Did French Architects, Builders, Stonemasons, and Sculptors Operate in the Hungarian Kingdom in the Second Half of the 12Th Century and in the 13Th Century?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 115 Michalina Duda Sławomir Jóźwiak Marcin Wiewióra Nicolaus Copernicus University Did French Architects, Builders, Stonemasons, and Sculptors Operate in the Hungarian Kingdom in the Second Half of the 12th Century and in the 13th Century? Abstract: Thanks to the wide use of the fruits of interdisciplinary research (history, archaeology, and art history) and a thorough analysis of written and architectural sources, it can be clearly demonstrated that, from at least as early as the end of the 12th century, architects, builders, stone- masons and probably also sculptors from what is now northern and eastern France were operating in the Kingdom of Hungary (though it is not known to what extent). It is impossible not to see a correlation between their activity and the very early appearance of the Gothic style in the terri- tory of what was then Hungary. The architect–builder–designer–sketcher Villard de Honnecourt of Picardy, northern France, and his stay on the shores of the Danube are of particular interest. He was there most probably in the 1220s, but it is unfortunately difficult to say for certain which of the edifices he worked on considering those that were erected at the time in the Kingdom of Hungary. Research into Romanesque and Gothic construction in medieval Latin Europe encom- passes very many diverse, more or less interesting issues which can be considered. For example, one of the most neglected and demanding issues within this broad, interdis- ciplinary research field seems to be that of bringing in of foreign specialists from far away, such as architects, builders, stonemasons, and sculptors to build and decorate var- ious edifices, including such religious examples as cathedrals, churches, and monaster- ies. Naturally, art historians have long been aware of transfers of technology and styles in medieval architecture, but in their research they have treated such issues always pe- ripherally to other topic. They have not devoted particular interest to the people behind such transfers. In addition, researchers in this field have unfortunately worked almost exclusively by comparing different, often arbitrarily-chosen or random similarities of style and architecture while disregarding information in the written sources, which is very scarce but still extant.1 Meanwhile, in examining such issues, it is not uncommon that searching only for more or less accurate architectural or stylistic analogues leads to investigative errors, or leads to conclusions which created myths. The great difficulty in the correct interpretation of the information in the preserved written sources is in many cases caused by their lack of accurate chronological references. It is perhaps this very The online edition of this publication is available open access. Except where otherwise noted, content can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © 2018 Michalina Duda, Sławomir Jóźwiak, Marcin Wiewióra https://doi.org/10.3726/med.2018.1.07 116 Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 fact that has discouraged art historians and archaeologists from conducting a thorough analysis of such sources. Essentially, however, the combination of all the aforemen- tioned investigative elements allows new, more convincing conclusions to be drawn regarding the long-distance travels of builders and artist–sculptors in the Middle Ages. The territory of the Kingdom of Hungary in the second half of the 12th and in the 13th centuries is in itself a particularly gratifying field for such research, given the existing physical and written sources. In as early as 1876, the French researcher Jules Quicherat, citing the results of ex- cavations conducted in the late 1860s in Kalocsa (a city on the Danube in the Bács- Kiskun county in southern Hungary), paid particular attention to the relics of a second Kalocsa Cathedral erected, according to him, at the beginning of the 13th century (and demolished at the beginning of the 17th century). In this regard he noted that the ex- ceptional extent of architectural detail and building materials (capitals and consoles in the shapes of leaves, flowers, celandine and sorrel; and the use of green, red and white marbles), which would indicate the cathedral’s close similarity religious edifices in France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.2 What was of particular importance was a stone found on the site, which was probably part of an originally larger plaque, on which the following inscription was engraved in Gothic capitals: “MARTINVS RAVESV LAPICIDA IACET HIC.”3 In the nomenclature of the time, the noun “lapici- da” could mean a stonemason, a brick mason, a sculptor, or even a builder.4 