Review of Marta Graczynśka's Architecture and Power in Early Central Europe

 

An interesting book was published about architecture in East-Central Europe in the 10th-11th centuries. Written by Marta Graczynśka, the book was published by ARC  Humanities Press in 2022. The monograph provides an overview of royal architecture of the Early Middle Ages in East Central Europe, with a special focus on the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. 

My review of the book was published in volume 100 of Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies, published by the Medieval Academy of America. You can read the review on the journal's website, but I also uploaded it below. 

Citation: Zsombor Jékely: Review of Marta Graczyńska, Architecture and Power in Early Central Europe, trans. Joanna Sobczak. (Beyond Medieval Europe.) Leeds: ARC Humanities, 2022. Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies, 100/4 (2025), 1162-1164. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/737885

Review of Imre Takács' book on The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary

Imre Takács: The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary. Bibliotheca Collegii Professorum Hungarorum. Piliscsaba: Makovecz Campus Alapítvány, 2024. 

ISBN: 9786150202501

Imre Takács's important book about the arrival of French Gothic art in the Kingdom of Hungary has recently been published in an English translation. The book is key to understanding the early reception of the new gothic forms in a far-away Kingdom of medieval Europe. It is well-known that Hungary was among the first places to embrace the new style, but the circumstances and the exact nature of the 'French connection' have been imperfectly understood. Takács provides not only an overview of these questions but numerous new observations and explanations. In historiography, a key role was accorded to the travel of Villard de Honnecourt.  A 13th-century French-language codex in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris preserved the architectural and other drawings of Villard de Honnecourt, and this work has long fascinated scholars of the Gothic period (BNF Fr 19093). In the codex, Villard wrote the following next to a drawing of the traceried window of the cathedral in Reims: "I was sent to Hungary when I drew this, because it pleased me most" (fol. 10v). Additional passages also refer to his Hungarian trip.

This later inscription in the sketchbook of Villard states:
"de Honnecor[t], who had been in Hungary" (BNF)

Imre Henszlmann, one of the pioneering Hungarian researchers of Gothic architecture, was among the first to recognize the significance of entries in the then-unpublished (but already known) codex. Like his contemporaries, he started out believing that Gothic was a German style. In 1846, he authored the first Hungarian monograph on medieval architecture, titled The Old German-Style Churches of Kassa (now Košice). During his study trip to England and France in the years following the War of Independence of 1848-49, Henszlmann became acquainted with French Gothic architecture and noted Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook. In 1857, he presented his theory in Paris, proposing that Villard had designed none other than the Church of St. Elizabeth in Kassa (Košice) around 1270, during the reign of King Stephen V. While Henszlmann acknowledged that the cathedral in Kassa was ultimately built in a 'German' style, he argued that its foundational plan was distinctly French. This marked the beginning of scholarly investigations into the connections between French Gothic centers and Hungary. Though Henszlmann and subsequent scholars were incorrect about Villard de Honnecourt's role in Hungary, the question continued to resurface over time. A deeper understanding of the emergence of French Gothic in Hungary only became possible after significant archaeological excavations in the 20th century—most notably at the Castle Hill in Esztergom during the 1930s and at the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis in the 1970s. These excavations uncovered key monuments that shed new light on the spread of Gothic architecture in Hungary.

Esztergom, Chapel of the Royal Palace, 1180s

Ernő Marosi was the first to comprehensively analyze the origins of Hungarian Gothic architecture in his influential 1984 monograph, Die Anfänge der Gotik in Ungarn. The work focuses on the late 12th-century buildings of Esztergom and highlights the palace chapel there as perhaps the earliest example of the reception of northern French Gothic architectural innovations east of the Rhine. Marosi's insights served as the foundation for Imre Takács' subsequent research, and it is fitting that Takács dedicated his own work to his late professor, who passed away in 2021. Takács' scholarship represents the culmination of decades of research. It began in the 1990s when, as a curator of the Hungarian National Gallery, he reconstructed the tomb of Queen Gertrude—discovered at Pilis Abbey—using fragments excavated by László Gerevich and preserved in the Gallery. Takács then extended his efforts to a detailed study of the complete carved material from Pilis Abbey and the stone collection of the Castle Museum in Esztergom. Among the fragments in Esztergom, the Porta Speciosa, the former western gate of the cathedral, became a particular focus of his research, leading to his recent publication on the subject. The third major site of Takács' research was Pannonhalma Abbey, where he played a key role as the main organizer of the exhibition celebrating the abbey's 1000th anniversary. He also served as the editor of the comprehensive three-volume catalog published for the occasion in 1996.

