpeczi

Volume I. - From the Beginnings to 1606. English edition from 2001.

István Lázár: Transylvania - A Short History. 1997


II. Period of Hungarian Conquest

Gyula László: A honfoglaló magyarok művészete Erdélyben. Kolozsvár, 1943.
Art of the Hungarians at the Conquest period in Transylvania


III. Romanesque architecture

Géza Entz: Erdély építészete a 11-13. században. Kolozsvár, 1994.
Monograph and database on architecture in Transylvania in the 11-13th centuries.

Géza Entz: A gyulafehérvári székesegyház. Budapest, 1958
Monograph on the cathedral of Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia).

Daniela Marcu Istrate: A gyulafehérvári római katolikus székesegyház és püspöki palota régészeti kutatása (2000-2002). Budapest, 2008. 

Monograph on archaeological research at Gyulafehérvár.

Erdély ezeréves püspöksége. A gyulafehérvári Szent Mihály székesegyház és érseki palota régészeti kutatása 2000-2008. Budapest, 2010
Overview of recent research at Gyulafehérvár.

IV. Gothic architecture

Géza Entz: Erdély építészete a 14–16. században. Kolozsvár, 1996.
Monograph and database on architecture in Transylvania in the 14-16th centuries.

Ferenc Lestyán: Megszentelt kövek - A középkori erdélyi püspökség templomai. Budapest, 2000.

Database of medieval churches in Transylvania.

Victor Roth: Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte Siebenbürgens, 1914

Edit Grandpierre: A kolozsvári Szent Mihály templom története és építészete. Kolozsvár, 1936.
Study on St. Michael's church in Kolozsvár (Cluj).

Géza Entz: Dési református templom (link 2). Kolozsvár, 1942.
The church of Dés (Dej).

Géza Entz: Szolnok-Doboka középkori műemlékei (link 2). Kolozsvár, 1943.

Medieval monuments in Szolnok-Doboka county.

Géza Entz: A középkori székely művészet kérdései (link 2). Kolozsvár, 1943.

Study on medieval art in the Szekler territories. 

József K. Sebestyén: A középkori nyugati műveltség legkeletibb határai (link 2). Kolozsvár, 1929.

Study on medieval art in the Szekler territories. 

József Köpeczi Sebestyén: A brassai fekete templom Mátyás-kori címerei. Kolozsvár, 1927.

Coat of arms at the Black Church of Brassó (Brasov).

László Dávid: A középkori Udvarhelyszék művészeti emlékei. Bukarest, 1981.

Monograph on medieval monuments of Udvarhely county.

András Sófalvi: Székelyföld középkori várai. In: Castrum 3, 2006.

Study on medieval castles in the Szekler territories.

Exterior restoration of the Abbey Church of Lébény

Scaffolding at Lébény 

On my way to Vienna today (where my main goal was to see the exhibition on the medieval plans of the Stephansdom), I stopped at the Romanesque Abbey church of Lébény. Some alarming news emerged about the condition of the building in recent years, as photos on this Hungarian website also attest (click for 'more pictures'). Well, by now, work is well under way on the exterior restoration of the building, and almost the entire edifice is covered by a scaffolding. Heavy rain and wind prevented me to explore the building more closely, and there is also very little information available online on the ongoing restoration. Main tasks include a consolidation of the facades and the renovation of the roof of the edifice. They are also restoring the old parish building, with the intention of creating a new museum there. Work will go on throughout the summer.

Lébény, south portal 

The Benedictine Abbey of Lébény was officially founded in 1208, and it is believed that the church was  completed within a short time. Benedictine life went on with varied intensity during the Middle Ages, until the church was burned by Turkish troops in 1529, as they were marching towards the siege of Vienna. The vault of the nave was not even repaired until the Jesuits took over the church in 1631. Those knowing the history of the region will not be surprised to read that the Turkish army burned the church again in 1683, en route to another failed siege of Vienna. The building was again fixed up by the Jesuits, and finally underwent major renovation during the 1870s. 

The church of Lébény before 1872

Despite all these events, the church of Lébény can be regarded as one of the most intact Romanesque churches of Hungary. The fact that the church is still standing after 800 years is also due to those Italian stonemasons, who were sent there to dismantle the church at the time when the Ottoman Turks were advancing towards Győr. The stones of the monastery would have been needed to to repair the fortifications of Győr - but the masons did not carry out the job, saying the Lébény was the most beautiful church they have ever seen.