J. Quicherat concluded that the reading of the name on the plaque was slightly erroneous and sug- gested correcting it to “RAVESY,” which allowed him to claim that it was a reference to the French builder of the second cathedral of Kalocsa – Martin of Ravizy in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region of the Nièvre department between Bourges and Di- jon.5 No later scholars questioned this proposition from J. Quicherat, while modern studies have shown that the construction of the second cathedral of Kalocsa began after 1202 (and probably somewhat before 1210), and is one of the earliest Gothic-style buildings erected in the Kingdom of Hungary. Martin of Ravizy would therefore have been among its French builders.6 Even assuming that he himself was not an “architect” (bearing in mind all the meanings of the noun “lapicida”), he may have been a master stonemason, brick mason or sculptor working in a wider team brought from France and led by the creator and designer of the cathedral. Analogues of such wandering builders (including common masons and bricklayers) in the second half of the 13th century are well known and well documented in southern Italy under the rule of the Angevins. In their construction works these rulers employed not only architects from France, but also skilled craftsmen (brick masons and stonemasons) of the same provenance.7 There is no doubt that in the first half of the 13th century, the architect–builder–de- signer–painter and perhaps sculptor, Villard de Honnecourt of Picardy, northern France, was active in the Kingdom of Hungary.8 All our knowledge about him comes from his extraordinarily expressive sketchbook, which is preserved only in part (33 parchment cards, i.e., 66 pages), and in which the author personally drew or copied – and com- mented on – various fragments or architectural details of buildings. He also includ- ed drawings of technical and mechanical devices, human and animal figures, as well as geometric shapes (a total of 325 drawings of his have been preserved).9 The very small number of unfortunately enigmatic references in the work clearly indicates that Mediaevistik 31 . 2018 117 Honnecourt traveled quite a lot, and not only across present-day France. Of particular relevance to the present analysis are two entries. On sheet 10v, beneath a drawing of a window, the author wrote: “This is one of the ribs of the windows spanning the nave [of the cathedral] of Reims, as they are between two pillars [of the eaves wall]; I was summoned to the land of Hungary when I sketched them because I liked [doing] it so much.”10 Elsewhere (sheet 15v) under a drawing of stone flooring panels (tiles?) of var- ious patterns Honnecourt wrote: “When I was once [a certain time] in Hungary, where I spent many days, I saw the floor of a church rendered in this way.”11 In turn, on sheet 9v under a drawing and cross-section of one of the western towers of Laon Cathedral, the author stated: “I have been in many countries, as you can see from this book, [but] I have never seen such a tower as this one in Laon.”12 From the two cited key records it appears that Villard was summoned to Hungary by someone (as an architect, builder, expert?), and stayed there for some time. As may be expected, the biggest problems lie in determining the specific year (or years) of Honnecourt’s stay in Hungary and in demonstrating which edifices there he may have worked on. On both issues, the discrepancies between the proposals of schol- ars to date are very marked, which is principally due to Villard not having used any chronology in his work while having published very sparse information; what is more, nothing is known of him from other sources. By the end of the 19th century, the French scholar, Camille Enlart had already drawn attention to the evidence that Honnecourt must have had close contacts with the Cis- tercians. On sheet 17r of his sketchbook he drew a cross section of the presbytery of the largest Cistercian church in France at the time, at Vaucelles (west Normandy, in the department of Calvados), while on sheet 14v a schematic projection of a “quadrilateral” (“square”) church,13 which was considered in design works on an edifice described only as a Cistercian church (for which this second design was not new, having already been used in France before the middle of the 12th century).14 The fact that the consecration of the Cistercian church at Vaucelles took place in 1235 led C. Enlart to conclude that Hon- necourt had been involved in erecting it, and upon completion of the work in the same year (1235), summoned by the Cistercians, went to Hungary to help in the construction of their church and monasteries there. According to the French researcher, Villard stayed there for a long time, until 1250.15 It is difficult to question Honnecourt’s very proba- ble connection with the Cistercians as indicated by C.