Esztergom, Deesis-tympanum, originally on the inside of the Porta Speciosa of the Cathedral

These three sites also feature prominently in the new monograph, The Arrival of French Gothic in Hungary, published this year. The English-language volume is a translation of Imre Takács' 2018 monograph in Hungarian, which came out with the title The Reception of French Gothic in Hungary in the Age of Andrew II. The slightly broader English title is justified by the fact that the buildings of Esztergom in the time of Béla III also play a major role in the volume. At the heart of the monograph is the recognition that in some of the central sites of the Kingdom of Hungary, the structural and formal solutions of French Gothic art appeared much earlier than in other countries of Europe. Imre Takács shows that this is true not only for the time of Béla III and the early Gothic period but also for the time of King Andrew II and the Classical Gothic period, which was fashionable at the time. In addition to Esztergom, Pilis, and Pannonhalma, several important buildings of the early 13th century are mentioned in the text: the cathedral of Kalocsa, the Premonstratensian abbey church of Ócsa, the Cistercian abbey of Topuszkó, etc. Along with goldsmith works, the monograph discusses all the most important surviving evidence of courtly art of the period.

The detailed discussion of the topic begins with the art of the time of Béla III, primarily with the study of the early Gothic elements of the royal palace and the cathedral of Esztergom. It is here that the use of the red marble from the Gerecse hills, which played a major role in the Gothic period, first appeared in Hungary. Takács describes in detail the most important monuments, especially the Porta Speciosa, the main gate of the cathedral, decorated with colored marble decoration. This monument, dating from the end of the 12th century, is contemporary with the first Gothic monuments built in Esztergom, above all the palace chapel. Takács dates this building campaign to the second half of the 1180s and links the appearance of the 'French connection' to the arrival of Queen Margaret of Capet in Hungary in 1186. This construction coincided with the building of the Cistercian priory of Pilis, founded by Béla III in 1184, which is the subject of Takács's next chapter. Construction there lasted until the first decade of the 13th century, after which the French-educated masons who worked there were employed on two important buildings of the period of Andrew II: the new building of the cathedral of Kalocsa, begun around 1210 by Archbishop Bertold of Andechs-Meran, and the Premonstratensian church of Ócsa, built a little earlier (but never fully completed). This chapter describes in detail how Gothic forms spread throughout the Kingdom of Hungary in the decades before the Mongol invasion of 1241, with the cloisters of the royal residence in Óbuda, the abbey of Somogyvár, and Szermonostor as the most important additional examples.

Pannonhalma, abbey church, vaulting of the nave

The fourth part of the volume deals with the most remarkable phenomena from an international point of view: when the French Classical Gothic forms, which were considered modern in their home country, appeared in Hungary in the 1220s. In this respect, Hungary is no longer as unique as it was at the time of the reception of early Gothic in the late 12th century, since the stone carvers and sculptors who set out from the cathedral lodges of the great French cathedrals appeared in several parts of the Holy Roman Empire, such as in Strassburg or Bamberg, as well as in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. In Hungary, one of the key monuments of this phase is the completion of the Benedictine abbey church in Pannonhalma, especially the upper parts of the southern nave wall completed for the consecration in 1224, and the construction of the Porta Speciosa, which is incorporated into this wall. Imre Takács provides detailed evidence of the direct Reims origin of the carvings found here. The conclusions concerning the presence of Reims stone carvers in Hungary before 1224 are of great importance: the date of the consecration in Pannonhalma also allows the rather uncertain chronology of the Reims cathedral at that time to be clarified. 