You can judge for yourself by looking at photographs at the following links:

Photos of the art history department of Pázmány Péter Catholic University

Hungarian summary of the church's history from the catalogue of the Pannonhalma exhibition on Benedictines in medieval Hungary (click on "Fotó" at the bottom of the page)

You can read on the current restoration here (in Hungarian)

Finally, here are some details of the stone carvings of the western portal seen from the lower levels of the scaffolding.

The Route of Medieval Churches in Szatmár county

Csengersima,  parish church 

A major research project, aimed at surveying and documenting the churches of medieval Szatmár country, was completed last week, and its results are now largely available on the web. As the territory of medieval Szatmár country is today divided between Romania and Hungary, the research project was a joint Hungarian-Romanian one, funded by the EU. The project documented a large number of medieval churches, including some only known from excavations. The area preserved some important medieval buildings, such as the Romanesque basilica of Ákos (Acâş), but most surviving buildings are small medieval parish churches.

The project consists of the following main elements: Mapping out a thematic route of medieval churches in the Hungarian-Romanian border area (in historic Szatmár county), which is the first common thematic route of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Satu Mare counties. This route is supported by very useful and informative material: maps, brochures and on-site information. The route includes 30 medieval churches - 20 of them located in the Hungarian county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, while another 10 in the Romanian country of Satu Mare. 

A brand new website was also developed, which contains all the necessary information about the route and the churches. This website is available in Hungarian, Romanian and English versions. English readers should maybe start on this page. The website - even though the English-language texts are only summaries of the Hungarian versions - provides ample information in English on the medieval buildings of the region, and is thus highly recommended.

Csenger, parish church 

Medieval stone carvings stolen from the Hungarian National Gallery

As it was revealead on Tuesday, two highly important Romanesque stone carvings had been stolen from the Hungarian National Gallery some time in early February. Both carvings were on view in the medieval lapidary of the Gallery, located on the ground floor of the building. There is no explanation as to how or when the theft took place.

The missing stones are the following:

A cornice fragment stemming from the church of Ják, dating from around 1230. The carving, decorated with the figure of a dragon (which originally joined another dragon), comes from the west portal of the abbey church of Ják, and was most recently published in the catalogue of the collection, written by Sándor Tóth (see my earlier post on this).

Hungarian National Gallery, Inv. no. 55.1037, sandstone, 24 x 26 x 15,5 cm

Left side fragment of a relief slab from the abbey church of Somogyvár, dating from around 1150. The stone carving belongs to the Rippl Rónai Museum of Kaposvár, it was on long-term loan in the National Gallery. The carving was published in the Pannonia Regia exhibition catalogue of the National Gallery in 1994.

Kaposvár, Rippl Rónai Museum, Inv. no. MCXC, white marble, 32 x 21 x 9 cm




 





It seems clear that objects such as these cannot be sold on the open market. It is hoped that the carvings will be recovered soon. The images here are from the official Hungarian database of stolen artwork, maintaned by the National Office of Cultural Heritage.

The Salerno Ivories

I posted an image from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest) on Flickr today - a nice and small ivory panel showing the Creation of birds and fish.  I detected from responses that there is some interest in the piece - hence this brief post on the Salerno ivories. Together with its companion piece at the Metropolitan Museum, the plaque comes from the cathedral of Salerno and dates from about 1080-1084.  About fifty such plaques survive, all of which once decorated a large piece of church furnishing, such as an altar or reliquary. The panels depict biblical scenes from the Old and New Testament.

The plaque from Budapest traveled back to Salerno for an exhibition in 2007-2008. Titled "The Enigma of the Medieval Ivories from Salerno", the exhibition aimed to gather as many of these original pieces as possible (most of course are preserved to this day at the Museo Diocesano at Salerno). You can learn a lot more about the ivories by visiting the website of the exhibition. Photos of the individual ivory plaques are also available on the website of photographer Roberto Bigano. A two-day workshop at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, held in 2009, launched an ongoing research project dedicated to these ivories. So, expect to hear more about them in the near future!

