Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/moxpjhwpkm
The Legend of St Ladislas in the Wall Paintings of Medieval Slavonia
Maja Cepetić Rogić
; Cultural Centre, Town Museum of Čazma, Čazma, Croatia
Abstract
St Ladislas was a successful paragon for ideal medieval knight and brave warrior, which was recognised and used by the Angevines during the process of formation of their courtly culture based on the medieval knightly ideals. In this context, at the beginning of the fourteenth century when the Angevines came to the throne of Hungary-Croatia, narrative wall painting cycle of the legend of St Ladislas was established. The article surveys previous scholarship on the creation and formation of that wall painting cycle in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia, and among other areas also in the area of medieval Slavonia. Two Croatian examples of extant fragments of the legend are analysed with particular attention awarded to additional discussion of temporal and spatial determinants which might influence their creation since recent research confirmed that there was a great number of examples of such wall paintings with the narrative cycle of the legend existing in the churches and chapels on noble estates.
Fragmentary extant narrative wall painting cycle of the legend of St Ladislas on the northern wall of the Chapel of St Peter in Novo Mesto Zelinsko (the second half of the fourteenth century) is characterised as a two-zoned depiction of the cycle in six scenes, out of which now is possible to recognise four: Going into battle, Battle, Pursuit and Wrestling combat. Even though on the south portal of the parish church of St Augustine in Velika is extant only one fragment of the scene belonging to the legend, i.e. a part of the scene depicting battle (the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century), according to this is possible to suppose that also in this case it was depiction of the legendary cycle in six scenes which were most probably also arranged in two zones. Another common characteristic of these two depictions may be seen in the positioning of the frescoes in the chapels situated in the territories governed by the nobility, and historical circumstances visible from extant written sources allow us to suppose noblemen as potential donors of these narrative wall painting cycles. In the case of Novo Mesto Zelinsko, it was probably some of the descendants of comes Abraham, from the later kindred of the Bisački, and in the case of Velika, someone from the kindred of the Velički.
Examples of the narrative wall painting cycle of the legend of St Ladislas from the area of medieval Slavonia prove belonging of that area in the contemporary cultural-artistic currents, but also of social and political surrounding of Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia in the late Middle Ages.
Keywords
the Middle Ages; Slavonia; St Ladislas; legends; wall paintings; narrative cycle; Novo Mesto Zelinsko; Velika
Hrčak ID:
240572
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2019.
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