Detail of the Porta Speciosa at Pannonhalma

In the next section, Takács describes in detail the most important sculptural monument of the period, the fragments of the tomb of Queen Gertrude, who was murdered in 1213. He also shows that the sculptor of these carvings came to the Kingdom of Hungary from the building lodge working on the cathedral in Reims. In this context, the fact that Villard de Honnecourt, who compiled the best-known collection of architectural drawings of the period, also left for Hungary from Reims, around 1220 according to most scholars, is particularly noteworthy. Political connections also explain the links: in particular the family circle of Yolande Courtenay, second wife of Andrew II. A red marble tomb slab with engraved decoration, also found in the abbey church of Pilis, is linked to a member of this family. The style of the tomb is exactly the same as the drawings in Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook. The final part of the book studies objects of the minor arts, mainly in the field of goldsmith works, which have also occupied the author since the beginning of his career: the seals of the Árpád monarchs, and the analysis of a special 13th-century technique of luxury goldsmith decoration, the so-called opus duplex. 

Fragment of a seated figure from the sarcophagus of Queen Gertrude, 
originally from Pilis Abbey (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)

All these observations highlight the direct link that existed between the Hungarian royal court and the contemporary centers of French Gothic. The monuments that are given shorter passages in the text, sometimes with only one or two carvings representing French Gothic forms, indicate that the most modern architectural forms were widespread in Hungary in the pre-Mongol period. As we have seen, the question is of great importance not only for the spread of Gothic art in Central Europe but also for a more accurate chronology of French monuments. We can only hope that some of the archaeological research currently underway, especially the excavation of the Cistercian monastery at Egres, which served as the burial site of Andrew II and his wife Yolande, may add further finds to the picture of French art of the period painted by Imre Takács. 

Golden seal of King Andrew II

At this point, it is worth highlighting the research topics of Imre Takács, who has been teaching at the Institute of Art History at ELTE since 2016. In addition to the subjects explored in this volume, which have accompanied his academic career, two additional areas of his research deserve special mention. First, he has extensively studied the history of the construction and carvings of the Gyulafehérvár Cathedral, the only surviving Árpád-era cathedral. Second, he has focused on Hungarian royal monuments, particularly artworks associated with King Sigismund. Takács has written on these topics in The Art of Medieval Hungary, a book co-edited by him and published in English in Rome in 2018. The Rome volume aimed to make the lesser-known material on medieval Hungarian art accessible to the international scholarly community in a clear and structured handbook. It includes a summary of the first century of Hungarian Gothic art, which briefly introduces many of the research findings elaborated in detail in the current monograph. Finally, these findings are presented here in detail and in English. Just as Ernő Marosi's book marked a pivotal moment in the international recognition of Hungarian Gothic art, the publication of Takács' detailed monograph in English is poised to play a similarly significant role in advancing the study of the spread of French Gothic in Europe. Overviews of European Gothic art can now be enriched with new insights into the contributions of the sculptors from Reims who worked in Central Europe, especially in Hungary, including their achievements in Pannonhalma (recent publications often ignored these connections). The monograph also contributes to a clearer interpretation of the Villard de Honnecourt question. For these reasons, the availability of a major synthesis of Imre Takács' scholarly achievements in the language of international scholarship is both very welcome and of great importance. 

Finally, a word about the excellent and high-quality production of this elegant hardcover volume. The book is presented in a different format from the Hungarian edition, featuring 536 pages and 676 high-quality illustrations seamlessly integrated into the text. The way the black-and-white illustrations accompany the text significantly enhances the readability of the volume (a major improvement compared to the Hungarian edition). It should also be noted that the book has been translated by Alan Campbell with exceptional precision and a high linguistic standard. It surely belongs to the shelf of all serious scholars of the Gothic!

In Hungary, the book can currently be purchased at the bookstore of ELTE. It is also possible to contact the publisher, Collegium Professorum Hungarorum (Makovecz Campus Alapítvány) for further information.