(If, on the other hand, you would like to know more about the Museum of Applied Arts, you can follow the new Twitter account of the museum).

Catalogue of Romanesque Stone Carvings

Red marble head of a king
from Kalocsa cathedral
Hungarian National Gallery 

The Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest has one of the most significant collections of medieval stone carvings in Hungary. The collection includes the highest quality stone carvings from cathedrals such as Veszprém, Kalocsa and Pécs, as well as fragments from  the abbey churches of Dömös or Pilis and many other places. The material is on display on the ground floor of the National Gallery, in the former royal palace of Buda. 

As the first volume of the gallery's collection catalogues, the catalogue of Romanesque stone carvings has been published late last year. The catalogue was written by Sándor Tóth, university professor at ELTE Budapest, and mentor of generations of medievalists (including the author of this blog). During the last years of his life, Sándor Tóth had a part-time job at the Old Hungarian Collection of the National Gallery, the main purpose of which was the completion of this catalogue. Tóth Sándor sadly passed away in 2007, but by that time the manuscript of this book was largely completed. The manuscript was prepared for edition by Árpád Mikó, head of the collection. 

Relief fragment from Kalocsa
Hungarian National Gallery 

The book contains a long introductory study, which essentially gives an overview of Hungarian Romanesque sculpture of the 11-12th centuries. This is followed by 46 catalogue entries, and the publication of some relevant documents about the collection. In addition to hundreds of black and white photos, the best pieces are also illustrated in color. Even though the book is only available in Hungarian, it is an invaluable resource for anyone working on Central-European Romanesque art, and is thus highly recommended. One can only hope that more medieval volumes cataloguing the Gallery's collections will appear in the near future. 

Tóth Sándor: Román kori kőfaragványok a Magyar Nemzeti Galéria gyűjteményében. A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria szakkatalógusai I.1. Edited by Árpád Mikó. Budapest, 2010. Pb., 200 pages.

To learn more about Sándor Tóth, read In Memoriam Tóth Sándor (1940-2007), by Ernő Marosi here (Hungarian-language pdf from Ars Hungarica 2007/1).

To browse highlights from the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery, click here.

Conference about Pécs cathedral

The medieval building of Pécs cathedral was completed during the 12th century. The building, although rebuilt several times, essentially survived until the late 19th century, when it was drastically remodeled ('restored') in Neo-Romanesque style. Directed by the architect Friedrich von Schmidt, this construction took place between 1882-1891. The remodeling brought to light much of the original Romanesque sculptural decoration of the cathedral, the remains of which were all removed from the building, and placed in a lapidarium. The carvings have been moved from one place to another during the last 100 years, until they finally found a home in the newly constructed Cathedral Museum, which opened in 2004. This museum contains the richest collection of Romanesque sculpture in Central Europe - and these sculptures are of extremely high quality. The material includes the narrative cycles from the walls of two stairways leading down to the crypt, fragments of the altar of the Holy Cross and the western portal of the cathedral, among many other carvings. Unfortunately, the beautiful Gothic carvings found among the ruins of chapels north of the cathedral are not on view (for more info, see the website of the Sigismundus-exhibition).

Romanesque narrative reliefs from Pécs cathedral
Pécs, Cathedral Museum

No modern catalogue of the material is available - in fact, there is simply no current publication available on this material in any language. There isn't even a small guidebook to the museum, where actually not even all the labels have been properly written. Pécs is a world heritage site (because of the Early Christian necropolis of the town, located in the area around the cathedral) and was the European capital of culture during 2010. Still, nothing happened around the cathedral museum. The Cathedral Museum has no real website, and there is barely any information available on the sculptures online. (This website has some photos and information in Hungarian. This website, made for university students, also contains some photographs and a useful bibliography).

Angel
Pécs, Cathedral Museum

On January 14, 2011, a public workshop will be dedicated to new research on Pécs cathedral, organized by the University of Pécs. At this occasion, the work of a research group established last year and coordinated by Endre Raffay will be presented. You can read the program here (in Hungarian).

Results of the research of an older generation of scholars - notably Melinda Tóth - remain largely unpublished. Maybe a younger generation of scholars is needed to publish much-needed information and evaluation of Hungary's most important Romanesque monument.