Pregledni rad
Two lists of valuable items belonging to Barbara Frankapan and Franjo Berislavić Grabarski – an annex to the research on medieval culture of living in Slavonia
Arijana Koprčina
; Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb
Sažetak
The nobility owned town of Bijela Stijena in western Slavonia had stood out in the topography of medieval Slavonia. According to current information, it had existed since the first decades of the 14th century and survived until the 18th century. Even though towns with the same name are common in medieval toponymy, the match between the names Bijela Stijena in Slavonia and the Hungarian name of the town Feyrkew was established by Matija Mesić in the late 19th century. The town was built on the western slopes of the Psunj, north of Okučani, in the area that originally belonged to the Knights Templar, and after 1294, a part of that area was owned by the noble family Tiboldović. In 1334, as part of the family’s possessions, there is a mention of a fortified town with the following quote „ecclesia sancti Myhaelis prope castrum nepotum Tyboldi“, or the church of St. Michael near the town of Tybold’s grandchildren. It was owned by the Tiboldović family by the middle of the 15th century, and after 1469 it had been owned by Vuk Grgurević Branković and then his widow Barbara Frankapan. After she was married to Franjo Berislavić Grabarski in 1494 or 1495, the town was owned by Barbara Frankapan and Franjo Berislavić Grabarski until his death in 1517. After that year a period began again in which the town often changed ownership, up until 1544 and the fall to the Turkish rule.
The article includes two lists of valuables connected to the town of Bijela Stijena, one from 1505 with the items owned by Barbara Frankapan and Franjo Berislavić pledged at the town of Medvedgrad, and another list from 1517/1518 with the list of property owned by Franjo Berislavić Grabarski found at Bijela Stijena after his death. The listed valuables enable insight into the representative nature of the life of nobles in medieval Slavonia which was not possible ever before; this topic has not been researched so far, and the information about clothes, numerous cookware, and items for religious use is of extraordinary significance.
The list includes much crimson clothes, clothes made of fine velvet and atlas weave; items that stand out are the “gold leaf crimson leather jacket” and crimson overcoats with weasel and ermine fur lining. There are mentions of a large amount of pearls, weaves with pearls were an expensive fashion accessory, shirts and “tunicas” were woven with pearls, and there are also Hungarian names for women’s clothes: One item is listed as a skirt decorated with pearls - gyengyes zoknya and slogos zoknya - skirt that falls in parallel folds, with characteristically elongated lines.
A large group of valuables includes jewellery, like pearl necklaces, jewellery decorated with pearls, and a cross worn on the chest (pectoral) decorated with pearls. The lists also mention golden pendants, rings, and belts, which were also worn as jewellery - mostly silver, sometimes matching “neck chains” and gold plated silver buckles; a belt in the shape of a ribbon with pearls. The representative nature of the items used by the nobility is also visible in the parts of equestrian equipment owned by Franjo Berislavić: Silver decorations for three horses, silver gold plated spurs, three daggers, and a gold plated silver spear. A specific item among the jewellery is the “veil with gold beads” listed as one of the valuables owned by Barbara Frankapan, it was probably a hair net decorated with gold beads. The information relevant for women’s fashion is about “head ribbons decorated with precious stones” which indicates fashion influences from Italy, considering that ribbons like that one were used as accessories in women’s hair in the late 15th century.
The lists of valuables also prominently feature silver and gold plated items of secular and religious nature, mostly Catholic, there are mentions of a monstrance and a chalice, but also two silver cups. There are also many utility items, like silver and gold plated platters, larger platters/bowls and serving platters, plates, cups/glasses, spoons, bottles, and other. As part of the property owned by Berislavić, there were 24 silver plates, 24 cups/glasses, and 40 spoons, as well as four “wash areas with basins”. This information indicates that there were many matching plates and spoons, which means that basic elements of dinner sets for multiple persons existed in the early 16th century Slavonia. Such complete tableware means a very high standard of living, which has not been brought into relation with the lifestyle of the nobility in continental Croatia, and it is parallel to the representative lifestyle of the Italian nobility of the same period, which affected the expansion of the sophisticated everyday life culture in central European countries. Barbara’s list from 1505 also includes a gold plated salt container and a “gold plated silver credenza decorated with nine dragon tongues” - probably an item in the shape of a stand with branches like a small floral bouquet, with shark teeth on the tips. It was an expensive rarity which was believed to protect from poisons, which also confirms the claim about the high level of everyday life in Slavonia around the year 1500.
Information that stands out during the analysis of the lists of valuables is that Franjo Berislavić and Barbara Frankapan had their own goldsmith, and the safest court during their marriage was Bijela Stijena. This is where Barbara had a permanent residence during both of her marriages, with Despot Vuk Grgurević and Franjo Berislavić, which indicates that the goldsmith probably worked there. Even though the information about the goldsmith was recorded in 1505, it is possible that the goldsmith worked at Bijela Stijena during a longer period. Considering that the town of Bijela Stijena was given to Vuk Grgurević in 1469 by the King Matthias Corvinus, the employment period of the goldsmith should probably be placed somewhere during their marriage and Barbara Frankapan’s stay at Bijela Stijena, from 1482 until her death in 1508. But the goldsmith was probably also active later, because after 1508 the town remained in the possession of Barbara’s second husband Franjo Berislavić Grabarski and his third wife Margaretha Zekel de Ormosd. So the goldsmith could have been employed until Franjo’s death in 1517. Franjo obviously continued with the luxurious life at this court, and another significant fact is that he founded the Franciscan monastery in the settlement of Dvorišće (oppido Dworyska) at the estate Bijela Stijena.
Based on the list of valuables owned by Barbara Frankapan from 1505, it appears that the town of Bijela Stijena is one of the rare locations in Slavonia that can be connected to specific preserved items made by a goldsmith. Several items are kept at the Franciscan monastery at Trsat near Rijeka, like Barbara Frankapan’s silver gold plated reliquary, navicula, and chalice from the same treasury, and one gold plated silver monstrance kept at the parish church in Hreljin has been attributed to the same patron. But an order with a confirmed signature by Barbara Frankapan is for a monstrance from the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Rijeka, ordered in 1489, on which Barbara is still signed as the widow of Vuk Grgurević. The conclusion about attributing it to the same master and the same patron relies on the analogy of the condition of Barbara’s reliquary from Trsat, which contains relics placed in silver containers engraved with Cyrillic inscriptions made during the life of Despot Vuk Grgurević Branković, with the same type of engraving as the Latin letters at the monstrance from Rijeka from 1489, when Barbara was already a widow.
The mentioned lists of valuables and specific items made by a goldsmith provide indications about the way of life of the aristocracy in Slavonia during the late 15th and early 16th century, about the so far unknown details regarding the items used at the noble court of Bijela Stijena which belonged to the owners from the highest levels of nobility, who were, in the context of Croatian history, the political and cultural elite of Croatian and Slavonian medieval and early modern period society. The information about the existence of expensive utility items around the year 1500 indicates that the nobility’s lifestyle was at a very high level in Slavonia just before the fall under the Turkish rule.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
217722
URI
Datum izdavanja:
18.5.2017.
Posjeta: 1.129 *