The Church of St. Elizabeth at Kassa/Košice - Review of a monograph

Kassa, Church of St. Elizabeth, southern facade 

In recent years, western scholars have shown a much welcome interest in the art of medieval Hungary. In the past the vast majority of studies were published by Hungarian scholars in Hungarian only, thus having little influence beyond the Hungarian-speaking world. Recognizing the problem, art museums in Hungary some time ago began publishing works in at least one other language besides Hungarian – a relevant case in point is the catalogue of the 2006 Sigismund-exhibition, published in German and French versions as well. Recently, more and more monographic works have been published in English or German – primarily by Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian scholars, but also in increasing number by people for whom this is not native territory. The most recent sign of this is the monograph of Tim Juckes on the church of St. Elizabeth in Kassa (Košice, Kaschau, SK), which is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation defended at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He has already published a number of studies about the subject, but now the results of his research are published by a major publisher in the form of a 292 page long monograph. Hopefully, this publishing activity – including the future work of Tim Juckes as well – will eventually lead to a point where this part of Europe will no longer be a terra incognita on the map of medieval Europe.

West facade of the church in the 1846 monograph of Henszlmann

One of the challenges in Hungarian medieval art history is the fragmentary evidence. To get a clear picture a considerable amount of reconstruction is needed. The term “reconstruction” applies in every sense of the word, as much of medieval Hungary and its built heritage were obliterated by the occupation of a large part of Hungary by the Ottoman Turks in 1541. Even greater destruction took place at the time of the sieges of re-conquest in the seventeenth century and during the rebuilding and modernization that took place after. Although the Church of St Elizabeth in Kassa escaped the destruction of the Turkish wars, the original monument was all but obliterated during the late 19th century purist renovation. Thus even here, the first task of the art historian is to virtually reconstruct the original building – this time back to its true medieval stage, which was quite different from that constructed in 1877. 

There is no question that the church of St. Elizabeth, the second building of the parish church of Kassa, is one of the most important surviving medieval churches in the Kingdom of Hungary. The importance of the church has been long recognized: it was the subject of the first book ever written on Hungarian medieval art: Imre Henszlmann’s 1846 study on the medieval churches of Kassa. When Henszlmann first wrote about the building, the late Gothic style of its construction period was seen as an aberration from the classical Gothic standards or, at best, as a preparatory phase for the Renaissance. This led to two mistakes: an early dating of the building which had very little to do with historical reality, and also a drastic rebuilding at the end of the 19th century, according to “true principles of Gothic architecture” (1877-1896). This view of late Gothic art changed only in the early twentieth century with the recognition of the autonomous development in Northern art and with the emergence of the concept of the Sondergotik in German-Austrian scholarship. At this time Kassa, which in 1920 ended up outside the borders of modern Hungary, also received more and more attention, as one of the better preserved medieval urban centres, by both Hungarian and Slovak scholars.

Plan of the church before the restoration

However, the period of King Sigismund (1387-1437) did not enter the focus of research until 1937, when Henrik Horváth completed the first extensive intellectual and artistic history of the age of Sigismund. After World War II, large-scale excavations and reconstruction work carried out in medieval towns such as Sopron and Buda demonstrated the cross-border connections that existed between various Central European centres. Examples include the role of members of the Prague Parler workshop on the church of Our Lady and the royal castle at Buda, or the influence of Viennese ateliers in towns in north-western Hungary like Pozsony [Bratislava, SK] and Sopron. It was only in the 1970s-80s that the importance of the Sigismund period was truly recognized. At that time, more and more attention was paid to the Kassa’s international connections as well. Although the church and its history has been the subject of a lot of research, the medieval building of the church has never been the subject of a monograph until the present work by Juckes. Closest to a monograph is the series of studies by Ernő Marosi, which, however, never appeared in a book form. The selection of this topic by Juckes – likely suggested by the advisor of his dissertation, Paul Crossley – is thus much welcome.

In this new monograph, Tim Juckes first surveys the documentary evidence and the historiography of the church of St. Elizabeth, before embarking on a new analysis of the building and its history. The structure of the book is clear and logical: it helps us to understand the medieval building, virtually restoring it from beneath the layers of 19th century transformations. The first chapter provides an overview of the 19th century rebuilding of the church as well as a brief survey of previous scholarly literature and opinions on the structure. After this the time machine is turned on, and we travel back to the 14th century, to study the history of the town and its parish church, based on a careful analysis of written sources, urban topography, patronage and building lodge. We then start to move forward, following the chronology of construction.

