Mar e k Wa l c z a k : O n H e r a l d i c St y l i s a t i o n i n 14 t h C e n t u r y A r c h i t e c t u r a l S c u l p t u r e
1. Bratislava, the entrance passage of the Old Town Hall, the boss decorated with a helmet surmounted by crest in the form of a lion. 1442–1443 (?). Repro: FIALA 1987
2. Bratislava, the entrance passage of the Old Town Hall, the boss decorated with a helmet surmounted by crest in the form of a mitred bishop’s head. 1442–1443 (?). Repro: FIALA 1987
building lot, and also the sizes of the remaining medieval houses surrounding the Market Square. The house is provided with a spacious passage running along its entire depth, and in two rooms that adjoin it on the east there survives the sculptured decoration of interest here. In addition, the chamber above has retained three stone heads which are sculptured drôleries in character. Traces preserved on the façade indicate that it was once provided with stone decoration consisting of statues on brackets, elaborate pinnacles, and canopies with expressively carved crockets running along their edges. The bosses on the ground floor are in two rooms – one in the front part of the building and the other at its back. The room overlooking the Market Square contains representations of six arms of the regions of the Polish Kingdom as well as a crest in the form of an eagle’s wing on a helmet, and a female bust in a Kruseler. [ill. 3, 4] In the room overlooking the courtyard there is an abstract sign (identified in the literature as the builder’s mark), three whirling heads joined together by their interwoven hair, a dragon biting its own wing, and a bitch suckling three pups. The heraldic programme has never been much doubted, as the six bosses depict the crests of the arms of the regions of the Polish Kingdom.8 It is the eagle’s wing on the helmet that poses some problems, being naively interpreted in the earlier literature as “the emblem of knighthood per se”.9 This is most probably the personal crest of the Dukes of Kuyawy, which should be associated with King Casimir the Great who descended from that line of the Piasts.10 The female bust gave rise to much
more controversy; today it is generally recognized as the likeness of Elizabeth, daughter of Ladislas the Short (Łokietek), wife of Charles Robert d’Anjou and mother of King Louis the Great. To my mind such an interpretation is not correct, mainly because the decoration is lacking the arms of Hungary and of the Hungarian Angevins. I would rather see in the sculpture a portrait of Casimir the Great’s last wife, Hedvige, daughter of the Duke of Żagań, Henry V Ironside. Consequently, the set could be dated to the years 1365–1370, which is
8
GADOMSKI, Jerzy: Gotyckie sale z rzeźbionymi zwornikami w domu przy Rynku Głównym 17 w Krakowie. In: Sprawozdania z posiedzeń Komisji Naukowych Oddziału PAN w Krakowie, t. 12/1, 1968, pp. 197-200; Idem: Rzeźba architektoniczna w Małopolsce 1250–1400, a typescript of a PhD dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. Lech Kalinowski at the Jagiellonian University in 1969, pp. 117-124; Idem: Sale gotyckie w domu przy Rynku Głównym 17 w Krakowie i ich dekoracja rzeźbiarska. In: Sztuka i ideologia XIV wieku. Materiały sympozjum Komitetu Nauk o Sztuce Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warszawa, 29 i 30 listopada 1973 r. Ed. Piotr SKUBISZEWSKI, Warszawa 1975, pp. 101-115; SKUBISZEWSKI, Piotr: Die Schlußsteine des Saales im Krakauer Haus Markplatz 17. In: Die Parler und der Schöne Stil 1350–1400. Europäische Kunst unter den Luxemburgern. [Exh. Cat.] Ed. Anton LEGNER. Köln 1978, Bd. II, pp. 482-483. 9 PIEKOSIŃSKI, Franciszek: Sala gotycka w kamienicy Hetmańskiej w Krakowie. In: Rocznik Krakowski, 1, 1898, p. 4. 10 PIECH, Zenon: (a review of:) Stefan Krzysztof Kuczyński, Polskie herby ziemskie. Geneza, treści, funkcje, Warszawa 1993, p. 334, ill. In: Kwartalnik Historyczny, 52, 1995, pp. 101-102.
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