French review of Hungarian art history books

As I wrote on this blog before, a number of books were published on Hungarian medieval wall-painting in recent years. A French researcher of medieval Hungarian painting, Marie Lionnet wrote a detailed and knowledgeable review of some of these publications, which was published in the journal of the French Institute of Art History, Perspective. Books reviewed include the Festschrift to Ernő Marosi, the book of Mihály Jánó on the research history of medieval wall painting in Transylvania - which was mention in this blog post before - as well as two books to which I contributed (and wrote about here).

Marie Lionnet wrote her doctoral dissertation on late medieval wall painting in the Kingdom of Hungary, you can read a pdf version of her conclusions here.

The full text of the journal Perspective is only available on a subscription basis. Thanks to the kindness of the author, and with permission of the publisher, I am able to provide the full text of the review, which you can access by clicking here. (This will open in Google docs - you might want to save a PDF copy for easier reading).

Full citation for the article is as follows:

Marie Lionnet: "Histoire de la peinture médiévale dans le royaume de Hongrie", dans Perspective, La revue de l'INHA, 2010/2011-2, décembre 2010, p. 384-389 (http://www.inha.fr/spip.php?rubrique259)

Reviews of the Sigismundus exhibition catalogue

One of the most important medieval art history exhibitions organized in Hungary was the one dedicated to King and Emperor Sigismund in 2006. 

Shown first in Budapest and later in Luxembourg, the exhibition was accompanied by a catalog published in Hungarian, German and French. Several other publilcations were also published in conjunction with the event, including the acts of a conference held a year before. The full list of publications can be seen on the website of the exhibition. A few photos of the exhibition are available on my website.

The exhibition catalogue, titled Sigismundus - Rex et Imperator: Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxemburg, 1387-1437, was edited by Imre Takács, with the assistance of Zsombor Jékely, Szilárd Papp, and Györgyi Poszler. It was published Philipp von Zabern of Mainz (ISBN 978-3-8053-3626-0).
Over the years, a number of detailed reviews have been written of this exhibition catalog. I am listing a few of them below. Some reviews also discuss the conference volume, edited by Michel Pauly - François Reinert and titled Sigismund von Luxemburg: Ein Kaiser in Europa. Tagungsband des internationalen historischen und kunsthistorischen Kongresses in Luxemburg, 8-10. Juni 2005.

• Review by Tim Juckes in Renaissance Studies (Oxford), 21 (2007), 99-105, pdf version in Google docs or through CiteULike.
• Review by Len Scales in English Historical Review, 124, (2009), No. 509., 944-946, pdf version in Google docs or through CiteULike.
• Review by Ana Maria Gruia in the online journal Studia Patzinaka (Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies), No. 3 (2006), direct link to pdf version.
• Review by Ansgar Frenken on H-Net Reviews (H-Soz-u-Kult), 2007.
• Overview of the project by Ernő Marosi in The Hungarian Quarterly, 2006. Marosi also wrote a review of the catalogue in 
  Bulletin du Musée des Beaux-Arts – A Szépművészeti Múzeum Közleményei, 105 (2007).
• Overview on Chronico.de by Marcel Schwarzenberger, 2006.
• Hungarian language review by Tünde Wehli in Új Művészet, 2006.
• Another Hungarian review by János Végh, in Művészettörténeti Értesítő 2007/1.

In addition, there is a long review by Štefan Oriško in, Ars (Bratislava), 39 (2006/1), 31-52 (abstract here) and also by Matthew Palmer in Acta Historiae Artium, 48 (2007), 341-349, neither of which is available online. 


An important review by Klara Benešovská is not only about the Sigismundus exhibition, but also about another important venture dedicated to the Luxemburg dynasty, the exhbition Prague - The Crown of Bohemia, shown in New York and Prague. It was published in Perspective, La revue de l'INHA 2008/1, 138-145. For more on the Luxemburg dynasty, you should also read the review of the conference volume Prague and Bohemia, edited by Zoë Opačić, in The Medieval Review. This period, one of the high points of Central European Art, will also be the subject of an international colloquium organized in Maribor, Slovenia, early next year.